Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Fly

Flynn, G. (2012).  Gone Girl.  London:  Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Gone Girl may be one of the only books that you encounter in your life in which the thoughtless, forgetful, cheating husband becomes the victim and the person that you root for in the end.  I can't give away too much in this review because of a mind-blowing twist in the middle of the novel. This is truly one book that you simply must read for yourself.

Nick and Amy Dunne are a mid-thirties couple living in Nick's small Missouri hometown.  Both writers who met when living in New York City, they became victims of the economy and the digital wave that wiped out many print journalists.  When they find themselves both unemployed and Nick gets a call from his twin sister Margo to tell him that their mother is dying from cancer, the decision to move back to Nick's home is an easy one-at least for him.  Amy leaves behind everything she has ever known, including her parents, in order to follow Nick halfway across the country, where he and his twin, who he affectionately calls Go, borrow money from Amy's trust fund to start a small bar.  Meanwhile, Amy tries to settle into her new surroundings and wanders aimlessly through her days as a forced housewife.  Her side of the story is told through her diary entries, which paints a picture of an isolated, unhappy woman who maintains a facade of cheerfulness as her marriage slowly unravels.  Then one day, Nick comes home and finds the front door wide open, their cat outside, signs of a struggle in the living room, and most shockingly-blood in the kitchen.  Amy is gone, and his world goes into a tailspin overnight.

Gillian Flynn earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from the University of Kansas and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University. A former critic for Entertainment Weekly, she is the author of two other novels.  Gone Girl is a New York Times Bestseller and has been nominated for several awards, including an Edgar Award.

Gillian Flynn creates a stunning masterpiece with an engrossing, startlingly real character study of Nick and Amy at the center.  Their opposing narratives show how the same actions and events can be viewed in completely different ways by the people involved, a phenomenon that is anything but fictional and leads to the disintegration of real-life marriages too.  Colorful characters such as Tanner Bolt, the obscenely expensive lawyer that Nick hires when it becomes apparent that he is suspect number one in Amy's disappearance, and Ellen Abbott-the prosecutor turned true crime television analyst (shades of Nancy Grace) who vilifies Nick nightly in her self-righteous rants, add humor and irony as well as telling commentary on a society that tries criminal cases in the media and in which spouses of missing or murdered persons are judged innocent or guilty based on the amount of emotion they display.  Gone Girl is a can't-put-down must read with a thriller of a twist and a perverse ending that will leave readers begging for a sequel.

Review of Vuto by A.J. Walkley

Walkley, A.J. (2013).  Vuto. Rocket Science Productions.

Author A.J. Walkley spent time in the Peace Corps after graduating from college, working as a health volunteer in the country of Malawi in Africa.  Her experiences during this time inspired the novel Vuto, a moving narrative that describes what happens when two cultures collide and how help from a well-intentioned outsider can be viewed as interfering and have far-reaching consequences.

Vuto is a 17 year old who is giving birth to her third child when the novel opens.  Samantha, a white Peace Corps volunteer, watches and wonders why she is alone, no family or friends present to provide comfort and support. The nurse explains that Malawian tradition dictates that the woman gives birth alone, as a sign of strength.  As the narrative switches back to Vuto's perspective, readers soon learn that her birth name is not Vuto, but she is called Vuto, meaning "problem" because she is deemed a troublemaker.  Her two previous children, both boys, died soon after birth.  Her third child, a girl, whose birth Samantha witnessed, dies on her 13th day.  Tradition dictates that the woman and the child stay isolated for two weeks after birth.  If the child lives past this time, then and only then, does the mother introduce the child to the father. Because all of her children have died before this time period, Vuto has never been able to show her husband their children.  She has carried the burden of her grief alone.  After the death of her daughter, whom she had named Mwala, meaning "Rock", Vuto summons her courage and confronts her husband in front of a tribal meeting of elders, in order to force him to see his dead daughter.  She is immediately ordered to be banished from the village with only the clothes on her back for her disobedience and violation of cultural traditions.  As she leaves, desperate, heartbroken, and unsure of what she will do next, she encounters Samantha, who remembers her from the clinic.  Upon hearing her story, Samantha offers her a place to stay in the small hut that she is provided as a volunteer.  Because Samantha's home is not outside of the village borders, Vuto is violating her order of banishment by staying there.  Leona, the nurse, sees Vuto enter and secretly goes back and tells that she is there.  Enraged, Vuto's husband shows up at the house and attempts to attack her.  Samantha defends her new friend by stabbing Vuto's husband with her Swiss Army knife, killing him.  Panic-stricken and faced with the realization that Samantha may face murder charges, the two women flee, but only after Vuto reasons through Samantha's naive beliefs that the authorities will understand that the murder was self-defense and that the Peace Corps will come to her aid.  Vuto narrates, "she didn't see it from my point of view, only hers, and her point of view was American, not Malawian. Not African at all." After Vuto tells the story of how a former Peace Corps volunteer was raped by a village elder and the organization swept the incident under the rug to avoid bad publicity, Samantha realizes that she is on her own.  Along the way, they receive help from Samantha's boyfriend Hunter, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, and when they reach the Peace Corps headquarters in the capital, things come to a sad, troubling end.

A.J. Walkley majored in English Literature and spent a year in the Peace Corps in Malawi after graduating from college.  In addition to Vuto, she has written two other books.  She currently works as a writer and blogger for The Huffington Post.  To learn more about her, check out the Q &A on the Author Interviews page of this blog.

Vuto tackles tough issues in a thoughtful, realistic manner.  The Malawian characters, including Vuto, are torn in their feelings towards the Peace Corps volunteers.  On the one hand, they welcome the help that is so desperately needed.  On the other hand, they resent and distrust them, viewing them as yet more white outsiders who have come in to change and destroy their way of life.  Vuto herself questions and disobeys some of her culture's traditions, but it is even worse when a white outsider such as Samantha does the same.  Samantha sorts through her own internal conflicts.   Many of the things that she sees, especially the treatment of women and children, goes against her own belief system.  However, she wonders who she thinks she is to come in and criticize or try to change a culture simply because its traditions don't align with her sense of right and wrong.  The Peace Corps forbids volunteers from interfering in cultural traditions, which is one reason why Samantha cannot expect them to defend her.  However, Samantha's-and the reader's view of the Peace Corps as a benevolent humanitarian organization is tarnished as she learns just how far it will go to maintain good public relations.  Perhaps what makes this story so real and compelling, is that all of the answers are not presented neatly tied up in a nice ending.  Samantha's efforts to help Vuto-although well-intentioned, lead to tragedy.  In the end, although she saves Vuto's life, she cannot save her from her overwhelming grief, nor rebuild her broken spirit that has been crushed by years of cruel disregard and even abuse in the name of tradition.  The reader, like Samantha, is left to wonder what-if anything can be done to bridge the gap between Western culture and the rest of the world, after so many years of oppressive brutality and colonialism on one hand, and misunderstood and sometimes abusive traditions on the other.

Review of Sister Souljah's A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story

Sister Souljah.  (2013). A Deeper Love Inside:  The Porsche Santiaga Story. New York:  Emily Bestler Books.

A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story is the long-awaited sequel to Sister Souljah's bestseller, The Coldest Winter Ever. The author's first novel chronicled the fast-paced, danger-filled rise of the Santiaga family as the head of the house, Ricky, became a legendary drug kingpin in the projects of Brooklyn, New York.  The Santiaga's eldest daughter, Winter, was the apple of her father's eye and determined to follow in his footsteps, even when the family was broken and disgraced after Ricky's arrest.  A Deeper Love Inside tells the second part of the Santiaga tale through the eyes of Porsche, the middle sister, who at the young age of 10 finds herself navigating the harrowing world of a state juvenile detention center where she is serving a sentence for assaulting the caseworker who removed her and her younger sisters from their home.

After an unbelievably daring (and stomach-turning) break-out from the detention center, Porsche finds herself on the run with her older mentor and friend from inside, a mysterious white girl named Riot who took her under her wing.  They end up on a Native American reservation, where Porsche is healed of the eating disorder that she developed on lockdown and learns about natural healing through the use of organic foods and herbs. Embraced by the Native American community and at peace with their beautiful surroundings, the girls could safely stay there forever without fear of being caught by the authorities, since American law enforcement does not have jurisdiction on the reservation.  However, each girl has unfinished business from the past to face, and so they make a pact to split up and then meet back up in New York City several months later.  Porsche hits the streets of New York in a determined quest to put her family back together and reclaim the money, property, and Long Island mansion that was taken when the police arrested her father.  She finds her mother, the once beautiful diva who was the envy of all of the other women in Bed-Stuy, but who is now a broken-down crack addict.  The two of them live underground-literally, and Porsche uses her street smarts and hustling ability to scrape up several under-the-table jobs to care for the both of them, since she isn't legally old enough to work and has to dodge the authorities who would want her in school, locked back up, or both.  Using the healing talents that she developed on the reservation, she takes her mother through a homemade detox program in an attempt to cure her drug addiction. She also meets and falls in love with Elisha, a prep-school teen with aspirations of being a filmmaker.  However, their budding romance is threatened by Porsche's secrets.  Afraid to reveal her real identity, Porsche tells him that her name is Ivory.  She is too afraid for him to find out who she really is, and to see the poor conditions that she lives in with her drug-addicted mother.  She must also continue to deal with the issues that haunt her.  She wants to find her family and must come to grips with the realization that both her mother and Winter knew where she was when she was locked up but only made one visit to see her and never sent any money to her. While in lockdown, she developed a split personality, a girl named Siri, and as her world becomes more confusing and challenging, the line between where Porsche begins and Siri ends becomes ever more blurred.

Sister Souljah is a community activist, intellectual, and sought after speaker.  A graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in both American History and African Studies, she is the author of four bestselling books-three novels and one autobiography.

Just as with The Coldest Winter Ever, I found myself unable to put this novel down.  Porsche's story was just as compelling as her older sister Winter's, and even more profound and touching.  Whereas Winter was very selfish and thought only of self-preservation, the lengths to which Porsche went to save her mother and find their young twin sisters, Lexus and Mercedes, was poignant and heartbreaking.  Sister Souljah does a great job comparing the outcomes of the two sisters and showing how being greedy and self-centered and focusing on making fast, illegal money, leads to a sure downfall in the case of Winter, in contrast to Porsche, who does her best to help her family and friends and makes her money through legitimate, though under-the table hustles, resulting in lasting wealth for her-both materially and emotionally.  Fans of Midnight, the mysterious, enigmatic character who was introduced in The Coldest Winter Ever and went on to be the subject of the author's next two novels, will be excited to see his return in this novel and the part that he plays in helping Porsche and her family.  Once again, Sister Souljah has done a notable job creating real characters that are very identifiable with the young urban readers who make up the majority of her fan base.  She also presents valuable life lessons about navigating the tough choices presented by the streets without being preachy.  A Deeper Love Inside challenges readers to follow Porsche's example and find love for themselves and then to magnify that into love for their family, friends, and neighbors.

Review of Deadly Eyes by Michael Meyer

Meyer, M. (2012).  Deadly Eyes.

The Caribbean is a popular setting for many fiction writers.  The beautiful weather and scenery, and colorful language and culture provide an exotic backdrop for many fictional plots.  Only some authors, however, go  beyond scratching the surface to delve deeper into the Caribbean that visitors sometimes do not see-the islands scarred by poverty and economic despair, and the skepticism and sometimes even resentment that is often harbored by local people towards tourists but that is carefully masked because of reliance on the money and jobs generated by those same tourists. Independent writer Michael Meyer is one of those authors.  His story of James Cuffy, known as Cuff, and his indomitable girlfriend Rosie, is set against the backdrop of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Cuff is an American but he is not a tourist.  He has come to St. Croix to start life over after false accusations from a student ends his idyllic career as a university professor.  As a permanent resident and not merely a tourist, Cuff experiences St. Croix in ways in which the vacationing tourist cannot.  He becomes accustomed to the natural beauty and the slow pace of the island, and learns to appreciate the local foods, customs,and ways of speaking.  Through the struggles of his girlfriend Rosie, a bartender/server at a popular bar, readers understand the poverty that many islanders live with as they rely on low-paying jobs in the service and tourism industries to make a living.  As Cuff tries to build a new life for himself, he is unwittingly falling prey to an unknown stalker whose all-seeing eyes mark his every move.  As the mysterious assailant closes in on Cuff and Rosie, everyone that they come into contact with becomes susceptible to danger and they must race to find out the identity and motive of the killer before they become the final and ultimate targets.  In addition to the careful detail and attention that the author uses when painting the background story for readers, an additional characteristic that I haven't seen in a book since my junior high days reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series makes this novel unique-Meyer includes an alternate ending.  Meyer gives readers fair warning before choosing to read one or both of the endings.  Ending A is the 'happy ending' while Ending B is the more sinister one.  Ending B actually wrapped up details and loose ends more than Ending A however, answering several questions that would no doubt be in the back of readers minds as the plot unfolded.

Michael Meyer is a retired university professor and the author of another suspense thriller in addition to Deadly Eyes.  He enjoys traveling and uses the locations that he has traveled to and worked in as the settings for his novels.  For more information about him, check out the Author Interviews page on this blog.

Deadly Eyes combines two of my favorite things in a novel-a mystery and a Caribbean setting.  The mystery at the center of the story is fast-paced and believable, although as previously stated, the second ending provides more answers to some plot details than the first one does.  The author presents a realistic, unvarnished view of the Caribbean through the eyes of Cuff in a way which is neither idealistic nor patronizing.  Cuff does not carry himself like a stereotypical obnoxious tourist, but has truly made the island his home, accepting the good and the bad that go along with it.  He and Rosie are fully-fleshed, believable characters with flaws but who are overall good people, and their complex relationship is put to the test but ultimately stands strong as they fight for survival.  The plot is unique and truly keeps the reader guessing until well towards the end as they try to piece together how the varied and colorful characters that Cuff interacts with are all related to the mysterious threat that he faces.  The addition of an alternate ending, something done with modern movies on a regular basis, adds a nice twist to the novel as well.  Michael Meyer establishes himself as a credible independent author with well-written prose, fully developed narratives and characters, and an engaging story line that pulls readers in from start to finish.

Review of Wisdom by Heather Neff

Neff, H. (2002). Wisdom. New York, NY: Ballantine Books

In Heather Neff's novel, Wisdom is not just a character trait, it is a location that holds the key to a woman's legacy, identity, and future. Maia Ransom is a nurse from Michigan who goes to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in search of the land that her grandfather always told her about.  Wisdom is the name of the estate that her ancestors lived and worked on as enslaved African people.

Despite the laid-back temperament of the island, Maia is driven by a very personal sense of urgency.  She is dying from the same ovarian cancer that claimed her mother, but has kept her illness a secret from most of the people in her life.  She has given herself three weeks to come to St. Croix and find her family history.  However, she finds her precious time slipping away from her as she runs into one roadblock after another.  Modern maps of the island seem to have literally wiped Wisdom 'off the map' and the islanders are strangely unhelpful when she seeks their assistance in locating the land.  Her only real friend is Damian, the manager of Chez Alexander, one of the finest restaurants on the island.  He too is shunned by most of the Crucians, in his case because he is gay.  They form a close bond in their shared isolation as Damian shields her from the unwanted advances of some of the Crucian men, and Maia provides acceptance and a listening ear.  The brick wall that Maia has run into on her quest to find Wisdom begins to crumble when she meets Noah Langston, a distinguished attorney and one of the few black men on the island who has made it into the upper class. Despite his upper-class education and money however, he is treated with disdain with the white monied Crucians, including the family that owns Wisdom, because he has been successful in several legal challenges that have restored land taken by slave owners to the native islanders.  He wants to do the same for Maia and as they work together, they develop a romance that Maia is reluctant to pursue, given her medical prognosis.  As Maia and Noah get closer and closer to the truth, she becomes more endangered as Severin Johanssen, the only remaining son of Wisdom's owner, and other islanders conspire to keep Maia from her inheritance.

Heather Neff is an English professor and has also worked as a translator and a language coach for film productions.  She studied French at the Sorbonne and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and is the author of four other books.

In the spirit of Octavia Butler, author of the acclaimed classic The Kindred, Heather Neff beautifully weaves elements of the supernatural into her storyline as Maia channels the spirit of one of her ancestors in the search for her people's stolen land.  The external obstacles that she faces in her quest are paralleled by the internal obstacles that she must overcome, namely, finding the will to live and trusting herself to open her heart to love.  Neff presents a cast of colorful, fully developed characters that pull readers into the story and her research and time spent living on St. Croix are evident in her painstaking attention to detail and accuracy in describing the island's history, people, language, and culture.  Maia's journey in St. Croix ultimately saves her life and serves as a metaphor for the search for history and roots that is often an all too difficult one for the descendants of enslaved humans.  As they reclaim their history and heritage, the lives of their culture and future generations are redeemed.

Review of Escaping Barcelona by Henry Martin

Martin, H. (2012).  Mad Days of Me:  Escaping Barcelona.

Alone in a foreign country.  Unable to speak the language but enjoying solitary freedom and adventure nonetheless.  Then, brutally attacked and assaulted, robbed of most of your belongings, including your money and your passport.  This is the scenario that faces Rudy in Escaping Barcelona, the first volume in the Mad Days of Me trilogy by independent author Henry Martin.  What begins as an adventurous trip and a path to a fresh start, quickly descends into a nightmare spiraling out of control that Rudy is unable to escape.

Rudy is a young European man frustrated with the dead-end that he has reached in life.  Due to the economy, he is underemployed and forced to move back home with his family.  He feels like he will never measure up to his police officer brother and yearns for a fresh start.  On an impulse, he buys a train ticket to Vienna where a friend named Michael lives.  After unsuccessfully attempting to convince his girlfriend to join him, he travels alone to Vienna, where he discovers that Michael is away.  Undeterred, he begins his adventure across the continent, stopping in various cities.  Another impulse leads him to stop in Barcelona.  Things start out well at first. He finds cheap, clean lodging at a youth hostel and goes out to a cafe to sit and enjoy the evening and take in his surroundings.  Suddenly, he hears two men speaking Arabic come up behind him and feels a knife at his throat.  They drag him away to some bushes, where he is sexually assaulted and robbed.  When he wakes up, his passport, his money, and most of his belongings are gone.  In physical as well as emotional pain, he makes his way to a police station where he files an assault complaint.  He is too ashamed to tell the officers that he was raped.  He is given temporary papers that will last for thirty days.  He then goes to the consulate where he learns that they can't do anything for him because he doesn't have the money to purchase a replacement passport and he is too ashamed to contact his family to have them send the money.  Thus begins his journey into homelessness.  As Rudy struggles desperately to find a way out of the situation, he reaches the depths of despair and misery, facing hunger, hopelessness, and repeated brushes with violence.  Along the way he meets several colorful individuals and he learns a lot about himself.

Henry Martin is a novelist and poet who lives with his family in the Northeast United States.  In addition to the Mad Days of Me trilogy (Finding Evissa and Eluding Reality are the other books in the series), he has also written a short story anthology and a collection of poems.  Learn more about him by checking out the Author Interview page on this blog.

While independent and self-publishing is becoming increasingly popular, in some circles, there is still a certain stigma that insinuates that authors self-publish because their work isn't good enough to find a traditional publisher.  Escaping Barcelona proves that a lack of a traditional publisher does not automatically mean a lack of talent.  This novel was professionally edited and full of great writing.  I found myself reading late into the night, being pulled into Rudy's world and rooting for him as he tried to find a way out of his miserable situation.  I would definitely recommend this book for very mature audiences due to the themes of sexual assault, drug abuse, and the violence that Rudy encounters as he navigates living on the streets.  However, while some novels are over the top with the use of graphic details, Martin uses these themes quite succinctly to paint a gritty but very realistic portrait of both the traps that can befall unsuspecting tourists in foreign countries, as well as the day-to-day life of the homeless.

As Rudy finds himself trapped into life on the streets, he hits rock bottom.  Along the way, he comes to many poignant realizations about life.  He begins to appreciate the simple things that he once took for granted-a shower, clean clothes, a hot meal, a bed to sleep in.  He meditates on how we as humans look down on the less fortunate among us and now that he finds himself in those ranks, he understands how much the blank stares, the careless ignorance, and rude dismissal directed towards the homeless can hurt.  However, Escaping Barcelona  not only paints a vivid picture of the worst of the human experience, but it also shows the best of the human spirit.  Every time Rudy is about to give up, he finds the strength and inner resolve to keep pushing.  No matter how many times he is knocked back down, he gets back up.  He is also helped by friends, many of whom are in just as bad a situation as he, but together they share what little they have and snatch small bits of light out of the darkness.  Escaping Barcelona is not just about escaping a city, it is about escaping despair and hopelessness and finding the strength to survive and even thrive no matter what life throws at you.

Review of All the Light There Was by Nancy Kricorian

Kricorian, N. (2013). All the Light There Was.  New York, NY:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

When the Nazis marched on Paris on June 14, 1940, a four-year occupation of the city began, leaving a mark of hunger, despair, and brutality on its citizens.  In the midst of it all is the Pegorian family, Armenian refugees who are at the center of All the Light There Was. Maral Pegorian is 14 when the occupation begins and her brother Missak is 16.  For them, the real sign that the occupation has begun is not the sound of German boots marching through the streets, or the ominous sight of tanks, but their mother and Aunt Shakeh, who lives with them, rushing to the stores and frantically stocking up on as much food as they can find in preparation of the lean times that they know are to come.  Maral's mother even spends the money that she was saving to buy a new sewing machine, a signal to her and Missak as to just how serious things are about to become.

Eventually even this stockpile runs low and they, like many other Parisians, find themselves surviving on meager rations of rutabagas and other root vegetables, supplemented by occasional eggs and chicken from their cousins who have farmland outside of the city.  Maral tries to continue a normal life as possible-studying hard to keep her status as a top student at her academic high school, knitting with her aunt, and spending time with her friends.  However, her family's world changes in dramatic ways.  Friends and neighbors disappear, rounded up and arrested for political speech, being part of the Resistance, or for being Jewish.  Maral has a crush on one of her brother's best friends, Zaven, but just as their relationship begins to blossom, he and his brother Barkev, who along with Missak are part of the Resistance movement, disappear in order to avoid forced military service.  Zaven and Barkev are eventually caught and imprisoned, and after D-Day and the liberation of Paris, only one of them returns, causing a major shift in Maral's life course.

The culture of the characters in the novel is close to the author's heart, as Kricorian herself grew up in the Armenian community of Watertown, Massachusetts. She studied at Dartmouth and the University of Paris, and completed an MFA at Columbia University.  In addition to her essays and activism, she has also written two other novels.

Many novels have been written about life during World War II in Occupied Europe.  All the Light There Was takes a well-worn plot line and tells it from a unique perspective.  The Pegorian family are not native Parisians, horrified at what their homeland is turned into by Hitler's army, nor are they Jews, increasingly persecuted and ostracized until they are finally rounded up and marked for extermination.  Maral's family came to France to flee their own holocaust, the genocide that left Maral's parents orphans.  The lyrical prose told in the first person by Maral captures the unique position of her family-they maintain their language, culture, foods, and other practices while at the same time identifying strongly with their new country even though they are not citizens.  Maral's father literally fumes with anger each night as he reads the news reports of Hitler and the puppet French government.  Missak, Zaveg, Barkev and many other Armenians participate in resistance efforts.  However, to the Nazis, they are looked down upon as refugee immigrants, people without a land, only slightly better than the despised Jews.

Kricorian captures an important period in world history and infuses it with haunting beauty, sadness, and even romance. One of the most beautiful lines in the book is when a friend tells Maral "you are so beautiful that you shed light on dark walls".  Maral, her family, and her community find both small and large ways to find beauty and light in the darkness of Hitler's reign of terror. Her characters epitomize the struggle of those caught in the grip of Nazi Europe to maintain their dignity and their way of life despite ever-increasing difficulties and horrors around them.