Book Review: The Heights-Peter Hedges

The setting for "The Heights" is the everyday life of a young couple with two small children, who live in  the trendy Brooklyn Heights neighberhood. Unlike their well heeled neighbours though, Kate and Tim struggle with money and live in a tiny apartment  Tim is a history teacher who is working on his long over due dissertation and Kate is a stay at home mom. However when Kate is offered a lucrative job helping charitable organizations, things start to change. Tim's decision to stay home has him filling Kate's shoes with the local moms, complete with pet names. Things change further when they meet the charming, beautiful and extremely wealthy Anna. Both partners are instantly drawn to her, but a mutual attraction develops between Tim and Anna. Meanwhile, an ex-boyfriend of Kate's re-enters the picture, declaring that he never stopped loving her.  There's nothing particularly new or thrilling about a tale of marital discord in the suburbs, but perhaps that is where "The Heights" is different--there is no marital discord, Kate and Tim seem to genuinely love each other and are both incredibly likable characters. Whether that's a strength of the book or not, I am not sure. Hedges alternates between telling the story from Kate's perspective and telling it from Tim's perspective, with minor characters checking in once in a while. It's an interesting technique but at times it is difficult to differentiate between the two voices and some character development is lacking. By the same token, there is little threat to the couples marriage. Although both are tempted by others,  and it's not hard to imagine them going astray, there is also little doubt about the ending. The characters are well crafted though and it's easy to get drawn into their world and to consider the complexity of their situation.

Hedges is indeed a master at creating magic out of day to day affairs and this is the strongest point of "The Heights", whether they are getting coffee or at dramatic crossroads in their lives the characters' lives are genuinely interesting and a reader is easily drawn in. The downside, though, is that the occasional plot point is brought up and then completely abandoned with no hint to it's significance. You could argue that that is how real life is, and you would be right, but whether or not it works within the context of the novel (and this novel in particular) I am not sure.

At the end of the day this is an enjoyable novel with likable characters and an involving story but it is not life changing nor groundbreaking.  Infidelity is an interesting topic but there is nothing new said about it in this novel.

Book Review: "The Taker" and "The Reckoning"

The Taker and The Reckoning are the first two books in yet another "paranormal romance" trilogy with the third book  The Descent being released this spring. However, unlike Twilight  and the many, many juvenile romances it's inspired The Taker Trilogy is a decidedly adult book which asks, or at least attempts to ask hard questions about love, truth and redemption.  Born in the early 19th century in rural Maine, Lanore is in love with Jonathan the most handsome man in town. Her feelings aren't returned though as Jonathan proceeds to bed every available woman in town. When he and Lanore finally sleep together she gets pregnant. Her devout parents send her away to Boston to have the baby in a convent. However, she is instead picked up by a group of immortal hedonists who rape and otherwise abuse her before their leader, an enigmatic, violent and undoubtedly evil man, Adair, has her join their clan. Among the others are a Spaniard, Alejandro, who turned his sister over to the Spanish Inquisition, and Uzra a beautiful and mysterious woman who has spent centuries as Adair's slave. The uniting factor of the people in Adair's troupe are the violent crimes they committed and their unbridled self loathing. Adair reveals to Lanore how he became immortal, saying that once he was just a Romanian boy living in the 14th century who was sold to an Adept who, continuing the main theme of these books, abused him for years before he finally managed to dispose of the evil physic. Adair then has Lanore return to her hometown to recruit Jonathan for their little group. Jonathan nearly dies after he is caught with another man's wife, and Lanore makes him immortal, tying him to herself forever. Upon returning to Boston, Lanore realises that Adair is not the poor boy he says he was but actually the psychic and is planning to take over Jonathan's body. Lanore devises a plan and traps Adair, alive, in a wall for two centuries which brings us to modern day where she is rehashing this story to a small town doctor. She has been arrested for the murder of Jonathan, who after a decades of living immorally has decided to become a doctor and help the poorest, most destitute people in the world. He has also fallen in love with a woman who has recently died and thus has Lanore kill him so they can be together. Lanore is heartbroken that after centuries of devotion to Jonathan he has decided to fall in love with another woman. "The Reckoning"  continues in modern day with Lanore, inspired by Jonathan's decision to seek redemption for his actions, attempting to find her own forgiveness. However she soon finds out that Adair has been released and is sure that he is bent on getting revenge on her. She travels far and wide trying to escape him, while also coming to the realisation that there is something that attracted her to  Adair in the first place and that perhaps she will not be able to become the person she wants if she has the capacity to love such darkness inside herself. For his part, Adair is set on revenge and continues his violent and cruel existence only to come to the realisation that he loves Lanore and begins to 'rethink his past' as it were.

It's hard to praise a book that is so filled with excessive (although, not descriptive) violence and such despicible characters. It truly is hard to like or root for any of these characters, all truly naive, each in their own way. By the same token, they are selfish and cruel, each living for themselves above all else. However, Alma Katsu's writing is good and the questions she asks are good. Can someone like Adair, with millions of crimes to his name change? Could God forgive such a man? Not only that, but unlike Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, the bad characters are actually bad. For that matter, Lanore is, while not as bad as Adair, still not a good, innocent character who someone manages to change the bad man in her life. No, she is self-serving and has hurt her share of people. Both Lanore and Adair struggle against their violent nature while other characters fail completely. The question is though, even if someone like Adair seeks redemption, should he get it? The book doesn't offer any answers and whether those answers will come in The Descent remains to be seen. However, I hope that the asnwers she gives won't be that neat and tidy. Again, it's hard to justify the violence in the book and thus to recommend it. Lanore's affection for a man that raped her nearly to the point of death is ethically quesetionable. Furthermore, Lanore is painted as being 'unable'  to make Jonathan love her, as defective in some way, which seems like another message that pop culture shouldn't be sending out to women. At the end of the day, did we really need anymore of this, excuse my language, paranormal bullshit? Not really, but at least Katsu has written a fairly compelling series with a female protagonist who is strong willed and capable and a cast of morally compromised characters who are intriguing and thought provoking if not likable.

both images from almakatsu.com

Songs of the Humpback Whale-Part Four

picture credit

Chapters 55-72
Yaaay, we have finally reached the last section of this tripe. Joley continues his barrage of creepy incestuousness love for his sister, whining "I have believed in Jane for so long, and I have loved her so. I could never find anyone that measured up to her, which is why I've kept from marrying. What is the point of love unless I can have the ideal? " Sam and Jane fall more in love, Jane is totally useless at everything and Sam is a huge douche so I guess these two belong together. According to this book most people don't find their soul mate, jeez, patronizing much?  When they kiss Jane tastes of sassafras and cinnamon because, you know, of course she does. Oliver saves the whale and Jane and Sam have sex. Snore. It is the best sex ever, they didn't know it could be like this, blah blah blah, cliché, cliché, cliché. Let us reiterate that Jane is very sad and pathetic and has had a horrible life and that's why she needs a man to save her. That man is supposedly Sam but she can't have him because she is married to Oliver, but luckily she has a consolation prize in the form of her daughter. How do I put this delicately-what the fuck? Who are these people? Hadley and Rebecca fall in love, Rebecca catches her mom cheating on her dad and gets angry. Derr. Since Jane is as two faced and hypocritical as ever she makes Sam send Hadley away so that he won't sex up her daughter. Sam agrees for some inexplicable reason, okay, not that inexplicable since he wants to keep boinking Jane. He suggests they run away together and have loads of babies but at that inconvenient moment Oliver comes on the news declaring his love for whales Jane. Oh no, what will she decide? Just kidding, we all know she is going to completely choose the most insufferable and self righteous choice because that is what this book is about! Joley confronts Jane but for some reason wants her to go back to Oliver because...I don't know. He is in love with his sister and wants her for himself but wants her to make the right choice? Or something? I don't know. Oliver uses some hotline to find Jane and Rebecca but when he arrives he finds Jane and Sam sleeping together. He is, understandably, mad and he and Sam get into fisticuffs but they are interrupted by the realization that Rebecca is missing. They know where she is gone though, but for plot points it has to be Oliver and Sam who go and find her. After some shenanigans they find her and Hadley, having had the sex, on top of some cliff thing. After some argument Hadley tells Rebecca she has to go with her real dad and her new dad (just kidding) but they fight a bit and he  (Hadley) falls to his death from a cliff. Rebecca lets out an animal-like howl and starts trying to rip her heart out by clawing at her chest.She is taken to the hospital where everyone gathers around and nurses her back to health. After she is better, the happy family that is Oliver, Rebecca and Jane head home. At this point, since the end is nearing, everyone has their epiphanies. Joley tells Jane she is his and everyone else's anchor. Jane goes back to Oliver and decides to give it a go, she won't be able to forget Sam but then apparently she never forgot Oliver either, although it really seemed like she did. Oliver wants to make things right although it doesn't really seem like he does either. In short, they all don't really live happily ever after. Basically, I normally like unhappy endings but this just seemed so contrived to me. They are all unhappy because of their own poor choices, although, aren't we all really?

Fin
Next Fromage: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Fromage-Songs of the Humpback Whale-Part 3

Chapters 36-54
Can I start this recap by saying that it is not necessary for any book of this ilk to have this many chapters?? Anyway, I digress. Jane and Rebecca see a demolition, that's a whole chapter. I can't even explain the point of this...is it a metaphor? A whacky road trip adventure? Why is this here? Joley, creeper brother supreme and he of the very poorly thought out logic, writes Jane and Rebecca to tell them that they have to go back to the spot where the plan crashed when Rebecca was three. Furthermore, he claims that she survived the plane crash because at that time Jane and Joley (brrr) had been arguing about her on the phone and only souls that are at peace can go to heaven. Riiiiight. Then Jane recounts how she was sexually abused as a child. Of course she was, sexual abuse is the only way to give a character depth, right? Jane and Rebecca do go to the sight of the plane crash and they have many emotions. Yay for emotions! Meanwhile, Oliver, creeper dad supreme watches from his lawn chair. You see he caught up with them but can't bring himself to talk to them. Basically, as I said last time each section is pretty much the same. Joley writes creepy letters, Oliver tries to be nice but just ends up seeming deluded-I love my wife and all but WHALES ARE BETTER! Jane and Rebecca have fun road trip adventures. This time Jane also writes a letter to Joley saying that she was sexually abused but due to her chronic inability to do anything useful, she rips it up. Argh, They go to an aquarium. Oliver reminisces to a waitress about how sad his life is and how he fucked everything up and instead of telling him "damn right you did" she takes him to his house, where he has suddenly fallen ill and nurtures him back to heath. Yay for clichés!
Once again we cover the meeting of Sam and Jane. In case we didn't get this point already, they didn't like each other, Jane is a city girl with an expensive education and Sam is an agile simpleton farmer. (Note: I grew up on a farm,  I do not think farmers are simpletons, but this book clearly does!) The end (I wish.) Joley really loves working on the orchard. Here is a quote from him: "Look at the place, Jane! It's like God just dropped down this gorgeous hill and lake, and I have the good fortune to work here. If you can call this work. I fix the unfixable. I bring trees back from the dead." He looks into my eyes. "I've become mythic. The god of second chances." What kind of pompous arse refers to himself as a god?! Anyway, the point is Joley's purpose in life is to give Jane a second chance because, that's what brothers are for...? I also think this book needs to rethink it's definition of abuse. Not that I don't take abuse seriously but I think one slap in 25 years of marriage, while bad, doesn't necessarily get to be called abuse. Or do you disagree readers? Anyway,  Jane and Sam have an unfortunate run-in in the bathroom. Have you ever watched a sitcom? Then you  get the gist. Meanwhile Joley confronts Jane with the facts about her situation. Basically she has to make a decision and he knows what it should be. Of course he does. Hadley seduces Rebecca with his impressive knowledge of cow digestion. Sam prefers another technique...once he finally realises that he's in love with Jane (or whatever) they go fishing. Oliver recovers from his mini coma and is about to go get Jane when suddenly he sees, on the news, that a whale is trapped and decides he must go save it. I won't lie, this was absolutely my favourite part of the book. This guy is such an idiot that he thinks that going to save a whale will help him woo back his wife, even when, his whale oriented career is what got him into this mess in the first place, not to mention the fact that we've already hear about how Jane doesn't give two craps about whales. Solid plan, Oliver, solid plan. Not to mention that  at this point the writing feels so manipulative. I mean, we are supposed to believe that Oliver and Jane were once in love, but Picoult just makes Oliver seem like a tool. The problem is that, there should be something at stake for Jane, she should have a hard time choosing between the two men if there's going to be drama in the book but the book just makes it so obvious whose side Picoult is on. Anyway, that is where this section leaves off. Considering this is Jodi Picoult's first novel maybe I shouldn't be so hard on it?