Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Hambly

From the Timely and Timeless book discussion group on May 27, 2014.

We had five at Brew Ha today. The book we discussed was The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Hambly. The ratings were all 5's out of 5. Though this is historical fiction, the events of Mary Todd Lincoln's life are not always held in consensus. 

What we discussed were ways this work differed from other details about her life that we have read. We discussed the differences in treating physical and emotional illnesses from the 1800's to today including issues regarding common medical care - or lack of it for the maladies she suffered. Ms. Hambly's works to date have been prolific and include primarily Science Fiction, Fantasies and Mysteries. She has created characters for this depiction that allow her fertile imagination some free rein.

Among the health issues that Mary suffered were physical pain from a carriage accident, migraine headaches, "female trouble" and the challenges of losing loved ones all through her life. She saw her mother's body removed from their home after dying from childbirth when Mary was a small girl. She lost other close family members, three of her four sons and of course, her husband, Abraham. It is known that she used over the counter medications common at the time including opiates and alcohol to manage her symptoms of pain, depression and mood disorders. There are differing versions of her life with Lincoln. But generally it is agreed that she was the driving force in his becoming President. Most of the correspondence between the two was lost or destroyed. Speculation includes depicting them as loving to having a distant relationship. Written accounts vary widely on this topic.

The book opens in 1875 as Mary is taken to court for a determination hearing on her sanity. She is deemed "insane" and moved to Bellevue Place, a private institution. Our group felt that Ms. Hambly's novel relied on some information that is heavily disputed by historians. Keeping in mind that this does not purport to be a biography, rather an imagined account, the group felt that it was an enjoyable read.

COMING UP:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - June 24, 2014 at Pizza King at Noon

This No 1 Bestseller has been making the rounds of Book Clubs since it first appeared in 2005. The following is from Amazon.com:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
--Susan

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adrianna Trigiani

For the Timely and Timeless book discussion group on April 22, 2014.

Our book for this month is The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. I have so enjoyed this book. She has given us a well orchestrated cast of characters and vivid images of their lives around the turn of the 20th century. All of the characters have been cast in my mind as if they were in a movie. I see Anne Hathaway as Enza and perhaps Ciro could be played by a younger Matt Damon. I felt as if I was living in New York at that time with high button shoes and long skirts. (But glad I'm not!)

I will not be at the meeting next week.  I will miss the discussion and seeing you all again.  I hope you have a wonderful time.

I wanted to add some observations about our book, The Shoemaker's Wife, to the meeting. Like all good books, coming to the end is like losing a good friend. Adriana Trigiani has shared some wonderful moments with us. I have to admit that there were many pages that left me tearful. But the ending was one of symmetry and couldn't have felt more right. The relationship between Ciro and Eduardo was wonderful. Enzo was such a strong and lovely character. Reading all of the descriptive prose was a great joy. I could smell he lemon and lavender, hear Caruso and Angela's voices and imagine the Alps with the green trees and the blues of the sky.

--Susan

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy


From the Timely and Timeless book discussion group on March 25, 2014.
 
Our attendance of 5 members was a bit lower than average. But we all enjoyed discussing Tara Road. We rated it at 5/5.  
 
This book had such charm and warmth. The two central characters, Ria Lynch and Marilyn Vine each faced their own emotional crisis that quite impetuously led them to swap homes for two months - one in Connecticut and the other in Dublin, Ireland. The connection was made by chance when Marilyn phoned Ria's home searching for Ria's husband, Danny, who was a realtor. This swap gave each woman an unfamiliar but none the less inviting setting that removed the comforts of their routines and allowed them to grow and experience new things and new friends.
 
Maeve Binchy was such a fine author. She died in 2012 with 22 novels to her credit, and a collection of short stories, a play, a novella and two non fiction titles. This book was published in 2000 near the middle of her writing career. It has great humanity in the two main characters and she writes about their growth and the evolution in the characters' understanding and acceptance of their worlds. There was a feeling that each brought their own personality to their new environment but both seemed to absorb parts of the other's strengths from being in the other's home. 
 
We were touched that their friends were supported in ways that showed great compassion for challenged lives while at the same time dealing with their own trials. We were repulsed by the actions of the physically and emotionally destructive characters. There were many surprises in the plot. We also appreciated that the house at 16 Tara Road was metamorphosed into a virtual character in the book. It seemed to breathe in the life of it's two different inhabitants. Every part of what went into creating a home out of this house reflected the women's passions who shared it. One created from the inside and the other from the outside. These nuances of the story kept us engaged.
 

COMING UP:

 
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani -April 22, 2014 at noon at Los Tequila
 
First published as a novelist in 2001, Ms. Trigiani grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. She has written and published 14 novels and has been featured in countless well read magazines including O, People, Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal. She graduated from St Mary's College in South Bend in 1981. She worked as a writer and producer on The Cosby Show and Different World in 1989 and the early 1990's.
 
The Shoemaker's Wife draws on Ms. Trigiani's Italian American roots with characters who immigrate from Italy to the US. From the Amazon.com web site is this description of the book:
 
Beloved New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani returns with the most epic and ambitious novel of her career—a breathtaking multigenerational love story that spans two continents, two World Wars, and the quest of two star-crossed lovers to find each other again. The Shoemaker's Wife is replete with the all the page-turning adventure, sumptuous detail, and heart-stopping romance that has made Adriana Trigiani, “one of the reigning queens of women’s fiction” (USA Today). Fans of Trigiani’s sweeping family dramas like Big Stone Gap and Lucia, Lucia will love her latest masterpiece, a book Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, calls “totally new and completely wonderful: a rich, sweeping epic which tells the story of the women and men who built America dream by dream.”

 
--Susan