Book Review: The Wren, The Wren

 By Anne Enright

• Pub Date: 2023

• Genre: Irish Fiction

• Where I bought this book: Barnes & Noble, West Chester, Ohio 

• Why I bought this book: Cool title, from an  old children's song from Ireland. 

 ****

    I'm not sure what to make of this book.

    Enright's writing is descriptive with a touch of wit. Her characters are strong women, rising above (mostly) whatever life has thrown at them. Her dialogue is fast-paced. Her scenes are Irish. Her stories are raw and insightful.

    Some that was apparent in this tale of three generations of an Irish family, struggling to live with the legacy of a grandfatherly poet with a(n undeserved) reputation for tradition and brilliance.

    It fact, until the ending, the novel is a bit of a mess. There's a mishmash of metaphors and a riot of remembrances; quagmires of conversations, gatherings of glib asides, and troves of touchy tweets and texts.

    The grandfather is the symbol of privileged, mediocre men. Phil is an acclaimed poet -- but given the representation of his best work printed in the book -- not a very good one. Terry is the long suffering wife who is little heard from. Carmel is the daughter-- ignored, irritable, but accepting. Nell is the granddaughter, a writer and her grandfather in spirit, but without the privilege or his self-confidence.

    Their stories interact, with each one getting to tell parts of the tale, interspersed with snippets from Phil's work and stories from an unidentified narrator. Of the distinct voices, I liked Nell the best. She comes alive in the latter part of the book.

    She's young, introverted but unperturbed. She tells random stories of her relationship with her mother -- a bit different from her mother's tales -- and her love life and travels. She's confident, indiscriminate in using social media, and wants to be an influencer.

    In her afterword, Enright says Nell was also her favorite. Nell is, Enright says, the heir to her grandfather's carelessness. "She exists in a modern space, one which is full of new possibilities for young women. These include the possibility of going wrong, or even gloriously wrong, as poets are want to do. It seems I invented Nell in order to love her."

    I'm glad she did.

Book Review: The Gloaming

   By Melanie Finn

• Pub Date: 2016

• Where I bought this book: Roebling Books, Covington, Ky. 

• Why I bought this book: Gloaming is one of my favorite words 

 *****

    Let me tell you about how I first came across the word gloaming. I'm an old baseball fan, and one of the old baseball stories I read early in life is about "The Homer in the Gloamin'"

    Gloaming is the twilight of the day. In his recent book, Lark Ascending, Silas House has his character use the word. A second character expressed ignorance, asking what it meant. She told him. He asked why she didn't just say dusk. She responded, correctly, that "the word gloaming is so much lovelier." 

    Anyway, baseball. Back in the 1930s, most ballparks did not have lights. Wrigley Field was a case in point -- indeed it was the last modern park to put in lights, in 1988. So the park was dark at night. But late in the 1938 season, the Cubs and Pirates were in a pennant race, with the Pirates half a game ahead of the Cubs. So game 2 of their series would determine which team moved into first place. 

    The game was tied. As nighttime approached and the ninth inning started, the umps said that if neither team scored, they would rule it a tie. And since baseball did not allow for tie games, it would be played all over the next day as part of a doubleheader.

    Top of the ninth, the Pirates failed to scored. Bottom of the ninth, the first two Cubs went hitless. Gabby Hartnett, the Cubs player-manager, was up, and down to his last strike.

    He hit the next pitch into the bleachers, and as he ran the bases and fans swarmed the field to celebrate the victory and move into first place, a reporter for the Associated Press started writing his game story. He dubbed Hartnett's blast, "The Homer in the Gloamin'" 

    So, the legend lives on from the banks of the lake they call Michigan.

__________________________________

    Ok, now about the book, which is not about baseball, and has neither a pennant race nor a home run. 

    What it does have is some good stories and  decent writing. It starts slowly with a series of flashbacks and present time settings. 

    Bit I am somewhat uncomfortable with her settings in Africa, where her descriptions portray a continent of dirty, backwards, violent people. It's the story of a white savior.

    The protagonist and narrator, Pilgrim Jones, is a white woman who has traveled the world with her husband, a human rights lawyer. We learn this, and why, over time. We also learn that while traveling in Africa, she simply decides to abandon her companions and stay in a country village.

    The explanation comes through as she meets a series of characters, most of whom are more interesting than Pilgrim. They all have backgrounds of trauma or bad choices -- and some have both. The first half of the book tells the tales from Pilgrim's perspective, while the latter part reveals details of the rest of the cast.

    The second part is infinitely better. Some of the tales are about people people causing pain and living with it, or perhaps seeking and finding redemption. Others are those who choose to be called victims, but find ways to go on -- or not.

    It hard what to make of this book. Pilgrim's character almost feels like a cliche, a trope. The others are more real, if a mite exaggerated. 

Book Review: The Sealed Letter

The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue

Like the time period in which it is set, this novel takes a while to unwind and reveal itself, patiently narrating the daily comings and goings of its various characters.

Based on Codrington v. Condrington & Anderson, one of the earliest divorce trials in British history, Donoghue's novel shows she is at her best writing historical fiction with its roots in real life. This is one of her earlier novels, published in 2008, and focuses on two women at the center of the mid-19th Century British drama

Helen Codrington is the unhappy wife of Admiral Harry Codrington, part of an upper-crust family living well in a fashionable part of London after an assignment in Malta. The admiral also is unhappy and wants out. But according to British law at the time, his only recourse is to accuse his wife of the crime of adultery. Because she wants to continue to mother her two daughters -- and otherwise keep her good name and her station in life -- Mrs. Codrington denies the charge and must defend herself in court.

The second main character is Emily "Fido" Faithfull, an unmarried businesswoman and leader of The Cause, which is capitalized in the book. The Cause is women's equality -- such as it is seen in the 1860s -- and one of the issues is marriage and divorce equity. She is also Mrs. Codrington's close friend and confidant.

But as much as Donoghue is a feminist herself, the two female characters are portrayed as not very likable. (There are a few male characters -- the admiral, Mrs. Codrington's alleged paramours, lawyers, the investigator, and the judge -- but they are relatively minor and for the most part are not well described.) Admiral Codrington is mostly a stuffed shirt longing for glory he will never achieve.

Miss Faithfull is shown to be smarmy, repressed, prudish, and judgmental. At one point, she refers to her friend as "a demimonde." Mrs. Codrington is devious, flighty, untrustworthy, and selfish. 

The narrative plays out like an episode of Law & Order -- the characters are introduced, a hinting at some wrongdoing is alleged and investigated, the charges are brought and trial begins. It's quite a linear tale, crossing back and forth between characters, and giving some insight into their lives beyond the trial. But the main story is the trial as it played out, which becomes the focus in the second half of the tale.

And don't skip the author's note at the end. It gives some insight into the actual trial and what happened afterward -- and into the author's mindset in bringing the characters to life.