Books I have recently read

I realize that I have been neglectful of my blogging of late.  Since I started blogging in order to keep track of the books I was reading (code for having a reference for refreshing my memory when I know I have read a book but cannot remember the characters or the plot or the themes), I am going to provide a brief synopsis of several of the books I have read over the past couple of months.  These are books that, while they may have been enjoyable, did not warrant a more in-depth review.

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black.  An Irish pathologist, Quirke, is a heavy drinker coping with his bachelorhood since his wife died and since his true love is married to his pseudo best friend.  There is a whole plot about kidnapping unwanted babies and transporting them to an American orphanage where they are raised by barren and weak-minded couples.  Quirke unravels the case when he is drawn to the dead body of a young girl and his best friend’s involvement in covering up her death.  I did not think the mystery-driven plot was particularly interesting, but the characters, setting, and writing were excellent.

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Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.  What seem like unrelated stories involving tragedies (a missing toddler, the inexplicable murder of an eighteen year old girl, and a teenage mother’s decision to kill her young husband) become related as Jackson, a private investigator, is asked to solve them many years after they have occurred.  The main characters in each situation are older and their memories of events are less clear although their understanding of the familial relationships surrounding these tragedies is much more focused.  Jackson is able to take these seemingly unsolvable and unrelated cases, parse their histories, and find answers (as well as healing for some of the main players involved in each).  Atkinson’s style is light with a touch of humor, but the reader feels the bathos of each tragedy and how the repercussions shockwaved throughout each person’s life.

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Poison by Kathryn Harrison.  This novel takes place during the 1600s and tells the story of Francisca de Luarca, a poor Spanish woman living during the heyday of the Inquisition.  As a parallel to Francisca’s story, we also read about Marie Louise, niece of King Louis XIV of France, who is unfortunately married to King Carlos of Spain.  Francisca dreams of a bigger, grander life and eventually begins an illicit affair with knowledge and the priest who is her tutor.  Their liaison produces a child, the excommunication of the priest, and the imprisonment of Francisca.  Meanwhile, Marie Louise is in her own prison, hated by the queen of Spain for her wealthy and silly past life in France and for her inability to produce an heir.  Her husband is a strange product of inbreeding and superstition who provides no support for Marie Louise.  Both Francisca and Marie Louise are doomed to lives of tragedy, unable to control their destinies against the insurmountable powers of the Church and the traditions of royalty.  The novel was well-written although in a very abstract way.  The reader is only given vivid and detailed descriptions of certain events in each character’s life while the remainder of the writing and plot seem surreal and intangible.

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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  Estha and Rahel are young twins living in India with their mother Ammu, their grandmother, their Uncle Chacko, and their great aunt.  Ammu is at her ancestral home in disgrace, having abandoned her husband and their unhappy marriage.  Estha and Rahel do not realize all of the unhappiness around them: their mother’s wish to be free of her old home, to feel, to have excitement in her life, something to look forward to; their English-educated uncle who pines for his British ex-wife and his daughter; and their friend and neighbor Velutha, an untouchable who is pining for justice and equality for himself.  This setting is primed for tragedy which occurs when Uncle Chacko’s ex-wife and daughter come to visit.  On a fateful night, his daughter drowns and an affair between Ammu and Velutha is exposed, with Velutha being castigated for crossing social boundaries.  This is a very beautifully written book – Roy’s use of language is masterful and imaginative (it reminds me of Rushdie – perhaps products of Indian culture).  The novel is sad, successfully showing how people are trapped by societal forces outside of their control.

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