Review: Olive Kitteridge (by Elizabeth Strout)

 My Rating: 4 stars

I recently got approved for an ARC of Elizabeth Strout’s latest work Olive, Again, which is the sequel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge back from 2008.  Seeing that I don’t usually like to read sequels without first having read the original, I decided to take a break from working through my miles-long ARCs list so that I could get acquainted with Olive in preparation for tackling the sequel.  Despite having many of her books on my TBR, Elizabeth Strout is another famous author whose works I’ve not had the chance to read yet (what can I say except “too many books, too little time”), so I actually welcome the opportunity to finally experience one of her works for myself.  

Going into this, I will admit that I was a bit apprehensive at first, since I had heard that this book is written in a unique “novel in stories” format – that is, the book is comprised of 13 short stories, all set in Crosby Maine, told from the perspective of different characters, yet the stories are all linked together through the one character of Olive Kitteridge.  I’m usually not a fan of short stories, as I don’t like the “abruptness” that the short story format naturally lends itself to – I prefer novels with a full-length story that has a beginning, middle, and ending…a more in-depth story that I can immerse myself into, with characters that I can watch grow and develop over time.   But of course, this book is not your typical short story collection in that each story is connected through Olive, the one constant who somehow manages to make her way into each story, oftentimes subtly and unpronounced (except in the stories where she is actually the central character).   In some of the stories, Olive is a quiet presence; in others, she is a force to be reckoned with – regardless of how she may appear though, Olive’s distinctive “voice” as a character is strongly felt throughout the book.  I appreciate the interesting way Strout decided to approach the character of Olive in here – even though she is not the main character in most of the stories, we (as readers) still get to see her growth and development as she grapples with the various situations that occur in the town.  Olive is an interesting character – definitely not the “tolerable” type, and at times, she even comes across as downright annoying, but there was a certain authenticity to Olive as a character that made her really come alive for me despite her limited appearance in many of the stories.  In terms of the writing, this was smoothly and beautifully written, with what I felt was a solid balance of subtleness versus fierceness where it was warranted.  In the way Strout depicted the mundane and the minutiae of everyday life while providing insight into the trials and tribulations that many of us are bound to encounter, there was a resonance to each of the stories presented here.  

This was definitely a different reading experience for me, one that I enjoyed immensely more than I expected.  As I get ready to tackle the sequel in the coming days, I look forward to revisiting Olive and her “irrational sensitivities” once again.

Review: Cilka’s Journey (by Heather Morris)

My Rating: 4 stars

When I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz last year, I was blown away by Lale and Gita's incredible story and the harrowing ordeal they endured during their 3 years at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.  As I mentioned in my review of that book, stories about the Holocaust continue to be extremely important given the world we live in – whether through fictionalized or non-fiction accounts, these are stories that absolutely need to be told, no matter how difficult and heartbreaking it may be to hear such unthinkable atrocities being recounted.  With Cilka's Journey, the sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris gives us the story of Cecilia "Cilka" Klein, a woman we first met during Lale's recounting of his story, whom he described as "the bravest person [he] ever met" and whom he credited with saving his life.  When she was just sixteen years old, Cilka was forcibly separated from her family and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where, on the first day, she was immediately singled out for her beauty.  In order to stay alive, Cilka had no choice but to endure repeated sexual abuse from the Commandant (and other men in power), but what weighed on her soul the most was the role she was forced into --  the unspeakable role of being the one to send hundreds of women to their horrific deaths in the camp's gas chambers.  After suffering 3 years of pain and torture, freedom finally comes when the camp is liberated, but unfathomably not for Cilka, as she ends up being charged as a collaborator for "sleeping with the enemy" and sentenced to 15 years in a Siberian prison camp.  In the gulags, Cilka encounters horrors both new and familiar, once again finding herself at the center of unwanted attention despite her best efforts to go unnoticed.  Placed under such circumstances, Cilka must reach within herself to find the strength to not only survive, but also help others in the process.  In a narrative that jumps back and forth in time, between memories of her time at Auschwitz and the realities of her present situation, Cilka shows her remarkable will to endure and confront the daily terrors with courage.

Through Cilka's story, Morris once again presents us with an impactful tale of survival, resilience, and true love's ability to overcome hardship.  For someone so young to have to endure so much, it was heart-rending to read, yet at the same time, it humbled me and reminded me how much there truly is to be grateful for.  The Author's Note at the end of the book as well as the Afterword give keen insight into Cilka's real-life story and the conditions those interned in the camps were subjected to — both these narratives supplement the story and should not be missed. I'm keeping this review deliberately short, as this book is a necessary read as well as a timely one and it is my hope that more people will read it.  Thank you to Heather Morris for bringing us Cilka's story as well as that of Lale and Gita and helping us better understand this important piece of our society's history.

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley and direct from publisher.

Review: The Butterfly Girl (by Rene Denfeld)



My Rating: 3.5 stars 



As the sequel to 2017's The Child Finder, Rene Denfeld's latest work, The Butterfly Girl, sees the return of Naomi Cottle, an independent investigator whose knack for finding missing children stems from a childhood tragedy, a kidnapping that she was able to escape from, but sadly her sister did not.  Unable to let go of the guilt of leaving her sister behind, Naomi has made it her life's mission to find her sister, despite barely having any information to go off of.  This time around, Naomi's search for her sister brings her to Portland, Oregon, where she discovers a growing number of homeless children disappearing off the streets, only to be found murdered days later, their bodies tossed in the dirty waters of the local river.   Despite her best efforts not to get involved due to a vow she made to locate her sister before taking on any more cases, Naomi is eventually pulled into the case after meeting Celia, a twelve-year-old girl who chooses a life on the streets rather than returning home to an abusive stepfather and an oblivious, drug addict mother.   Seeing Celia reminds Naomi of her own past and instills in her an urgent need to try her best to protect her, while Celia's own desire to protect her younger sister Alyssa from the abuse she herself suffered draws parallels to Naomi's relationship with the sister she is desperately trying to find.

This was one of those books that I struggle with rating, as there were enough things I appreciated about the story, but there were also things that didn't work tremendously well for me.  Perhaps because I never read the first book in this series, I found Naomi's storyline about searching for her sister and the way it eventually unfolds a bit unrealistic and maybe even a tad forced  — I didn't connect with her story as much emotionally and at times, even felt frustrated with the way Naomi's search becomes an obsession to the point that it takes over her life.  Celia's story, on the other hand, was heartbreaking — drawing from her own personal experience of living on the streets as a kid, the way that Denfeld depicted the harsh realities of street living was both heartfelt and emotionally gut-wrenching.  Her story ran the emotional spectrum for me – there was sadness and anger, but yet there was also an underlying element of hopefulness interspersed throughout the story.  I think for me, I preferred more focus on Celia's story rather than Naomi's, as I found myself skimming some of the sections that dove too much into Naomi's backstory, which I felt were a bit repetitive and, in a way, dragged down the rest of the story.  With all that said, one of the things that set this book apart for me was the atmospheric writing, especially in the chapters involving Celia and her friends and what their lives were like out on the streets.  There was also the brilliant use of imagery in a seamless yet metaphoric way – in this instance, the imagery of butterflies and their importance to Celia's story.

Overall, I feel this was a good story that had a lot of potential and while I agree with other reviewers that this can definitely be read as a standalone, I think for me personally, I would've appreciated the story more if I had read the first one prior.  I do intend on going back to read The Child Finder at some point, preferably before Denfeld's next book comes out, especially if it will be a continuation of Naomi's story.

Received ARC from Harper via NetGalley.   

Review: The Dutch House (by Ann Patchett)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that I’m probably one of the few people on this planet who, up until now, had never read an Ann Patchett novel.  Despite the fact that Patchett is an author I’ve wanted to read for a long time --  I’ve had most of her previous works on my TBR for quite some time and even own physical copies of several of her books -- I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to actually crack open any of them.  Of course, all that changed last week when I saw that the next book on my seemingly never-ending ARC list would be Patchett’s newly released eighth novel The Dutch House (published in September 2019) – I was thrilled that I would finally be able to experience one of her works for myself, though at the same time, that also meant I would be going into this one with relatively high expectations.  Luckily, this one ended up being a wonderful read, even better than I expected, which honestly doesn’t happen often.

The story is narrated entirely from the perspective of Danny Conroy, who is only a boy of 8 years old when the story opens.  His sister Maeve, herself only a teenager at 15 years old, took Danny under her care after their mother Elna left them 5 years ago.  Both children live in the Dutch House, a see-through glass mansion of sorts that their father Cyril, a real estate developer, had bought as a surprise gift for their mother.  Cyril is a distant father who is always consumed with his work and aside from providing his children with the necessities  — a cook to prepare food for them to eat, a housekeeper to tend to the household duties, a nanny to tend to their day-to-day needs — he could never be bothered with much else beyond that.  But Maeve and Danny had each other to lean on and along with the love of their housekeeper and cook (sisters Sandy and Jocelyn who had been hired by their mother back in the day), they were relatively happy and content with their lives.  All that changes however when Cyril decides to marry a young woman named Andrea, who moves into the Dutch House with her 2 daughters in tow — the profound impact that this decision ends up having on Danny’s and Maeve’s futures becomes the basis upon which the entire story revolves.

This story is billed as a family saga spanning 5 decades, which initially made me think that it would be so epic in scope that it would take a longer time to read, but in actuality, I devoured this one, not wanting to put it down once I started.  Patchett is a masterful storyteller and her writing here absolutely captivates — I was hooked from the very first page, not just to the story but also to the characters.  It’s extremely rare for me to already like and connect with a story’s characters within the first few chapters, but that’s exactly what happened with Danny and Maeve — two characters I loved from the beginning and who continued to grow more endearing as the story progressed.  While all of Patchett’s characters in here were nuanced and well-developed (even most of the minor characters), what made me gravitate to Danny and Maeve the most was the unshakable bond that these two siblings shared throughout their lives – a bond that continued to exist despite everything that happens, no matter how many times their relationship is put to the test.  Needless to say, I was genuinely moved by their relationship. 

Speaking of characters, of course the Dutch House itself also existed as a “character” central to the story, however the beauty here is that, even though its presence was continually felt throughout the story, it never once overtook the other characters.  Despite the house’s significance to the plot, it was quite clear from beginning to end that the story itself belonged to Maeve and Danny.  In this regard, the house serves as a connection to their past and while this past is what shapes who they eventually grow up to become as adults, it is also how they deal with this past that forms the crux of their story.  Here, again, the brilliance of Patchett’s writing comes into play, as the transitions between past and present throughout the book were seamless – no easy feat given the extensive timeline that the story covered plus the fact that the plot jumped around from one situation to the next in no particular order.

Up until the last few chapters, this actually had all the makings of a 5-star read for me – the reason I eventually decided on 4.5 stars was mainly because I wasn’t fond of the ending and also didn’t like how a few plot points played out in the lasts few chapters.  Though I must admit that I also had some issues with the character of Elna Conroy (Danny and Maeve’s mother) – things that made her character come across too unrealistic for me and made it difficult for me to wholeheartedly accept some of the situations that happen because of it.  This small complaint aside, I still consider this book a masterpiece – not quite perfect, but a masterpiece nonetheless.  While I eagerly wait to see what Patchett has in store for us next, there’s no doubt that I will be exploring her backlist of previous works very, very soon!

Received ARC from Harper via Edelweiss.