A powerful historical fiction debut! Part II--The Big City

Jam on the Vine by 

Lashonda Katrice Barnett

One of the best historical fiction novels I've read!
In case you missed it, here is the first part of my review!
(Yes, there was so much I felt needed to be said, there are two postings for this review!)

This is an amazing story of brave people, but especially brave young black females at a time when prejudice and discrimination were not only overlooked, but actually condoned.

I find it unbelievable that this is Ms. Barnett's first novel! 
I predict Ms. Barnett has a great future ahead as a writer! 
And I love love love this cover image! 

This book encompasses so very much that discussion could be endless! There were about 12 people at the University Book Club meeting when this was discussed, and all said without exception that this book introduced them to at least one new historical fact of which they were totally unaware... That is amazing, considering the diversity among this group! It speaks to the tenacity of Barnett's comprehensive and thorough research and broad coverage of the time.

For me--I had no idea of 'the Red Summer of 1919,' during which there was an outbreak of lynchings and race riots across the Midwest. Born and raised in the Midwest and had never heard of this in my nearly 60 years of life. Sad. Exactly what are we teaching and learning of our own history? We should know about such things so we can make sure it is never repeated! We cannot be aware if we are uninformed! 

Ivoe is luckier than most young black females--able to attend Willetson Collegiate and Normal Institute in Austin. Advice from her family as she prepares to embark upon this adventure... Her older brother, Timbo, tells her of something he observed on a Florida beach years ago:
"You can't see the end lessen you cut it down. The sun can't wither it, fire can't burn it, and moss can't cling to it. When a strong wind come, it just bends--lays all its fans out till the wind lets up. You remind me of that cabbage palm, Ivoe. You might have to bend a little, but you ain't never gonna break." That's how it was with Timbo. Lord knows he could act foolish and ornery, but whenever her brother said she could do something, she believed him. (82)
My immediate thought was that Timbo was a bit of a writer himself! 
Momma waited by the tracks at the train depot, a bunch of yellow primroses in her hand. "Probably wilt on the train in all this heat. You be in my thoughts much longer." She hugged her tight and whispered, "Baby you going places I didn't have sense enough to dream about." (83)
All I could think of in regard to Lemon's comment was that at least this next generation, her own children, had that chance to dream...whereas Lemon's generation had as its main goal nothing more or less than survival...and not just in can economic, self-supporting sense...

In Berdis Peets Ivoe recognized the flare of heroines she had met in her literary solitude....Passion for music gave Berdis an original life. In this way, she reminded Ivoe of all the women she loved--her mother, Aunt May-Belle, Miss Stokes--each had certain talent that seemed to dictate her womanhood. (88)
At a school convocation where Berdis was to play a Schumann composition, she substituted "Mister Tom Turpin's 'Buffalo Rag'...
"I lost a week in the practice room on account of devising my own program, but it was worth it....I would know very little that our people have accomplished in the ways of music, poetry, literature, if I had not found it out for myself. I suppose Willetson is like every other institution for learning in America. Even when the teacher is colored, don't expect to be told anything worthwhile about yourself. Most teachers here are white and they love to hear about how great they are. Can't shut them up on talking about it neither, as if they made the world on their own. Makes my ass hurt....If you're not careful, they'll teach you to despise yourself. And you can't do nothing worthwhile unless you feel good about yourself." (87)
And, that, in my opinion, is exactly where our educational system overall fails many, if not most, students... And "makes my ass hurt"! Kills me! So perfect! 
  Berdis loved it when Ivoe laughed all deep down in herself. "What's got you so tickled?"
  "Momma always told me not to show no man all my teeth. She said you can't smile at them too wide 'cause then they know they got you. She didn't say nothing about showing my teeth to a woman." 
  Berdis pulled Ivoe close enough to kiss. "I got you?" she said, too serious.
  "Yeah. You got me." (97)
Though unfortunately, this relationship didn't stand the test of time...and Berdis became bitter...with disastrous results. 

Writing did not come easily to Ivoe...
How vast the gulf between consuming words and making them! Reading had always enlivened Ivoe but writing was death. Where she had cherished books for their company, writing was a lonely endeavor she was not suited for. Her first contributions to the Herald were written in her habitual passive voice. "On the way to progress, we make self-discoveries," Miss Durden encouraged. For Ivoe, the blank page was a looking glass. In writing she came face-to-face with her truest self. She could speak her mind without worrying about who it offended. She was a gardener like her mother, planting seed for thought in a reader's mind. Like Papa she forged the right word on the anvil of her mind." (94) 
Ms. Barnett's writing...well, simply wonderful! While at dinner at Miss Durden's, Ivoe asks...
  "My articles...what begs improvement?"
  "You're coming along." As usual, the teacher was sparing with compliments, having seen how they snuffed out potential greatness. "You know, a sentence is like a race. You can't possibly win it unless you end as strong as you began. Good journalists understand that the last word is as important as the first." (103)
I was one of the few book club members for whom this rang so true...an encouraging teacher trying to avoid creating complacency in her student. It was so very obvious to me that Miss Durden was attracted to Ivoe as more than just teacher-student...
  Ivoe dallied at the open front door where the air was sweet like honeysuckle, and Miss Durden drew her into a tight embrace, touching the knot of her scarf in a way that prompted Ivoe to look her in the eye.
  "Father up in heaven. It's what's inside that makes you shine, girl." (103)

Ivoe returns to Little Tunis an educated woman, with big plans for a journalistic career, but discovers there is still very little opportunity for her employment, and virtually none using her journalistic skills. Eventually, the family moves to the city, only to become disillusioned as were so many... Ivoe and Ova Durden, her former teacher, visit each other regularly throughout the ensuing years, and eventually become lovers and found Jam on the Vine, the first female-run African American newspaper, but their lives are by no means calm and complacent. Ivoe and her brother Timbo, Ova, and many others risk their lives to protest and bring voice to the oppressed during the 'Red Summer' of 1919 and beyond. 

As Ivoe overhears two black women discussing Jam,
  Ivoe recognized the brand of negritude on display. To her, theirs was the worst kind of race pride: it ended when complaining ceased yet did nothing to propel the race forward. They gave the white man and his evils over to Jesus and and prayed for things they themselves might remedy, while Jim Crow stood with his foot on their necks. (251)
  Worse yet were the ones who loved to tell you how good God was while they made do with as little as one could imagine. Colored religion was the white man's most clever tactic yet. A new form of Uncle Tomming. It burned Ivoe up. Lord, woe is me--instead of pulling together and doing something to change the course of their lives... (123) 
I had never before read such a condemnation of "Christianity" with regard to the oppressed, but for me, it certainly rang true--there is a point at which a person must help themselves or nothing will change. Are "good Christians" simply to believe that life is as it should be and there is no hope of social evolution for the better? When considered from Ivoe's perspective, it seems nothing more or less than a passive acceptance of injustice...a way to confirm and perpetuate oppression of the oppressed. But I digress...

Heart-stopping. There were times when I scrunched my eyes shut while reading the last third or so of this book. The suspense. Wondering if this would be the time one of these characters would be killed for their activism and fight for justice. 
He doused her until the bottle was empty and she had accepted her fate. He would set a match to her, sweep up the remains or leave them to the mice....So this was the helplessness and regret Papa had also felt. (244)
And I always feel as if that sense of 'helplessness' is what defeats people most. In this time, kidnappings and killings were 'accepted' as part of the risk for protesters. And those perpetrating such acts? They could well be the very same 'public servants' paid to protect the citizenry! Admittedly, there is part of me that wonders just how far we have really come in preventing such happenings... 

The Jam offices are closed by legal injunction and Ivoe is jailed. As the guard delivers food to her:
  "Gonna get your people in a world of trouble," the grim-faced guard said to Ivoe upon delivery of a sandwich and glass of water.
  "We have always lived in a world of trouble. Kindly take back your tray. I do not wish to attract vermin."  (286)
The next morning she looked out her cell window and drew a shuddering breath, stunned by what she saw. Across the street, a quiet mob crowded the sidewalk. She craned her neck to see how far the human chain extended--beyond the end of this block into the next. In the blustering cold, shoulder to shoulder, they began to sway to a minor cadence as their voices swelled with song.
          Heavy load, heavy load, 
          Don't you know God's gonna lighten up your heavy load.
          Heavy load, heavy load,
          God's gonna lighten up your heavy load.
  The language of grieving never had words; the human heart does not speak but sings its sorrow. Ivoe heard theirs now, a plaintive refrain sifting through her soul....Ona had felt something that Ivoe didn't or couldn't until now: community. Everybody's little bit of goodness pooled together to lift someone higher. (287-88)

For [Ivoe], life in France was kinder, but no matter where she was in the world, her race and her gender would work against her. (310)

She needed all the support she could get--names and addresses for every black politician in the country, from alderman to senator, on a clipboard within reach. They were up against a mighty bear, but each cell door flung open in the name of justice was an arrow in his tough skin. (316)

Here is a great NPR Interview with the author. 

(I have mentioned my fascination with NPR before, right?) :)

If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it!

An absolute favorite of mine--EVER!

A powerful historical fiction debut! Part I--Little Tunis

Jam on the Vine by 

Lashonda Katrice Barnett

One of the best historical fiction novels I've read!

This is an amazing story of brave people, but especially brave young black females at a time when prejudice and discrimination were not only overlooked, but actually condoned.

I find it unbelievable that this is Ms. Barnett's first novel! 
I predict Ms. Barnett has a great future ahead as a writer! 
And I love love love this cover image! 

This book not only contains historically accurate information, but is a work of art in characterization, relationships, and atmosphere. It is so very much more than the story of the founding of the first female-run African American newspaper, Jam on the Vine. So very much more...

After May-Belle, Papa, and them, Ivoe loved books best. Books were a friend to anyone who opened them. Blowing a whirligig to make the sails go 'round or talking up a storm to a corn-husk doll was all right for passing the time, but you never went anywhere new or met anyone special like you did in the pages of a book. (4)
Yes, books hold no prejudice! :) They are open to anyone's interpretation! As a child it was damn near impossible for Ivoe to obtain books, or any other printed material, to read. 

  "Momma, it's so hot the cows not mooing and the chickens not clucking," Ivoe said, 
  wanting to melt the worry that made her mother hard as tack candy. (9)
That! That is language that literally transports a reader to another time and location! 

Ennis, Ivoe's father, who is a metalsmith, muses to himself as the skin on his arm blisters from an accidental burn:
  In the race between what he could give his family and what they needed, need always 
won. Truth like that stared you down. More than hurt you, it numbed you--even to a 
hungry flame. (24)
I could feel Ennis' pain with these words...pain and despair...but so much deeper than just the physical body, into his own psyche, his soul, any self-confidence he had...

James, a colored man who had made good with his own lumber business, establishing it in the same locale as the 'white' lumber business and moving his family, though Ennis and others tried to warn him about encroaching upon the whites in their own territory, both James and his son were beaten and then shot to death. Lemon, Ivoe's momma, talks with Ennis afterward:
  And you wonder why I don't want you building me nothing. What I want a little shack 
for? Or even a stand? White folks ain't ready to see colored folk have nothing of they 
own. No, sir. I'll keep right on selling my jams from my kitchen 'cause soon as they see 
you doing all right--doing for yours like they do for theirs--they go and do something 
like this. Opening a business is one thing, but to leave Little Tunis? You know, Ennis, I 
believe if James had kept his family down here he would still be with us. That was 
mistake number one--leaving Little Tunis.
  "Naw, mistake number one was being born colored." (36)
And this is what stabs me through the heart every time--some must sacrifice themselves in order to initiate social change. Why? Why must it be death and destruction that only grabs the attention of those who are so prejudiced? *Shakin' my head...*

Then the KKK burn down the colored schoolhouse:
  Ivoe listened with her classmates before a heap of charred wood. She tried to understand, but like jamming the wrong puzzle piece into an almost-finished puzzle, she couldn't make the picture in her mind fit with Miss Stokes's words. Why would anyone want to burn down a schoolhouse whose benches left your behind full of splinters and none of the inkwells ever saw a drop of ink? (36-37)
Isn't that the truth? Though Miss Stokes loses no time in campaigning for help to reestablish a school, realizing that students will be lost without it...such a smart women, quite foresighted. 
  "Those not in trouble are in the fields. Parents are starting to depend on the bit of money the little ones bring in. I mean to get the night school running as soon as I can before I lose them all to sharecropping." (41)
Seems unreal to me that you had to worry about children being put to work! But it was true! Hence the passage of child labor laws. 

There is so much to this book I feel as if I could write five blog posts discussing it! And I'm sure the material is there for at least that much! I will try to condense... Although I have already decided this is Part 1 of 2 posts for the complete review! 

As a youngster, Ivoe wins a trip to Austin with a letter she addressed to the President of the United States and thus began her devotion to writing and led to her career as a journalist. She always had teachers who worked hard at developing her talents: Miss Stokes in Little Tunis and Ona at Willetson. It is so often teachers who help encourage children to develop their talents! 

Additionally, this book bore out to me in a large way the immense diversity among U.S.-bound immigrants. For some reason, and probably just due to my own ignorance and limited scope of travel, I rarely consider that Muslims were an active immigrant population throughout this country's history, just as were any other "group" of people. And Ivoe's mother, Lemon, is a Muslim, married to a black East Texan. Diversity is the underpinning of this book and much of what makes it so compelling. 

"Sometimes it takes generations for opportunity to come, but if you keep on living, it will show up." (69)
Lemon's summary of 40 years of freedom and the story of Stark moving immigrants in and allowing them to die, be killed, etc. She was listing everything for which she had to be grateful at the time. 

Lemon actually owns the little patch of land where their small cabin sits, including their garden and yard. As a teen/young adult, Ivoe tries to convince her mother to sell out and move with her to [a larger city] for "more opportunity," particularly for Ivoe to apply her journalistic/writing skills. Barnett describes exactly why Lemon wants to retain her land...
  "The Williamses lounged beneath a cornflower-blue sky all afternoon. The chickweed grass, coarse and brilliant green, gave the earth a spongy feel beneath Ivoe, who lay stretched out with the newspaper over her stomach. The branches of a blackjack oak stirred a slight breeze for Roena and Timothy while they played cards in the fleeting twilight. Lemon crossed before Ennis's chair, causing his eyes to light up like stars as he reached out to pat her behind. Irabelle, playing in May-Belle's hair, watched a jaybird flutter away from the fig tree just as Bunk rolled onto his stomach, extending his forepaws on the porch he dusted with a fanning sweep of his tail. For a moment nothing stirred except now and then the call of a screech owl. They didn't have much but this happiness was their own." (74)
I guess this rang so true for me because I am a "country girl" at heart. I was raised in the country and crave the unique calm and quiet connectedness with nature provided by a rural setting just such as this...it really is idyllic to me and I could relate to Lemon's reluctance to give up this bit of peaceful isolation.

For it is just these types of "lazy days," so few and far between for those working hard to scrabble out a living, that can help offset some of the more frustrating and humiliating discriminatory experiences. Such as...a sheriff physically and all but sexually molesting Irabelle, their youngest (and most beautiful) daughter, as the deputy physically restrains Ennis (who must look on helplessly) while in a store in the neighboring town. The stark reality of a black man unable to help a fatally wounded white man, knowing full well that no matter how he might spin the story, he will be blamed for the injuries and/or death of the white man, just because he is...himself, black. Unbelievable to me that he had to choose to watch a man die rather than come to his aid, yet, I could understand this conundrum into which he was pulled by circumstances totally beyond his control...

Have you even heard of this book yet?

It is phenomenal!

The second portion of this review is here! 

Ng on Everyth(i)ng...

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Hardcover Edition

I felt I really must read this after seeing Shaina's review at Shaina Reads at the end of August 2015. As I read her review, I said aloud, "No not 'everyone and their pet cat' has read/reviewed this one...for instance, I haven't!" :) When I started checking out others' reviews, I had to read it myself...just to see! 

Firstly, I was reminded of Jhumpa Lahiri's writing style. I have read and absolutely loved Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, and Unaccustomed Earth. Like Lahiri, Ng has quite the knack for making each character real and believable, as if they could be my friends and neighbors. I also felt elements of Ng's writing were similar to Maeve Binchy (Too many books published to list them all, even just the ones I've read!) in that we got to know the characters so very well as to realize the underlying motivations for their intentions, actions, and attitudes. Miss Celeste is a master of the first sentence(s), too. I realize everyone else has also used this in their review, but it really is incredible as an opening...at least it was for me! 

  Lydia is dead. But we don't know this yet. 1977, May 3, six-thirty in the morning, no on knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast. (1)

Wowzers! I was hooked instantly! Who wouldn't be? Her mother, Marilyn, starts searching, inside the house, outside the house, confirming that her car is still in the garage, though Lydia doesn't know how to drive, and then she learns Lydia is not in her first-period class, 11th-grade physics (though she is in 10th grade). We later see how ironic that is...

We learn that Lydia has done much to camouflage who she really is and wants to be, simply to keep peace within her household, especially with her parents. Her father, James is of Chinese heritage, though born and bred in the U.S.A., his phenotype is definitely Asian/Chinese, as are Lydia's brother and sister, Nath and Hannah. However, Lydia's phenotype is much more similar to her mother's, who is 'white.' She has her mother's blue eyes, though her hair is dark. The prejudice within this family is no different than so many others, the child most resembling the majority race/ethnicity is the favored one, and that would be Miss Lydia, the middle child of James and Marilyn's three children. I remember reading that even Malcolm X preferred his own children who had lighter skin and facial features that appeared less ethnic. That shocked me! But I have read many other articles confirming that same prejudice for those most resembling the majority among many cultures and subcultures. 

As with many females in the late '60's and throughout the '70's, Marilyn abandoned her own academic/career dreams to get married and have a family. As a female who graduated from high school during the '70's, my mother told me I should definitely go to college, "just as a backup" in case I didn't get married or I ended up divorced and single (like her) or something happened to my husband... I still chuckle at that even now. Though it is more sad than funny... I suppose most of us as we get older sometimes wonder what might have made a difference for us in our lives and the decisions we made as teenagers. But we can't go back! :) We must continue onward and upward! 

  How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and daughters. Because of Lydia's mother and father, because of her mother's and father's mothers and fathers. Because long ago, her mother had gone missing, and her father had brought her home. Because more than anything, her mother had wanted to stand out; because more than anything, her father had wanted to blend in. (25) 

Much cooler Paperback Cover! 

And this pretty well sums it up! There was a time when Marilyn had simply driven off, moved to another city, and enrolled in college courses, determined to complete her bachelor's degree and then obtain an MD. She had simply abandoned James, Nath, and Lydia to their own devices with no notice. I could relate to her desires, as I had my own similar desires during years spent as a stay-at-home mother, though I was fortunate enough to be able to return to college and complete by bachelor's degree once my three children were in school. I could understand Marilyn's desire to be 'different,' as I was much the same way in high school. Fortunately for me, however, there were at least 4-5 other female classmates who were also science/math nerds, so I was not the ONLY female in those science classes, which I am sure helped me feel much more comfortable than if I had been alone amongst the males. Though I typically preferred hanging out with the males, as opposed to females--I was not interested in talking about boys, dating, clothes, or gossip, which I considered to be a 'waste of my time.' After all, I always had a good book I could be reading, or a sewing or knitting project I could work on... So it might have been easier for me than it seemed to be for her. 

James might not have felt quite so 'different' as an adult had he been hired as a faculty member at Harvard, as he had expected. Once that prospect was removed from his list of possibilities he took a position at a small college in Ohio, where, of course, there would be very little to no 'diversity' among the students/faculty/staff on campus, or the surrounding community. He and his children bore the brunt of prejudice and discrimination as meted out by the local citizenry. I can also relate to that. Though my situation in childhood wasn't nearly as dire, I experienced similar behaviors and attitudes in my own small-town rural Midwestern community simply because my mother was divorced and she and I lived with my grandmother. That was unheard-of back in the '60's and '70's...at least in such rural mid-western small-town environments in the U.S. Overall, it was fairly easy to ignore the older kids on the bus, but I remember not understanding why other adults disliked my mother and talked about her so. (It wasn't like she slept around or anything!) It was obviously much more intense, blatant and hurtful for Lydia and Nathan in small-town Ohio than it was for me. James had worked hard to learn as much as possible as a child, so he could earn a scholarship to attend the private school where his father worked in maintenance. And as a child he was constantly worried that other students would learn of his connection to his father, the janitor. That's just awful! But I'm sure it would be true! He continued to feel uncomfortable even as an undergraduate and then graduate student at Harvard--he had no friends and had never truly connected with any of his peers, until Marilyn...though she was his student, not truly a peer...until she dropped his 'Cowboy' class and they became lovers. They were not that far apart in age. 

Ah, people do create others' stories for themselves, as Lydia and Jack's relationship demonstrates. In a startling discovery, Hannah is the only one who sees Jack's true feelings and the target of his love. Everyone believed Jack was having sex with all the girls who rode in his car. No questions asked. Though no one knew the truth except Jack and those girls. I was shocked by James seeking out Louisa, though of course, they did share the same Asian/Chinese looks, and perhaps that, combined with the loss of his daughter and his seeming inability to connect in a meaningful way with Marilyn at the time 'pushed' him into anothers' arms...but personally, I still cannot condone sleeping with people other than your own spouse/partner when in a committed relationship. And poor little Hannah! It was as if she was always just an afterthought to James and Marilyn, and of course, we can easily imagine it might be difficult for Marilyn not to resent Hannah as the reason she had to once again abandon her own college education and hopes of a professional career. During her mother's absence, Lydia discovers her maternal grandmother's cookbook under a bookcase and as she reads it realizes how unhappy her mother must be and blames herself and Nath.
  If her mother ever came home and told her to finish her milk, she thought, the page wavering to a blur, she would finish her milk. She would brush her teeth without being asked and stop crying when the doctor gave her shots. She would go to sleep the second her mother turned out the light. She would never get sick again. She would do everything her mother told her. Everything her mother wanted. (137)
And so begins Lydia's own 'hell on earth' as she attempts to be the person her mother and father both expect her to be...what they were not. Any loving, caring parent always wants life to be 'better' for their child/children, however, pushing anyone too much to make them into the person you want them to be is a dangerous proposition, and will usually destroy a relationship.

One of the underlying themes in this book was resentment...there was so much to go around! Both Hannah and Nathan couldn't help but resent Lydia because she was the obvious 'favorite' of both parents. Although Nath had one day actually pushed her off the pier into the lake, Lydia was petrified to think of daily life without him to confide in and debrief with, as well as resenting his apparent freedom to do as he pleased, select his own program of study, and school, etc. Poor Hannah, of course, had to resent both her brother and sister and the way she was constantly ignored, but especially her mother and father for their lack of love and attention, which was all showered on Lydia, then Nath, and then...not her,never her... I believe James resented Marilyn's constant attention to Lydia, feeling she carried her expectations for her daughter too far, putting too much pressure on her. I had a good friend in elementary school who was pressured by her parents to be 'perfect' in her schoolwork. She once scored an "A-" on a high school exam and was grounded and had to eat supper with a textbook at the table, studying. She was punished for an A minus! Each grade she earned must be an "A." She ended up not going to college, though she was our valedictorian! Why? Simply because she refused to allow herself to be pressured like that any more--she knew her parents would never leave her alone, but harass her as they had always done. Isn't that sad? Not that every single person should go to college, it is definitely not for everyone, however, you should at least give your children the freedom to decide without undue pressure. I felt sad for her, as I did for Lydia.

Nath's resentment is finally released somewhat as he pushes Lydia off the pier and into the lake,
...the second he touched her, he knew that he had misunderstood everything. When his palms hit her shoulders, when the water closed over her head, Lydia had felt relief so great she had sighed in a deep choking lungful. She had staggered so readily, fell so eagerly, that she and Nath both knew: that she felt it, too, this pull she now exerted, and didn't want it. That the weight of everything tilting toward her was too much. (154)
...It was too big to talk about, what had happened: it was like a landscape they could not see all at once; it was like the sky at night, which turned and turned so they couldn't find its edges. It would always feel too big. He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another. (155) 
Everywhere things came undone. But for the Lees, that knot persisted and tightened, as if Lydia bound them all together. (158)
Yet Lydia herself was coming 'unglued,' so to speak, as Nath thought:
When I get to college--he never completed the sentence, but in his imagined future, he floated away, untethered. (168)
As Nath imagined a life of his own, Lydia was drowning in thoughts of a bleak future without him to save her. Though just as new insights appear to her, her life ends...

I loved this book on so many levels and for so many reasons. Ng brilliantly depicts the marginalization felt by so many who are 'different' from the majority population, especially how that can negatively affect relationships. The danger of parents exerting too much control over their children, living through them, forcing their own unfulfilled goals upon their offspring, effectively smothering any hopes they may have for asserting themselves. Simply put: a great read! Have you read it yet? Are you considering it?

Some other insightful reviews: 

Naomi at Consumed by Ink

Shannon at River City Reading

Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books

How 'bout a FREE BOOK signed by the author? Crooked River may be yours!

Geary's Crooked River is Rife with Suspense and Secrets!

Valerie will send one lucky person a copy of her book!! 
Keep reading to find out how you can win!
This was an excellent mystery! 
Especially for a debut novel! 
Check out my review here!

BIO: Valerie Geary is the author of the debut novel, Crooked River, out now in paperback! Her short stories have appeared in The Rumpus, Day One, Menda City Review, Boston Literary Magazine, and Foundling Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a pound puppy named Charlie Waffles. In addition to writing, reading, and all things chocolate, Valerie enjoys gardening, hiking, cycling, beer festivals, and playing disc golf.

~Disc golf? That's a new one for me, though I guess it is just what it sounds like (per Wikipedia): According to Paul Ince of the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." In just 8 years (2000-08) the number of disc golf courses doubled and it's played in about 40 countries. Cool!

1. It seems there have been several books published recently either centered around or 

    including a theme of living in isolation and off the land. What motivated you to include 

    that in this book?

There were multiple reasons I chose to have Bear living alone and off the grid. I think partly, he was a character who because of his past, felt cut off from the world already. Having him live in a teepee in a meadow was a way to show externally how he felt internally. I also think because of his anti-social tendencies, it made it easier for the townspeople to point the finger at him. Finally, I have a deeply rooted love of nature and wild spaces, and I think this book was a great chance for me to share that in an interesting way. 

~Ah...I bet your own love for that setting is what came through the writing and made it all the more real! And it did work for his character just as you stated! [Keep reading for your chance to win!]

2. What was the most confounding part of having your first novel published?

Honestly, as much as I love the word ‘confounding’, I’m not sure I’d use it to describe my feelings toward publishing a book. I did a lot of research about the publishing industry before I ever tried to sell my first book. So a lot of what happened was what I’d been expecting to happen. One thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised by, however, is the various ways Crooked River has been finding its way to readers.

It’s always a little baffling to hear from people who are reading my book—people who don’t know me personally, people who aren’t related to me, people all across the country who’ve just picked it up at a bookstore or the library or an airport. I love it, don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful! Like I said, it’s pleasantly surprising. I’m just always so curious, so nosey: how did they find out about the book, what drew them to open it up and start reading? It’s wonderful to be able to watch this book, that was mine and mine alone for so long, finally find its way to and connect with other people. It is a surreal and exciting experience.

~I won a copy of your wonderful debut through a Goodreads giveaway! A first for me! (So always enter those, folks!) And I'm so very happy to offer a free copy to one lucky winner here! Glad to know getting published wasn't 'confounding' for you! 

3. What was the first idea that made you start writing   

    this particular story?

I read an article about a man who left his family to live off the grid in Eastern Oregon. He dug a kind of hobbit hole in the ground and spent his time making art and contemplating life’s big questions. He had kids, and after I read the article, I couldn’t stop thinking about those kids and what it must have been like for them. I started to imagine Sam and Ollie and their father, Bear, and from this small spark, the story quickly expanded into something bigger and more complicated, into the novel it is today.

~Very cool! It's amazing what can spark the imagination!

4. Was any one of these characters semi-autobiographical

    for you?

In some ways, Sam and Ollie are. I have a sister, it’s just the two of us, and I’m the youngest. So in that way, I’m like Ollie. I was quiet like Ollie when I was a girl, too. But I love the woods like Sam. There are pieces of me and my sister in both girls, elements of our relationship growing up, but there are things about Sam and Ollie that aren’t like us at all—they took on their own life during the course of writing the book. For instance, I’ve never found a dead body floating in a river, never lived in a teepee in the woods, and my father has never been the prime suspect in a murder case…as far as I know anyway!

~Hah! I hope you never experienced all those things! [Read some more for a chance to win!]

5. Did you know who the perpetrator was in the first stages of writing this book? Or did 

    you have to discover that later? 

I do a significant amount of brainstorming, plotting, and outlining before I ever start drafting a book. So yes, I knew the “who” early on. However the motives changed a little as I came to know the characters better. There were other things I didn’t know at the start that revealed themselves during the writing, too, but I can’t say what those were without spoiling the ending!

~Thank you for omitting spoilers! :) 

6. I loved the fact that you included information about beekeeping. That accomplished 

    several things for me as a reader: it leant a certain believability/credulity to bear’s 

    independence from society and seeming ability to support himself, it provided insight 

    into bear’s intellectuality, and it afforded Sam an opportunity to learn and grow in a 

    socially-acceptable way, regardless of her virtual isolation. I’m rather curious as to 

    whether your intentions as an author included any of these, or if it was entirely 

    something else.

This is great insight, Lynn! And yes, many of the reasons you mention here were part of my decision to add the bees. I also really liked the way they complemented the supernatural elements of the book. There is a lot of history and myth about honeybees and the souls of the dead, and the more research I did, the more certain I felt that they needed to be included as characters in this story.

~Now that is cool! And will probably initiate a whole afternoon of online research for me!   :)

7. Do you believe certain of us humans are capable of communicating/interacting with 

    beings other than humans, as is Ollie? I ask because I do, but I’m always curious about 

    authors’ beliefs regarding such themes in their published works… For example, I was 

    shocked to learn that Bruce Cameron does not himself believe in reincarnation! 

While I love reading and writing stories with supernatural elements, when it comes to my real life I tend to be more of an open-minded skeptic. I like the idea that there is more to this world than what we see right in front of us. I like to imagine it. And while I don’t think I’d be very surprised if ghosts actually do exist, as of right now I haven’t had enough personal experience or been offered enough proof to say with utmost certainty that it’s possible to communicate with them.

[Almost there for your chance at a free book!]

8. What are you working on next?

I’ve always been a little superstitious about my writing and don’t like to talk much about projects that are in the early stages of creation or books that haven’t yet sold. Part of my reason for this is that the act of creating a story is very different from sharing that finished book with readers. It requires a different set of skills, a different mindset, so I’m usually very protective and private of that creative space. However, I will say this…I’ve been working on a second novel with suspense and supernatural elements that will hopefully make its way into the world someday soon. You and other readers are always welcome to sign up for my newsletter or like my Facebook page—these are the two best ways to get information about future projects and publications!

~I never really considered those differences before. I'm sure that's true. And that, my friends, leads us to the list below of various ways to connect directly with Valerie! She is quite receptive to readers and is a very nice person! 

Website: www.valeriegeary.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValerieGearyAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValerieGeary

Instagram: https://instagram.com/valgeary/

Did you want a free copy?!? To have your name entered to win a free copy of Crooked River, just leave a comment below that includes your email address. A winner will be selected by random drawing at 7PM (my time) on Labor Day (in the U.S.), Monday, September 7th! Each person will be entered once. (Leaving 10 comments will not get your name entered 10 times! Yes, someone already asked!) I will email the lucky winner for their mailing information. Good luck!! I sure was lucky to win my copy, so it is nice of Valerie to allow someone else to do the same! 

And the winner was Emily! Her free copy of this wonderfully written debut, signed by the author, is on its way to her!

Crooked or straight---this river held secrets!!

Crooked River by Valerie Geary

Win a free signed copy!! Simply comment and include your email address here! :) You have until Monday, September 7th at 7PM! 

As I finished reading this debut novel I was reminded of two other debut mystery/thrillers: Tana French's In the Woods and Heather Gudenkauf's The Weight of Silence. High praise from me, since these are two of my favorite writers! The similarity to Gudenkauf's book may well stem from the fact that like Calli, Ollie is also mute. The resemblance to Tana French is in the fact that Geary can create the environment/atmosphere in which to couch the whole story--that virtually becomes a character in and of itself! Difficult to believe this was a debut novel, it was, in my opinion, so excellently written! 

Fifteen-year-old Sam and her 10-year-old sister, Ollie, discover a dead woman floating in the river and although neither of them recognizes her:

  Still, she was somebody's somebody and we couldn't just leave her.

 We should do something. Shouldn't we? Tell someone? And then again, because I couldn't remember if I said it out loud the first time, "We should do something." (3)

And this rather sets the tone for this story--nobody seems to do anything when they should to avoid the virtually inevitable suspicion and ultimate arrest of their father, Bear. For the past 8 years Bear had lived in Zeb's pasture,

"...he hadn't changed much. He put up a teepee and planted a vegetable garden, dug a fire pit and an outhouse, and brought in a picnic table, and of course there were the hives. But there was no electricity, only the sun. No plumbing, only the river and a barrel to catch the rain. No roof over our heads to blot out the stars, no television to drown out the bird and cricket songs, no asphalt to burn the soles of our feet. Most kids would probably hate a place like this, but to me it was home. (4)

His landlord, Zeb, and his wife, were actually more parents to Bear (whose parents had died before his children were born) and grandparents to his daughters, than his wife's parents who visited once a year and sent $20 checks on the girls' birthdays. Their mother dies and they go to live with Bear,

  But this was only a trial period. We have six months to prove the meadow was safe and Bear was a good father. Six months to convince her we could thrive here. Three days in, we weren't off to a very good start. (6)

True. It would freak most parents out nowadays if children were allowed to play off by themselves at a river and discovered a dead body! Probably not the best of starts, and may well explain their reticence to report it to the proper authorities. With other evidence accumulated that incriminated Bear, even Sam began wondering if perhaps she didn't know her father very well, or at least not well enough to feel secure in the knowledge that he could never have committed this crime...she had some doubt of his innocence initially, reminding me of Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon (Another one of my favorite reads that I really must review on this blog! Soon!).

After Zeb and Bear have moved the bee hives to better pollen sources, Sam wonders why they don't try to "fly back home," but her Dad explains,
  "Their hive is their home....Wherever the queen is, that's where they return."
  "But what if the queen's not there?"
  "The colony falls apart." (7)

Could be a bit of symbolism or foreshadowing? Without its mother/wife/'queen bee,' their family...could also...

Ollie has one book that she's been reading since the beginning of the summer, Alice in Wonderland. She and her mother had been reading together in it every night, but had managed to only get halfway through... It is, however, this book that ultimately saves her! 

Ollie immediately senses that Travis is bad.

  I do not like this in-between boy, this almost man. 

  He's not who you think he is.

  He's not your friend.

  We can't trust him. 

  He'll hurt us. 

  Tell him to go away. (80)

She knew... I believe Ollie had what many of us may call a "sixth sense" about people. 

Sam is rather a loner,

  Bear and I both thought trees made better friends than people did. (16)

There are times I would agree! ;)

Per Travis, 
Sometimes the people we love most are the people we know least. (178)

Sam talks to Bear: 
  I clamped my teeth down hard, biting back all the words I wanted to scream at him, all the ways he'd failed us....All the explanations and apologies in the world couldn't change what had happened. We carry our pasts with us, no matter how hard we fight to break free. He knew it, Mom knew it. I knew it now, too. I took a deep breath, and then another. I came here for the truth, and that's what Bear was giving me--take it or leave it. (216)

The epitaph on their mother's grave, 
Beloved Daughter and Mother. As if that was all that counted. As if an entire person was made up of only two parts. 
  She was other things, too. Stargazer, storyteller, bibliophile, chocoholic and something of a weekend wino, gardener, collector of roosters and spoons and oddly shaped rocks, a good hugger, a better back-scratcher, a terrible cook, loyal, passionate, ever the eternal optimist, wife. A loving wife. Despite how it may have looked to people on the outside,...Mom had never stopped loving Bear. And he had never stopped loving her. (238-239)

  "Your sister needs you right now."
  Funny, I always thought I was the one who needed her.
  I guess it comes down to this: Sam and me, we need each other. (314)

These two sisters bravely fight to prove their father's innocence, but what they find is incriminating. Is he innocent? If this sounds as intriguing to you as it did to me, I would highly recommend it! A fantastic debut and mystery!

A note: Valerie graciously agreed to an author interview and even gave a free book to one of the lucky readers and commenters! How nice is that?!? I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway and felt grateful that as a result of my review posting, another reader would also receive a free copy! Wow... :)

Jess & Jason...the "perfect" couple?

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Firstly, this is one of the few books whose cover has truly intrigued me., as well as the premise. And I don't know when I've seen a book get such press!  The publishers really pushed this one, even if it is a debut novel! Not even two months following release there are 54,741 ratings on goodreads with an average of 3.96. That is unbelievable! 

Secondly, a disclaimer of sorts, I rarely read psychological thrillers. I don't like to be scared and it is next to impossible for me to get them out of my head once I finish! Yikes! Due to this, I probably would not have read this one except so many readers were "gaga" over it! 

I felt Hawkins' writing style was very effective, and I really liked her characterization, but especially her plot development. She was quite good at giving the reader just enough information to suspect-- virtually everyone-- of being a murderer. And...not just once, but multiple times it appeared plausible that each person could be "the one" as I continued through the book! 

        There is a pile of clothing on the side of the train tracks. Light blue cloth--a shirt,   
     perhaps--jumbled up with something dirty white. It's probably rubbish, part of a load 
     dumped into the scrubby little wood up the bank. It could have been left behind by the 
     engineers who work this part of the track, they're here often enough. Or it could be 
     something else. My mother used to tell me that I had an overactive imagination... I can't 
     help it, I catch sight of these discarded scraps, a dirty T-shirt or a lonesome shoe, and 
     all I can think of is the other shoe and the feet that fitted into them. (page 1)

I rarely begin a review with a direct quote, but by the book's end this opening scene is so very ironic, while initially it was so resonant for me that it placed me in the real world, it became rather creepy and portended unreal things to come... I stopped after reading this passage, thinking to myself, how very many times have I seen abandoned clothing and wondered...about the owners, about the reason or circumstances under which these items ended up right here, in front of me at this very moment...was there a mysterious disappearance or was it simply due to careless actions that I am now looking at this clothing? I always wonder, just as Rachel always wondered. Perhaps we both just have fertile imaginations! Thus I had an immediate connection with the protagonist! (Well done, Ms. Hawkins!) :)

     I'm going to tell her that the line he used with her--"don't expect me to be sane"--he used
     it with me, too, when we were first together; he wrote it in a letter to me, declaring his 
     undying passion. It's not even his line: he stole it from Henry Miller. Everything she has 
     is secondhand. I want to know how that makes her feel. I want to...ask her, "What does
     it feel like, Anna, to live in my house, surrounded by the furniture I bought, to sleep in 
     the bed that I shared with him for years, to feed your child at the kitchen table he fucked 
     me on?" (page 34) 

Oooohhhh...can we say "bitter"? I remember that at this point I could easily imagine this unemployed down-on-her-luck alcoholic embittered woman as a murderer... And the man--this type of repetitive behavior denoted an uncaring insensitive person simply out to "con" someone to get what he wants. And exactly what does he want? I can't say I ever understood exactly what he did want or expect from life overall. However, he wasn't the only "bad man" in this book! 

Then Jess:

        When I came home this evening, my laptop was warm. He knows how to delete 
     browser histories and whatever, he can cover his tracks perfectly well, but I know that I 
     turned the computer off before I left. He's been reading my emails again. ... I don't mind, 
     because it reassures him there's nothing going on, that I'm not up to anything. And     
     that's good for me--it's good for us--even if it isn't true. And I can't really be angry with 
     him, because he has good reason to be suspicious. I've given him cause in the past 
     and probably will again. I am not a model wife. I can't be. No matter how much I love 
     him, it won't be enough. (page 46)

Now that is just plain BAD, in my opinion! Why stay married? Money? I don't know, but it's rather obvious she is not faithful to her partner. But then, he is certainly no prince charming, either!

     We shouldn't, we ought not to, but we will. It won't be the last time. He won't say no to 
     me. I was thinking about it on the way home, and that's the thing I like most about it, 
     having power over someone. That's the intoxicating thing. (page 47)

        Being the other woman is a huge turn-on, there's no point denying it: you're the one 
     he can't help but betray his wife for, even though he loves her. That's just how 
     irresistable you are. (page 233)  

Sick! Absolutely sick, in my humble opinion! 

        He follows me and I take off my clothes as I'm going up the stairs, and when we get 
     there, when he pushes me down on the bed, I'm not even thinking about him, but it 
     doesn't matter because he doesn't know that. I'm good enough to make him believe 
     that it's all about him. (page 49)

Hah! And that was with the husband! Trust me...to say these characters are flawed is a massive understatement! In fact, this book felt a bit "noir-ish" to me, in that there was no character who felt likable to me, except the baby! A baby is always innocent and likeable, right?!? ;) I suppose I could relate to Rachel's struggles, though she needed lots of help, at the very least! As she says, "None of us is perfect." (page 106) And that, my friends, rather sums up this book! 

The main way in which this was scary to me (Remember, I don't like to be scared!) was that it could be true! These characters are all believable, even if so flawed! I really wanted some more positivism in this book--it truly left me on a bit of a "downer." And...for my money, while I thought TGotT was a good read, Tana French's Broken Harbor was much creepier to me. 

Have you read this one yet? What did you think?