Amelia Earhart said that courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. We are living in trying times for women in America and beyond our shores. As these novels written by and largely about the inner lives of women attest, that has pretty much always been the case.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson - Someone breaks into Marie Mitchell’s home to kill her. She thwarts the attack and goes on the run. The rest of the story details what led to this situation. Most of the text is what Marie writes to her twin sons while absent because she has one more dangerous mission to complete. In case she doesn't survive, she wants to explain her actions and choices.
Although a work of fiction, there are characters from real life featured. Most notably, Thomas Sankara who is known as "Africa's Che Guevara”. He is the father of Marie's sons, and she is tasked with setting him up on behalf of the US government. Nearly everyone in this book is practicing the art of deceit. Marie is constantly being manipulated while directed to manipulate others. It's what she signed up for, although prior to receiving this assignment she was underutilized and underappreciated by the FBI. But she is the right race and gender and level of attractiveness to be put on the case of bringing Sankara down. He is one of the few people in this story who isn't lying with every other word he says. His intentions in many respects are noble, so readers along with Marie wonder if her allegiance is to the right side.
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher - Historical fiction centered on the life of Sylvia Beach who in
1919 founded Shakespeare and Company bookstore. She is surrounded by creatives
who felt stifled by the conservative attitudes of America and so came to Paris to
live their best lives and produce their best art. While Prohibition was taking
place in America, artists freely expressed themselves in France. Sylvia is also
free to love the woman she loves.
Her decision to publish James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922 drives the story. Considered obscene by those who couldn't look past the strong language to appreciate the novelty and beauty of its prose, Ulysses needed someone brave and resourceful enough to bring it to the light of day. By publishing the only title under the bookstore's imprint, the course of literary history was altered. Readers have a window seat view of this artistically influential period.
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone – Herbie and Noon’s marriage is not consummated due to a dark
secret, a brutal attack in Noon's past. She escapes her demons through church. Herbie
does likewise in nightclubs and in the arms of another woman, when she's around
and will have him. Ethel fulfills
Herbie’s physical needs if not necessarily his emotional ones.
The couple comes to raise two daughters just months apart in age who are left on their doorstep - Fannie as an infant and Liz later at the age of 5. Mysteries are unraveled throughout the narrative taking place in Philadelphia during the 1940's and 50's. Struggles are endured, mostly because of secrets and lies and maintained silences. Readers pull for them to remain together when fate seems determined to tear their world apart.
Salvage the Bones by
Jesmyn Ward - A motherless girl in
Louisiana with a mostly absent father lets the local boys take what they please
from her until she meets one that she wants something back from. Esch is a lone
young woman in a world of males, and it is through her eyes that we pass idle
time waiting, watching, remembering, wishing for what is plain will not be,
settling for whatever she is able to grab hold of. Pregnant at the age of
fourteen, she does not get placed on a pedestal like her brother's prized dog.
But like China she can nurture when called upon, is ready to fight tooth and
nail for survival when necessary.
Esch aches with desire, is burdened by a stifling sense of loss, yearns to be loved. Prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, the book’s pace covering twelve days is slow and steady. We wait with her for the inevitable devastation.
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The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey – Trinidadians’ struggle for independence from the authority of Europeans is backdrop to the story of a rocky marriage. In this book’s first section, the title character incessantly complains about her situation. Even though her husband is no saint, initially he is the more tolerable of the two. He's an alcoholic and a serial adulterer, one who in his older years does not bother to have mistresses but settles for prostitutes. But we also see decency in his dealings with people and root for his efforts to atone and win back his wife's affections.
We are brought back in time for the second section to when they first arrive in Trinidad. They are more vibrant, seem to be deep in love with each other, open to giving things a chance. But while the husband is happy to be where he knows he can enjoy a successful career, his wife sees island life as a temporary necessity to experience, and then to endure until their return to England. She is led to believe that there is an exit strategy. He is hoping that she will come around in time, until he ceases to care. Rum and women and professional achievement and growing wealth help him to deal with a wife who hates where she is yet will not or cannot leave. Time passes and revolution is in the air. If the Trinidadians achieve the freedom they long for, perhaps she will get what she passively desires. The book draws to a close as the day of her personal emancipation seemingly draws near. We know it is a mirage because we have already learned that Trinidad will not loosen its grip on them.
New World Monkeys by
Nancy Mauro –A married
Manhattanite couple has reached a rocky patch, but they’re not saying much about
it. When Lily inherits a house in upstate New York, it’s as an excuse to move
there for the summer while working on her obscure dissertation, never mind that
the small town's library is insufficient. Duncan balances his stressful
advertising job with trips upstate to spend weekends Lily. They're separated,
but not officially; married but no longer truly intimate; perhaps still in love
but neither one certain of how to express it.
The change of scenery brings various quirky characters into their unsettled lives and immediately puts blood on their hands, that of a not so wild boar which turns out to be the town mascot. Duncan has a jeans campaign that he's in charge of as distraction. The local Peeping Tom shows Lily the ropes as diversion. Together the couple finds a mystery to literally unearth in the form of a scattered skeleton buried in their garden while figuring out if they've reached the end of their road, or merely a slippery turning point.
Blonde by Joyce Carol
Oates – A thoroughly researched work of
fiction about things that really happened (mixed with conjecture) in the life
of a very well-known person. Her meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom as well as
her tragic early death makes for irresistible subject matter. Her romantic life
includes high profile marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller plus a
dalliance towards the end of her days with President Kennedy.
The book begins when Norma Jean is a baby and closes with dramatization of her final breaths. Mostly written from first person point of view, Marilyn's thoughts, hopes, and dreams are revealed. What we see is a woman who led a glamorous existence, had many lovers but not nearly enough love, was on a lifelong search for the father she never knew, and on a quest to earn her mother's love. While the world viewed her as a blonde bombshell to adore, she saw herself as an artist trying to master her craft while exploited by Hollywood power brokers. Her unfulfilled desire to have and raise children meant that a fairy tale ending kept eluding her. Being the most desired woman in the world would be consolation prize. She had it all, including an abundance of insecurity and loneliness. When the spotlight was on, she dazzled. When it was off, the character of Marilyn Monroe was put away and the reality of being Norman Jean was her burden to bear.
Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticat – A tale about
mothers and daughters and the pain they bring one another. The setting is
divided between Haiti and America as well as between childhood and adulthood
for the main character - Sophie. It starts off in Haiti where she is being
raised by her aunt, left behind while her mother establishes a new life in New
York. In her teen years the time arrives for Sophie to be reunited with her
mother.
It isn't until she gets to New York that significant male characters are introduced. One is her mother's boyfriend. The other is a musician who lives next door when he isn't on the road. Joseph is closer in age to Sophie's mother. Staunch refusal to allow any man to ruin her daughter's purity drives a wedge between them. Sophie and her mother are no longer far apart physically, but distant emotionally. Patriarchy extending beyond Haiti results in cruelty imposed by women upon girls in their care to keep them worthy for male suitors. Sophie chooses to marry someone who seems to be a good man, breaking a family pattern. She is willing to attend therapy sessions in the hope that her husband's wait for physical intimacy need not be indefinite.
The Lowland by Jhumpa
Lahiri – A story of family, a construct supposedly
bonded by blood, but more so by love and willingly made sacrifice. Gauri
marries the love of her life, loses the charismatic and impulsive Udayan to
political violence, and then marries his younger brother while carrying the
child of the man she lost. Even though she is willing to make a new life with
Subhash, he remains to her the lesser of the two brothers. Since the daughter
they raise without revealing true paternal roots is a potent reminder of Udayan,
Gauri never comes to love her daughter as you would expect a mother to do.
Leaving a country behind does little to erase memories and allow a new chance for happiness. Whether it's in the lowland of Calcutta or a college town in Rhode Island, when a ghost is more real to you than the people in your home, the only possible existence is a haunted one.
The Magician’s
Assistant by Ann Patchett –A woman
struggles to learn who she truly is, which starts out by embarking on a journey
to discover who her deceased husband was. Sabine's husband has just died. His
lover Phan died of AIDS not long before, which informs us that Sabine was
married to a gay man - the magician whom she assisted. She then learns that her
husband was not an orphan bereft of any family other than her and Phan as she
had thought. His mother and two sisters plus a couple nephews are alive and
well. To them his name was Guy. Parsifal's greatest magic trick was reinvention
of himself.
The first version is a boy growing up in Nebraska, dreaming of being anyplace else. The second version is a man (with a wife as well as a male partner) who has found that place in Los Angeles, performing magic shows for the joy of it and selling antique rugs as his main source of income. The only answer we receive regarding why Sabine was willing to marry him is that she loved him and failed to find anyone else who made her feel the same way. When she learns that Parsifal had been lying to her, she throws herself into solving the mystery of his life. By getting to know the people who share his blood, Sabine hopes to move on from torturous mourning towards a potential new form of happiness.
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Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there!
