Review: Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam

So today's novel is The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Laam’s book is a compelling speculative novel revolving around the doomed Romanov family. One of the more popular “wishful thinking” subjects of historical fiction is that one of the Tsar’s children escaped the awful fate encountered in the basement of Ipatiev House in Siberia. But Laam introduces a completely different concept: what if Tsarina Alexandra had a fifth daughter? It seems a rather unlikely concept, but the author uses well-documented facts to make this premise work. The novel is told through the eyes of three different women, living years apart: Lena, a maid turned friend to the empress; Charlotte, a former ballet dancer trying to survive Nazi occupied France with her young son; and Veronica, a down-on-her-luck Russian history professor who stumbles upon the whole shocking truth.

While some authors are unable to carry off three different perspectives, Laam excels at this by differentiating each of the women’s narratives. All the women are quietly fierce and tenacious, but in different ways that lend a special quality to each character. Each of their voices is distinct, which is a hard feat to accomplish. The reader will become enthralled by each story, eagerly turning the page to find out the fate of each woman.

By the last half of the novel, the seeds of the resolution have been sewn, so the rather drawn-out conclusion could have been reached much more quickly. Nonetheless, this novel shines overall and will appeal to everyone from general fiction readers to lovers of Russian history and the Romanov dynasty. This is definitely not one to miss.

Review: "What She Left Behind" by Ellen Marie Wiseman

When I saw the lists of books available for review from the Historical Novel Society, I immediately spotted What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman. I am completely enthralled by the history of mental institutions in America. Perhaps it was growing up with the specter of the infamous South Carolina Lunatic Asylum located in Columbia, SC (the phrase "You're headed to Bull Street" was a nice or funny way of saying you were going crazy) or maybe it's just my love for old, abandoned buildings, but I'm total sucker for an insane asylum. I'm not one of those "heeby jeeby" folks but if you get within spitting distance of one of these buildings, you can feel the negative energy. And it's for these reasons that this novel is so compelling.

From "Asylum: Inside the Closed Walls of State Mental Hospitals"

One of my favorite architecture books is entitled "Asylum: Inside the Closed Walls of State Mental Hospitals" and one of the most heartbreaking photos in the book is of the left behind effects of the former patients. Many never even made it out of their confinement, and were simply buried on site, behind the walls that held them in. It is these left behind effects that connect the two protagonists in this novel.

What She Left Behind chronicles the lives of two young women living approximately 60 years apart. Izzy Stone has been in and out of foster homes since her mother fatally shot her father and was sent to prison. Convinced that her mother is insane, Izzy is particularly sensitive when her latest set of foster parents ask her to help them catalog the personal effects of the former patients of a shuttered mental institution. She is shocked to discover the contents of the large steamer trunk belonging to Clara Cartwright, an 18-year-old girl committed to the asylum in 1930. Through the reading of Clara’s diary, Izzy embarks on a mission to discover the girl’s fate.

 

There is certainly a shock factor to What She Left Behind. Clara is committed to Willard Asylum after she defies her father by taking an Italian immigrant as her lover. The harsh conditions and backward treatments of the asylum are painful to read; indeed, they are the stuff of nightmares. The idea that women were committed for disobeying their husbands or fathers, or for engaging in behaviors deemed unsuitable in polite society, is frightening. As Clara wonders throughout her captivity, how many sane women are committed, only to lose their minds after the fact?

 

Wiseman does an excellent job of conveying the horrifying methods employed to cure the mentally ill. The lack of compassion and sometimes outright brutality of the nurses and doctors are astounding. Though Clara is extremely naïve, and sometimes one- dimensional, her narrative is much more compelling than Izzy’s, whose story reads like a young adult novel at times. Despite this, What She Left Behind is a real page turner and will appeal to all readers of fiction, though the subject matter is not for the faint of heart.

Review: My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

Hello there dear readers. As promised, I have returned for Review Tuesday. I'm very proud of myself...but I digress.

This week's review is from my August 2013 review for the Historical Novel Review, and this novel also happens to be another favorite of mine. "My  Notorious Life" by Kate Manning is partly based on a true story from the mid-19th century, but completely smart and witty.

The novel focuses on scrappy Axie Muldoon, a child of the gritty New York streets. Begging is a way of life for her and her two siblings when they are scooped up by one of the 19th century’s moralizing do-gooders and packed off for Illinois on an orphan train. Once in the small town of Rockford, Axie’s family is torn apart as her younger sister Dutch and little brother Joe are adopted by different families. Axie herself is considered an undesirable and is sent back to New York with fellow orphan Charlie. There she begins a meteoric rise from humble servant girl to midwife apprentice to a benevolent abortionist known as New York’s most infamous “she devil.”

"My Notorious Life" is a humorous but often heartbreaking look at New York’s forgotten ones. Axie is a plucky heroine, feisty and determined to not only make something of herself but to reunite her family. She does it all on her own terms, and even as rises up from the gutter, she never forgets her roots. She is a very three-dimensional character, which is a hard feat to accomplish. You sympathize with her, cry with her, and laugh at her antics and wry sense of humor.

Manning deftly captures the abject despair of poverty and the dazzling glitter of the Gilded Age. The hypocrisy of late 19th-century America is always present and rendered brilliantly through the people who come to Axie for help, as well as those who seek to destroy her. There are aspects of social commentary woven into the narrative – some might even say that they are applicable to modern times – but the plot itself shines the brightest and should be enjoyed. My Notorious Life is highly recommended and not to be missed.

Review: A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

Probably my hands down favorite novel of 2013 was A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. I read this novel in under twenty four hours, and if that is not the mark of a good book, I don't know what is.

I read Williams' first novel, "Overseas" when it was released, and while it had merit, and was riveting enough to keep me turning the page, it also had many flaws. The author apparently learned from her mistakes because "A Hundred Summers" grabbed me from the opening paragraphs and did not let go.

I loved the protagonist Lily. It is rare that a character is so nuanced; she is both innocent and jaded, a mixture of traits that could easily be eye-rollingly impossible to believe, but Lily manages to pull it off. She has a big heart and loves deeply, but yet possesses a few base characteristics (jealousy, for one) that make her a stunningly real character. Nick, her former love interest, is at times too perfect (a problem, if I remember correctly, with the male protagonist in "Overseas" as well), but he is sufficiently tempered with "bad" traits as well. The whole cast of characters were interesting and well drawn. Even Budgie, the girl everyone loves to hate, has a few redeeming qualities.

What got me was the stunning secret revealed towards the end of the novel. The author had me convinced (as was all of New York society) that a particular situation detailed in the book had gone down one way, and so I was shocked when the truth was revealed. Slow clap for Ms. Williams for I am rarely stunned by a big secret in a novel.

I'll wrap this up with a hearty recommendation to read "A Hundred Summers". You won't be sorry.

Review: Call Me Zelda by Ericka Robuck

Hello faithful readers.

I know I've not been blogging lately, for which I am profoundly sorry. The truth is, I haven't had a great deal to say and so I have remained silent. As I alluded to in my last post, it has been terribly busy this fall. I'm hoping to wrap up a consulting project and four book reviews for the HNS in the next couple of weeks, so I should have a bit more time on my hands as we cruise into the holiday season. This makes me very happy as I love Christmas. I love picking out a Christmas tree (real, of course!), getting it decorated listening to old Christmas records, hosting my annual holiday shindig (complete with a Christmas themed movie such as "Die Hard"), and general holiday related shenanigans.

Although I'm waiting for things to settle down, I thought to start posting my reviews for Historical Novel Society here on the blog.

First up is Call Me Zelda is by Erika Robuck and follows the tempestuous years of Zelda Fitzgerald's confinement for schizophrenia. Though recent research seems to think that Zelda suffered more from Bi-Polar Disease (mania with fits of depression), the psychological community was unfortunately not as advanced in the 30s. This novel is told from the perspective of Anna Howard, a lonely psych ward nurse who becomes a paid companion to Zelda and her moody husband Scott Fitzgerald.

At first Anna is in awe of her newest patient at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. Zelda is a fading flapper menaced by schizophrenia. Through the catatonia and fits of instability, Anna manages to forge a connection to her patient, not knowing that it will be Zelda who forces her to re-examine a past marred by tragedy.

Call Me Zelda is moving and brilliantly crafted. Robuck deftly captures the tempestuous and highly-strung marriage of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, interweaving their story with Anna’s own tragic past. Though set in the waning years of the Fitzgeralds’ popularity, the heady days of the 1920s still make an epic appearance through Zelda’s reminiscences. The Depression years are also rendered well, corresponding to the emotional desert that narrator Anna feels in the wake of her husband’s mysterious disappearance and the death of her much-loved daughter.

The only, barely discernible quibble is the disjointed feel of the first and second “acts” of the novel. The first part closes after Zelda sinks further into madness and is committed to a private but inhospitable mental clinic, severing all ties to her favorite nurse. The second picks up some twelve years later; Anna has had a second chance at happiness and is settled and at peace, but she never reconciled the final, traumatic parting from her beloved friend and patient. As Zelda reaches out over the space of time, Anna is forced onto a trouble-filled road trip to achieve her former patient’s last request. The conclusion is bittersweet but will not come as a surprise to those readers familiar with Zelda Fitzgerald’s sad ending.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction. The editors of the Historical Novel Review made the novel a quarterly "Editor's Choice", so it is well worth the read.

Next week, A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. Easily my favorite book of the year! Until then, happy reading (and writing)!