The Dutch House

Ann Patchett's The Dutch House had been on my "to be read" list for I don't know how long. Then a woman from my community book club suggested it. And a few weeks later, one of my college roommates recommended the audio book narrated by Tom Hanks. I was in need of an audio book, it was available, and that was that!

Tom Hanks is a wonderful narrator. The story of the Dutch House, an estate in a suburb of Philadelphia, is told by Danny. We follow Danny after his mother leaves home for India - because she hates the Dutch House. We go along with Danny and his father as they make their Saturday rounds to collect rent and make routine repairs in buildings that Danny's father owns. We're appalled but not surprised when Danny and his sister, Maeve, are exiled from the house. Dealing with the life choices that result from this banishment and the bitter feelings that ensue is the biggest part of what this story is about.

The novel is called The Dutch House and while the estate is highly important in the development of the story, I didn't feel as though it was a character in the book. But it was really important.

The book was engaging from start to finish, and I give Tom Hanks some of the credit for that. Now I need to find something else where he's the reader!
 

Well Behaved Wives

We'll Behaved Wives by Amy Sue Nathan is one of my Amazon Prime First Reads. As usual, I read my free books while waiting for a library book to come in. This one was a lot meatier than I expected.

Here's the blurb from goodreads.com:

Perfect wives, imperfect lives, and upending the rules of behavior in 1960s America.

Law school graduate and newlywed Ruth Applebaum is acclimating to life and marriage in a posh Philadelphia neighborhood. She’ll do almost anything to endear herself to her mother-in-law, who’s already signed up Ruth for etiquette lessons conducted by the impeccably accessorized tutor Lillian Diamond. But Ruth brings something fresh to the small circle of housewives—sharp wit, honesty, and an independent streak that won’t be compromised.

Right away Ruth develops a friendship with the shy Carrie Blum. When Carrie divulges a dark and disturbing secret lurking beneath her seemingly perfect life, Ruth invites Lillian and the Diamond Girls of the etiquette school to finally question the status quo.

Together they form an unbreakable bond and stretch well beyond their comfort zones. For once, they’ll challenge what others expect from them, discover what they expect from themselves, and do whatever it takes to protect one of their own—fine manners be damned.

The secrets shared were not secrets that I was expecting to read about. The friendships amongst the women evolved into something deeper than I expected as well. While we've made a lot of progress since the early 1960s, we still have a really long way to go. This is historical fiction that takes place in an affluent Jewish community to Jewish women, but this was not at all Jewish fiction. The story could have taken place in any affluent community of the time.

That Summer

Another book where I hadn't really paid close attention to the blurb before reading the book! While I normally try hard to not include any sort of spoilers, I'm not sure if I can do that in the case of Jennifer Weiner's latest, That Summer. 

Just two or three books ago, I read Know My Name, memoir of Chanel Miller, the victim in the Brock Turner sexual assault. I wouldn't say that That Summer is the fictionalized version of Know My Name, but it also deals with a sexual assault and the ramifications for the victim and the guilty and the loved ones of the victim. I think having read Know My Name first, I had a different appreciation for That Summer than I might have otherwise. Both references directly deal with the #metoo movement which brings up certain memories of my own.

Because timing is everything, it made me absorb the news that Bill Cosby, found guilty of sexual assault, had his sentence vacated on the day I finished reading That Summer. My first thought was to wonder what horrible impact this must be having on the victims. They must all be wondering why they bothered coming forward. Once again, for  whatever the reasons, justice was not served.

In this novel, one of the main characters, Daisy, lost her best friend to cancer and feels the hole in her life left behind. Each time she missed Hannah, I found myself missing my cousin, my best friend, who passed away 5 years ago. The heartache is still there.

That Summer is about friendships, secrets, surviving our pasts, and forging our futures.
 

The Orphan Collector

In my current obsession with pandemic books, I chose to read Ellen Marie Wiseman's new historical fiction, The Orphan Collector. It was highly recommended in Renee's Reading Club on Facebook and it had great reviews on goodreads.com. I had high hopes. They were somewhat dashed.

The Orphan Collector takes place in Philadelphia in 1918 during the flu pandemic. German-born 13-year old Pia lives in the Fifth Ward with her mother and infant twin brothers. Her father, in a desire to show that he stands with his adopted country, is in France fighting in World War I for the United States. After Pia's mother is struck down by the flu, she is determined to care for her brothers until her father comes home. She leaves to get food for her brothers, leaving them at home. When she eventually returns, her brothers are missing. The novel is about Pia's guilt over her brothers' disappearance and her search for answers.

I'm not sure what it was about this book that I didn't like all that much. It was a page turner. I read it quickly and I did feel somewhat invested in Pia. Finn was definitely my favorite character in the book. I picked up one little Philadelphia geographical "error." When Pia was being taken to the orphanage, I could have sworn they were heading west. Yet she was able to see the Delaware River from the play yard at the orphanage. Small thing, and maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. That's not a reason for me to not like a novel, though. Maybe it's because there was no context given to the "orphan trains." Or because of the way the author handled Pia's "special gift." I wish I could pinpoint what the issue was.

Even with that, I would recommend you read this is if you want pandemic fiction.

As Bright as Heaven

I wanted to learn a little bit more about life during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and this book was recommended to me. Susan Meissner's historical fiction novel, As Bright as Heaven, was one that was recommended to me.

Other than it being set in Philadelphia, an epicenter of that pandemic, I didn't learn much more than things were more of less like here now. Except that there was a war going on in England. And when people were stuck in their homes, they were stuck in their homes totally isolated. No internet. No TV. Now that I think of it, they never did mention listening to the radio or reading newspapers.

The Bright family of Quakertown, PA is invited to move to Philadelphia so the father, Thomas, can take over his uncle's funeral home. They'd just lost an infant son so the chance to start over somewhere else was appealing. Thomas Bright, his wife and 3 daughters head off to live with Uncle Fred.

The story follows the adaptation to life in the city and then the impact of the flu on the Bright family. Some survive, some don't. But those that are left behind have to live with the lingering effects of their life experiences. The girls deal with career choices and romance choices all influenced by what they experienced during the pandemic and the waning days of World War I.

This is much more a family drama about recovery after loss than it is specifically about a flu pandemic. It was easy to read and a change of pace from what I'd been reading.

I'm a sucker for an Adriana Trigiani book

Kiss Carlo, Adriana Trigiani's latest novel, is not my favorite Trigiani novel. But I knew it would be a sweet, quick read. Perfect for me on vacation.

The novel is set in post-WWII South Philadelphia. It's a story about family feuds, about Italian connections, about theater, about passions, about forgivess, about finding one's self. It's about race, it's about friendship, it's about controlling your own destiny. In retrospect, it was probably about too much. She could have easily written a series involving the characters in this book with each aspect of the plot given more prominence.

Even though I didn't love this book, I think what made me enjoy it is as much as I did is because the main character, surprisingly not named Carlo but rather Nicky, grows up in South Philadelphia where my daughter lives. And he finds himself at a local theater. My daughter works at a local theater. It doesn't hurt that my husband is Italian and Italian families and their stories hold a special place in my heart.

There was also a Holocaust/Jewish connection in the book. One of the cousins married a war bride from Poland. She was so integrated into the Italian family, but Nicky realized that there was something from her past that she missed. She missed being Jewish.

Much of the book was predictable but that didn't make it any less enjoyable to me.

I wonder if these characters will be back in another novel.

Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd's latest, is a historical fiction novel that is right up my alley. Kidd tells the story of the real-life famous Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angela by creating a fictionalized account of their early lives and the major contributions both of them towards abolition of slaves and the major stride forward they took in showing that women are just as capable, if not more, than men who are attempting to get a message about abolition across. They are now considered two of the earliest women advocating equal rights for men and women.

Sarah Grimke, disappointed, perhaps even devastated when her father tells her she cannot become an attorney like her brother eventually, through the many terrible things she experiences in pre-Civil War Charleston, finds her place and purpose in life.

As a fifth grade teacher, we had an entire unit on Social Justice, trying to put a more positive spin on all the injustices that occurred in our country from its inception until the present. The Grimke sisters were included to attest to the fact that "one person can make a difference." As such, it was really exciting to me to learn more about the Grimke sisters.

Kidd alternated the telling of the story using both Sarah and Hetty (or Handful), the slave that was given to Sarah for a birthday gift when Sarah turned eleven as narrators. Sue Monk Kidd heard Hetty's voice even louder than Sarah's as she transferred the story from her brain to paper.

Even as a girl, Sarah knew that it wasn't right to own another person. While Sarah and Angelina really existed, and while Sarah did actually receive a slave as a gift when she was a girl, the character of Hetty is fictionalized. Her story is a compilation of slave stories and not just one slave's story.

The story evolves, following Sarah through her teen years and into adulthood. It is based on truth but much of it was fictionalized. As soon as I finished reading the book, I was determined to learn what was fact and what was fiction. Here's a little bit of what I found.

Fact

• Sarah really did want to be an attorney but that just wasn't possible for females at that time.
• Activist Lucretia Mott was a real activist.
• Sarah got Angelina to join her on her pursuit to try to convince the public of how horrible slavery was.
• Denmark Vesesy was a free African-American that was most probably involved in the 1822 slave rebellion in Charleston. 

Fiction

• Hetty and the rest of the Grimke slaves were based on many slave stories and were not actual people.
• Charlotte,  the Grimke mother, was a real person who tried to confirm to the norms of the time, but most of her character was fictional.

I love historical fiction. I love most historical fiction having to do with the years leading up to and including the Civil War. I love when a personality that I taught in fifth grade becomes the character in an adult novel. I love learning more.