The Nature of Fragile Things

The Nature of Fragile Things is the third Susan Meissner novel that I've read in a little over a year. At the start of the pandemic, curious about life during the time of the Spanish flu, I read As Bright As Heaven. Then this past September, I picked up A Fall of Marigolds which dealt with the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire and September 11th. The Nature of Fragile Things is by far my favorite.

I didn't read the blurb carefully enough to know that this really wasn't about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. That was merely the backdrop. (I guess that was the case with the previous two novels that I read.) The Nature of Fragile Things is about Sophie, mail order bride to Martin Hocking. Sophie had emigrated from Ireland to New York City. She answered Martin's newspaper ad for a wife and a mother for his daughter, Kat. Sophie takes the train across the country. Martin picks her up at the train station and they quickly head off to get married. Sophie's life in San Francisco is more comfortable than she ever imagined and while she never develops a real affection for Martin - who is quite odd - her affection for silent Kat grows and grows, as does her concern over why Kat so rarely speaks.

A stranger had come knocking at the door of Sophie and Martin's house on the eve of the great earthquake which answers some of Sophie's questions but unravels a few more. It has Sophie leaving San Francisco to get some of her questions answered, especially those regarding Kat.

The Nature of Fragile Things is a novel about what it means to be a mother, a wife and a friend. It demonstrates how strong women's friendships can be.

This wasn't great literature, but it was a pleasure to read.

The Japanese Lover

I'm not sure if I really enjoyed Isabel Allende's The Japanese Lover more than I might have because it's the first audio book I've listened to in years. In my previous life, I spent lots of hours in the car alone and I always had an audio book going. Usually the audio books I listened to were lighter than the books I was reading in print. But sometimes I'd listen to a book club book or a book I needed to read for my work as a fifth grade teacher.

The Japanese Lover is a BIG book. Not in terms of length, but it terms of all the themes covered in the book. Included in this novel is a story about Poland during World War II, a refuge child sent to California. A little girl growing up with her extended family. A young woman running away from her old life. Japanese internment. Sex slaves. Child pornography. Recreating life after a life altering injury. Taking on a new identity to run from an ugly past. Falling in love. Art. Gardening. AIDS. And aging. I don't think I've forgotten anything. If I have, apologies.

Alma is a young child when she leaves her parents and Poland to go live with her mother's sister and her family in San Francisco. She is in her 70s when she moves to Lark House, a home with stepped up care from independent living to assisted living to end-of-life care. Living in a community where there are mostly older adults, that was something I could relate to. She hires Irina, a careworker in the home, to be her personal assistant. Each woman has secrets, but as they grow closer, their secrets come out. This is in part due to Alma's grandson, Seth, who is writing a family history, digging into Alma's past.

The characters are well developed and each of the subplots feels complete. I never felt as though the author was rushing through one story to get to another. I'd highly recommend this one, and will probably suggest it to my book club as a possible title for discussion.

I was reminded by how much I enjoy listening to audio books. I need to find one that my husband and I can enjoy together. Or I need to find more alone time in the car!