The Overstory

April - The Overstory by Richard Powers

I knew I would eventually read The Overstory though it sat on my bookshelf for more than a year. Maybe its 500 pages was off-putting, such a hefty commitment.

But, I have spent a good portion of my professional life working in environmental causes, everything from a nature center to helping corporations manage their land as habitat and working with volunteers to improve an urban watershed. My husband and I met working for the environment, and his company restores ecosystems. Our household is environmentally conscious. I mention this background just so you know I was always going to like The Overstory.

Richard Powers has created an epic American story about the environment and the destruction of natural resources. But for all of its focus on saving the planet and the ways we need to learn to see nature, the book is character-driven. It's a beautiful thing.

Powers begins with multiple storylines, some intersect, and some never do. We have scientists, an artist, immigrants, activists, and a couple who never directly experience the wild but connect with nature in their backyard. The stories of these people, of Mimi, Neelay, Douglas, Olivia, Adam, Patricia, Ray and Dorothy, keep us reading, propel the story forward, and allow us to feel the loss of the natural world. We travel with them through time, and tragedy, and love. We feel the healing power of nature and the heartbreak. Lots of heartbreak.

Powers portrays the beauty of the American landscape. He gives us poetry and beauty. He takes us into the tree canopy and lets us experience the majesty, the power, and the unexpected diversity of life in that realm. He also rips us apart with the bare truth of how quickly our iconic wild places are being lost to development and commerce. Much of this land is ours - public property, federal lands owned by everyone but exploited by a few. He takes away the blinders that keep most of us blissfully unaware of the level of destruction required to feed our insatiable consumerism. And He helps us understand that these landscapes are extraordinary, are sacred, are irreplaceable.

This is a beautifully written book with a powerful message. I don't hesitate to recommend that you take the time to read it. But there is no happy ending. The Overstory leaves us wounded.

You can grab a tissue and a bottle of wine and then order a copy at your local bookstore or at mine, Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, SC.

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrel

March - Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrel

One of my friends, who is also in my book club, enthusiastically recommended Hamnet. And I am so glad she did. This historical novel set in the 1500s imagines the life of Shakespeare's family. However, O'Farrel doesn't name William Shakespeare in the book, only his play, Hamlet.

A historical note in the opening pages gives us three facts:

In the 1580s, a couple living on Henley Street, Stratford, had three children: Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins.

The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven.

Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet.

Three things about me:

I am not a devotee of William Shakespeare and have not read everything he has written.

I am not traditionally a fan of works of fiction that imagine the lives of historical figures.

Hamnet may inspire me to change the first two facts.

I have traditionally leaned toward reading literary fiction. I blame this on having an English teacher for a mother and English lit classes. Over the years, I can see that my interests have diversified. Recommendations from friends, librarians, and book store owners have broadened my selections and genres. Genre is not the primary factor in determining whether or not I will enjoy a novel. I love characters. I want to care about the people in the stories, their feelings, and their challenges. Getting pulled into the narrative is the key to creating an enjoyable read, whether literary or mystery, romance, crime, fantasy or historical. We need characters…and beautiful writing.

Hamnet gives us both.

Maggie O'Farrel took me to that house on Henley Street. We become immersed in the drama of their household, the romance between Shakespeare and his wife Agnes (a.k.a. Anne Hathaway), and the pain of losing a child.

Although there were outbreaks of the plague, or pestilence, that ravaged England during Shakespeare's lifetime, he never mentions or writes of it in his works. O'Farrel was curious, and her curiosity inspired her to imagine the pain of losing a child and how that affected his wife and his marriage. It is also true that Shakespeare was only 18 when he married and his wife was 26 years old. O'Farrel also uses the disparity in their ages to speculate about their marriage and their relationship.

William Shakespeare is not center stage in the novel. Instead, the weight of the book hinges on his wife. It is through her eyes, we see Shakespeare and experience their romance and the loss of their child. The presence of Shakespeare sets us in time and place; it gives us a knowledge base and provides a backdrop for the novel. Shakespeare and who he was or wasn't offers enough space for the imagination to fill in the blanks.

And by keeping Shakespeare in the wings, O'Farrel creates a magical story about passion, marriage, loss, and loneliness that would hold up even without him.

You can grab a copy at your local bookstore or at mine, Blue Bicycle Books in downtown Charleston, SC.

The Push by Ashley Audrain

February - The Push by Ashley Audrain

The Push was my first purchase at the new book store in my neighborhood. I was so happy to discover The Village Bookseller conveniently located across the street from the Dunkin' Donuts I go to nearly every day. And the book store sells coffee and books and it's way more cozy and inviting than the Dunkin'. They had a great selection of novels in the front window, and the owner, Karen Anne, was happy to talk books. I loved her accent. She's Scottish. After comparing notes on books that I liked and what I had been reading lately, she suggested The Push by Ashley Audrain. She did not steer me wrong.

The Push takes the typical worries of a mother and twists them into something else, something sinister. What happens when that mother/daughter bond goes awry?

The story opens with Blythe watching her ex-husband, her daughter, and her husband’s new wife and child from her car, charting their movements through their living room window. Nothing too creepy about that. I mean, that’s normal. We’ve all been there. Okay, just kidding.

Blythe doesn’t pull any punches about the possibility that she wasn’t meant to be a mother. She’s upfront about her own mother’s mistreatment and abandonment. The story of Blythe, the baby, and her husband is intertwined with flashbacks into Blythe’s childhood and into her mother’s childhood. We understand her insecurities. It makes sense that she might second guess her instincts.

And we are rooting for her. And her husband, Fox. They seem perfect for one another. And when they decide to have a baby, we are rooting for the whole family. But from the earliest moments, their daughter is difficult. The birth was difficult, the recovery painful. From the beginning, Violet prefers Fox. She smiles for him, she quiets for him, and it seems Blythe isn’t cut out for motherhood. Fox is at work all day and has no idea of his wife’s increasing desperation. He seems oblivious to the challenges faced by a new mother. When he is home, his daughter is delightful, and he is unwilling to hear or believe Blythe’s reports about the other side of Violet. The one she saves for her mother.

Blythe is operating on too little sleep, too little experience, and too much fear. Even when Violet gets older, when we can’t brush off her behavior as toddler temper tantrums, we still wonder how much of this is Blythe’s paranoia and how much of it is Violet. It feels like Blythe wants it to be Violet’s fault. She wants absolution and seems willing to put all the blame on Violet. Not a great maternal instinct.

From the opening chapter and throughout the novel, Blythe is making decisions that call her judgment into question. We wonder until the final page. Is it Blythe? Or is there really something wrong with Violet?

If you decide to read it, make sure to leave yourself time to read it straight through. You’re going to want to know how it ends.