Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (by Gail Honeyman)

My Rating: 5 stars

Wow! It's hard for me to put into words how TERRIFIC this book was! As soon as I finished reading, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that this would be 5 stars – in fact, if I could give more stars, I absolutely would (knowing how stingy I am with 5 star ratings, that's definitely saying a lot)!

Judging from the reviews I've read, it seems that for most readers, the character of Eleanor Oliphant was not too likable at first, but then she eventually grew on them as the story progressed. For me – well, I actually LOVED Eleanor from the getgo! Her quirky personality, her social-awkwardness and the "unique" world-view she seemed to have on things that always made her come across as "weird" to others, her obsessive-compulsiveness with things such as hygiene, safeguarding her personal info, proper speech and etiquette, her stubborn persistence and insistence on doing things a certain way, etc. -- all of these things were oh so familiar because I actually knew someone exactly like Eleanor (she was a former co-worker of mine at the company I used to work for). As I was reading about Eleanor's successful and not-so-successful attempts at social interaction (most of which made me smile or laugh, especially with the "spot-on" descriptions of the other parties' reactions), I couldn't help thinking about my former co-worker – whom we all loved dearly -- and shaking my head in wonder at the similarities. The scene at the computer shop, the pizza delivery episode, the name thing at the coffee shop, the initial "meeting" between Eleanor and Raymond and the subsequent "impression" that she has of him – I laughed as I read because so many of those scenes were déjà vu for me, having experienced them (or a variant of those same scenarios) with my co-worker friend at some point. It was fun getting the chance to relive all those hilarious moments with a friend I adored!

Fun and humor and personal connection aside though, there was also a serious element to this book with the story of Eleanor's past – the rough childhood, the many negative experiences she had, and most significantly, the tragic "incident" that had left her physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred. I found tears streaming down my face at certain points and my heart went out to Eleanor during those moments when her overwhelming sense of loneliness and self-loathing would get the best of her. I felt simultaneously angry and sad hearing Eleanor's phone conversations with her "Mummy" and finding out bit by bit the horrible way that she had been treated by her mother – the manipulation, the abuse, the utter hatred that it is unfathomable for any mother to ever have against her own child. Those parts were heartbreaking to read, but they were powerful -- for me especially, it made me reflect on my own relationship with my mother and how the misunderstandings and quarrels we've had over the years seem so petty now. The author Gail Honeyman did an excellent job with the characterization of Eleanor as well as the other significant characters in the story (such as Raymond, Sammy, Eleanor's mother, etc.). These were all characters that I won't easily forget and Eleanor I know will always have a special place in my heart!

I would be amiss not to mention the writing in this book, which was beautiful and perfect. Honeyman has a masterful way with words and I was absolutely drawn in from the first page – when I started reading, I got really into Eleanor's story and found it difficult to break away for even a few minutes. The fact that this book was a roller coaster ride for me emotionally also speaks to Honeyman's immense talent as a writer. Rarely does a book take me through such a wide range of the emotional spectrum, but this one definitely did: I laughed at the many funny moments created by Eleanor's witty observations of the people and things around her, I cried during those heartbreaking moments when Eleanor painstakingly wrestled with the demons from her past, I felt sadness and sympathy for what Eleanor had to go through at such a young age and how that shaped who she became, and anger at how she was treated by her mother and the grip her mother still had on her that affected her ability to feel any emotion and move on with her life.

When I found out that this was Honeyman's debut novel, I just about fell out of my chair – for sure I will be in line for whatever Honeyman decides to write next! Absolutely recommended read!

Review: The Green Phoenix (by Alice Poon)

 My Rating: 3 stars

Most Westerners who have studied or read Chinese imperial history are probably very familiar with famous female monarchs such as Empress Wuzetian from the Tang dynasty and Empress Cixi from the later Qing dynasty.  There have been countless books and stories written over the years about these two famous female rulers of ancient China, which is of course not surprising from a historical perspective given the direct impact these two women had in shaping China’s imperial history.  While both women definitely deserve their place in the history books and in the numerous fictional and non-fictional accounts that have been written about their lives, there is another woman – Empress Xiaozhuang from the early Qing dynasty – who equally deserves to be brought to the forefront and recognized for her contributions to imperial Chinese history.  Alice Poon’s new novel The Green Phoenix does exactly that – it brings to the forefront this remarkable woman who, despite never having ruled over imperial China directly, played a tremendous role in the establishment of one of the most famous ruling dynasties in Chinese history.

China has a rich and complex history dating back thousands of years, so I can understand how difficult it would be to choose one particular time period to write about.  The time period that Poon chose to set her fictional story against was especially complex given it was what I would classify as a “limbo” transitional period where the Ming dynasty was mostly toppled already but hadn’t officially ended, while the Qing dynasty as we know it hadn’t yet been established.   Being quite familiar with this period of Chinese history already as well as the place that Empress Xiaozhuang had in it – namely the influence she had on her son, Emperor Shunzi, and her grandson Emperor Kangxi – I appreciated the opportunity to learn more details about Xiaozhuang’s life and her transformation from a young, free-spirited Mongolian princess (whose actual name was Bumbutai) to one of the most revered and influential Empresses in Chinese imperial history.   Poon’s narrative is meticulous in its recounting of historical detail, which, as a history fanatic, I absolutely appreciated – however from the perspective of this being a novel, a work of fiction, I feel that the rich historical detail detracted a bit from the flow of the actual story.  At times, this read more like a nonfiction book than fiction, especially the sections about the various battles and military conquests that occurred, the numerous instances of scheming and infighting within the Emperor’s inner palaces, etc.  I found myself time and time again wanting to get back to Empress Xiaozhuang’s personal story and wanting to understand more her internal struggles and thought process instead of being interrupted by details of everything that was happening around her (some of which didn’t really have anything to do with her directly). 

With that said though, there is no doubt that this book is well-researched and it is also quite well-written.  I applaud Poon for her meticulous attention to historical detail, as I understand how hard it is to write good historical fiction – the challenge constantly being trying to accurately establish the historical context while still giving the story its own unique voice.  In this case, there were times when the story faltered in favor of the history, which for me, affected my ability to connect with the story and the characters – especially the main character Empress Xiaozhuang – as much as I would have liked.  The “fiction” part in terms of the story didn’t quite work for me, but the “historical” piece was absolutely top notch.

This was a solid and sincere attempt to bring a less widely known aspect of Chinese history to Western readers and as a long-time student of Chinese history, I absolutely appreciate Alice Poon’s effort!  I recommend this book to those interested in learning about China’s imperial history and especially about the establishment of the Qing empire as well as the role that Empress Xiaozhuang played in it.

Received advance reader’s copy from Goodreads friend Alice Poon for review.

Review: The Alice Network (by Kate Quinn)

My Rating: 5 stars

In the past few months, I've read my fair share of books either set in or about WWII and a handful about WWI, but up to this point, I hadn't read anything that covered BOTH wars.  The Alice Network by Kate Quinn did just that – it presented a wonderfully written, captivating dual timeline story about two women from different generations, their lives impacted by the wars in different ways, whose paths eventually cross when fate brings them together.  In the first narrative, which takes place in 1947, we meet Charlie St. Clair, a feisty American college girl from a well-to-do family who had just gotten herself into major "trouble" by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. She is banished to Europe to "take care of" the problem of her pregnancy, after which she would be accepted back into the family again, but once there, Charlie runs off instead to search for her cousin Rose, whom she loved like a sister, holding out hope that Rose might still be alive despite disappearing a few years back in Nazi-occupied France during WWII.  Charlie's search brings her to the door step of Eve Gardiner, a woman in her fifties who looks much older due to years of drinking herself to oblivion in efforts to escape the "ghosts" of her past.  Through Eve, we are transported back to 1915, during the Great War (WWI), when she is recruited to join the Alice Network, a network of female spies across Europe who collected intelligence for the Allied forces to use against the enemy.   Eve is sent to German-occupied France where she meets other members of the network as well as its fearless leader Lili, who also goes by the name Alice Dubois.  From there, we are given insight into the fascinating yet complex world of espionage as we follow Eve's life as a spy and bear witness to the horrific experiences she and the others go through as well as the great risks they take for their countries. 

I'm drawn to books with strong female protagonists and with this one, we get plenty of them in the characters of Eve, Charlie, Lili, and even side characters such as Violette and Rose.  It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I grew to love the characters in this story and found myself rooting for them to the very end.  The author did a great job with the characterizations of the main players especially – defiant and rebellious Charlie, whose love for her cousin and her family despite all the issues really enamored her to me; hot-tempered Eve whose experiences during the war left her broken and hardened toward life, choosing to spend the rest of her days drinking, cursing, and threatening to blow people's brains out with her ever-present Luger, yet I have nothing but utmost respect and admiration for her;  the charming Scotsman Finn, who captured my heart from the start with his sense of humor and personality and the way he stood supportively by Eve despite the way she often treated him.  I loved Lili too, even though she technically wasn't the main character of the story despite being the key figure off of which the Alice network is based.  All of these characters were fictitious, but some were based on real people and I was surprised to read in the Author's Note at the end of the book all the factual elements that drove the story.  The history fanatic in me is grateful that the author listed so many of her sources as well as all the additional material at the end of the book – I actually wrote down quite a few of the titles for further reading, as this book triggered my curiosity about the real Alice network and I want to find out more about it as well as the women whose stories were touched upon in this book.

I liked how the author addressed the various societal issues that were prevalent during Eve's time period as well as Charlie's.  Gender issues, class issues, attitudes toward women, impact of war, etc. – it was interesting to see how all of that was dealt with in both eras and how, sadly, there is much that hasn't changed, even today.  This book brought to light the challenges of being a spy, especially a female one, due to the double standards that existed – it was disheartening to see how these brave women risked their lives day in and day out while already getting little reward or recognition for their work, yet they still had to battle the gender stereotypes imposed on them internally, at times even having to "fight" to be believed or trusted!  There was one part where Eve finds out one of her reports was brushed aside and not believed by the higher ups, resulting in disastrous consequences that could have been prevented, which leads her to question whether everything she and the other women in the Alice network did were in vain – it was heartbreaking to read but it also angered me, especially when I found out (from the Author's Note) that this was a true event that happened to the real Alice Dubois.

I was also fascinated by the world of espionage and the lives of the female spies as depicted in the book.  Earlier in the year,  I had read a nonfiction book about female spies during the WWII era, but I feel like I learned more from this fictionalized account than that nonfiction one -- the way that author Kate Quinn was able to take real events and people and integrate them so seamlessly into a fictionalized story, yet still maintain such historical accuracy truly speaks to her skill and talent as a writer of historical fiction.  I'm definitely interested in reading her other works at some point in the future.

This book is highly recommended and even though it didn't "blow me away" like other war-themed books have, I still loved it nonetheless!  And I totally agree with other reviewers who have said that once they started reading the book, it was hard to put down – I ended up plowing through the entire 500+ page book in 3 days (which is a record for me!), neglecting the other books I had already started and will now need to get back to, lol.  If you pick this one up, be ready for an engrossing story and a hugely enjoyable read!

Review: The Resurrection of Joan Ashby (by Cherise Wolas)

My Rating: 4.5 stars rounded up 

I'm having a hard time writing this review because I know that nothing I say will be able to do justice to how great this book truly is.  I don't feel it's an exaggeration to say that this book was a "masterpiece," a uniquely exquisite work that I am overjoyed to have been given the opportunity to experience and savor.  From the very first chapter, up until the very end, and even now, having finished the book, one thought that has consistently entered my mind is the fact that this is Cherise Wolas' debut novel.  I am absolutely blown away by how much this book does NOT read like a first novel by an inexperienced writer, as the writing was very polished and engaging,  the prose was beautifully rendered, the story was extremely well-written, the characters were well-developed and very very realistic.  I also loved the stories within the story – the excerpts from the main character Joan Ashby's short story collections and novels, all of them so different and unique.  I can't help but wonder whether, like her character Joan, perhaps Wolas also started writing at a young age, continually perfecting her craft over the years, leading to this spectacular debut novel that reads nothing like a debut.   Whatever the case, one thing's for sure – Wolas is an immensely talented writer!

Plot-wise, I don't want to give away too much, though to be honest there really isn't a whole lot to give away in the first place, since there isn't really much "action" that takes place given that this is primarily a character-drive story.  The main character Joan Ashby is an extraordinarily talented writer, a voracious reader, magnificent storyteller since youth who, in her early twenties, becomes a literary sensation after publishing 2 short story collections that instantly hit bestseller lists and rake up various awards.  Having led a solitary life up to that point, Joan unexpectedly falls in love with Martin Manning, an eye doctor who later becomes famous in his own right, and Joan agrees to marry him under the condition that they enter a pact never to have children.  However, things don't go according to plan and not long into their marriage, at the height of her fame as a writer, Joan finds out that she is pregnant – when she sees how happy her husband is at the prospect of becoming a father, Joan makes a decision that alters the course of her life forever:  she decides to give up her successful career and dedicate herself to becoming a full-time mother.  She eventually raises 2 sons, Daniel and Eric, and it is not until decades later, when both her sons are grown, that she gets the chance to reignite her career, but then a devastating betrayal shatters her hopes and dreams, causing her to rethink all the past choices she made.  Even though the story is told from the third person point of view, we get to know Joan Ashby intimately, as we are given the chance to dive deep into her mind as a writer and as a mother, get to understand her innermost thoughts, the motivations behind her actions as she contemplates certain decisions she has to make, etc.  We also witness her inner struggle with keeping the "writer" part of herself alive while still devoting herself to a family she did not want but decides to embrace wholeheartedly. 

With Joan Ashby, Wolas created a character so vividly real and complex that I truly felt like I was reading a memoir of a real-life writer rather than a fictional story.  In fact, I was so invested in Joan's life and journey that, by the time I got to the end of the book, I was a bit saddened at having to say goodbye, as despite her many flaws, I had grown to like Joan and wanted to continue the journey with her -- it was as though a close writer friend I had grown up with suddenly decided to move away, taking with her the fascinating, unfinished stories that she never got the chance to finish telling me.  I wanted to continue reading those stories she had written, to read them in their entirety, to get to know the characters more intimately, to know how the stories end – I especially loved the story about Paloma Rosen and to be honest, I felt a little disappointed that I didn't get to read the rest of that story.

Speaking of the excerpts of Joan Ashby's stories, that brings me to the one "complaint" of sorts that I had with this book – minor in the scheme of things for sure, but it still made me struggle with the rating, ultimately settling with 4.5 stars rather than 5.  I obviously loved the "stories within the main story" written by the main character Joan, however the part that I didn't really like was how the stories interrupted Joan's life story itself.  It was a little distracting to me to be reading about Joan's life for a good number of pages, then all of a sudden there is a long excerpt (at times several pages worth) from one of the stories she wrote, then it picks back up again with her life story.  Perhaps because I was so engaged in Joan's own story that I wanted to know what happened next with her and her family without having to be sidetracked by different stories  – especially with those stories having  such great merit on their own.  Maybe having a more structured format with those stories (technically excerpts of the stories) at the beginning or end of the chapters would have been better so that the flow of the main story would've felt less interrupted?  I guess it also didn't help that I was reading an ARC version of the book and for some reason, there was no physical differentiation between the main story and Joan's stories until the last third of the book or so when Joan's stories were italicized so I knew where they started and ended.  Regardless of this minor issue with the book's format though, I still loved the stories as I said earlier and felt that they really gave me insight into Wolas' range as a writer (since Joan is a fictional character so Wolas technically wrote those stories) – they were indeed fascinating stories, way different from the tone of the book itself in some places!

I don't usually round up when I rate books but I made an exception in this case because to be honest, this book was well-deserving of 5 stars!  This was a gem of a book, one that I highly recommend and am actually contemplating buying a physical copy myself once it publishes on August 29^th.  Oh and if Ms. Wolas ever decides to publish Joan's collection of stories and/or novels in their entirety someday, I will absolutely be one of the first in line to buy them (especially the Paloma Rosen one, which I desperately want to read)!

Received advance reader copy from Flatiron Books via NetGalley

Review: The Wildling Sisters (by Eve Chase)

My Rating: 4 stars

The Wildling Sisters is an atmospheric tale about the bonds of sisterhood and family set against the backdrop of a mysterious house with a dark secret.  Told via dual narratives, the story's timeline alternates between the summer months of 1959 and the "present" setting a little over 50 years later.   Both narratives are linked together by what I feel is truly the main character in the entire story:  the looming Applecote Manor in the English countryside town of the Cotswolds.  In 1959, the teenage Wilde sisters Flora, Pam, Margot, and Dot are shipped off to Applecote Manor to spend the summer with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry while their mother sought out a job opportunity in Morocco.  Sybil and Perry lost their only daughter Audrey 5 years ago when the teenager disappeared one day without a trace – devastated, the couple cut off ties with the outside world and shutter themselves inside their house, clinging constantly to the hope that Audrey will some day return.  In the present day narrative, Jessie and her husband Will want to move with their daughters --  teenager Bella and little two-year old Romy -- out of their home in London to a more idyllic, quieter place in the countryside in the hopes that it will give Bella – who is still trying to come to terms with the death of her mother several years ago -- a chance at a fresh start.  Without knowing much about its history, Jessie and Will decide to move into Applecote Manor, the beautiful, sprawling country house recently put up for sale by the Wilde family.  Soon, the past collides with the present when Jessie and her stepdaughter Bella start to dig into the house's secrets and learn the story of the previous owners' past, including that fateful summer of 1959.

I've been reading a lot of dual timeline books recently but this one definitely felt different.  Despite the gap in timespan, the two narratives had a "continuity" about them that didn't make me feel like I was being taken out of one time period and placed in another.  Yes, part of this has to do with the common setting of Applecote Manor as well as some of the characters from the past narrative still having some involvement in the present narrative, but I think a large part was also due to the writing, which had an atmospheric, elegant feel to it that was consistent in both narratives.  The author Eve Chase captured the essence of time and place well, especially with the narrative of the Wilde sisters and their coming of age during those summer months alongside the mystery of Audrey's disappearance.  Chase did a great job giving us vivid descriptions of the house and its surrounding area so as to make us as readers feel as though we were right there at Applecote Manor – in the past narrative, right alongside the Wilde sisters trying to fill up the long, idle days of summer with anything exciting and in the present narrative, right alongside Jessie and Bella as they try to mend their rocky relationship while also trying to make sense of their surroundings.  What I appreciated most was that Chase was able to do all this without  sacrificing characterization, as each of the characters in both narratives came alive for me and I found all of them quite endearing, despite their flaws.  I also loved the way the author tackled the theme of sisterhood and family, showing the ups and downs of those relationships in a realistic way. 

One thing to note is that this is more of a character-driven story (I'm including Applecote Manor as one of the "characters") than a plot-driven one, so the pace is a bit slow, which is a little ironic given that the story starts off with an absolutely attention-grabbing scene involving the Wilde sisters and something that happened at the end of their summer at the manor.  After that initial scene, the rest of the story is a slow buildup to that day, as events unfold one by one in both past and present, until we eventually find out what truly happened.  I actually felt this was a clever way to tell the story, but the "slow burn" aspect might be an issue for those who prefer a more action-filled plot.  Also, I've seen this book categorized as "gothic", which I guess is true to some extent given the mysterious undertones and the haunting, gloomy feel to the setting, but this one wasn't dark or dreary like some of the classic gothic tales we may be used to reading -- this one had more of a lightness to it, which I appreciated.   A lovely read that I definitely recommend!

Received ARC from G.P. Putnam and Sons via Penguin First-to-read program