PEARLY GATES by Owen Marshall

Quietly enjoyable, nothing flashy or alarming, a relaxing yet thoughtful novel about a man, an ordinary man with many good points, and many failings, just like all of us. Human. And that is what the appeal in this novel is. Not a lot happens during the course of the book, but a lot happens to Pearly Gates, the 64 year old second time mayor of a provincial town somewhere in the South Island, somewhere like Timaru, Cromwell or Balclutha. Pearly has lived his whole life in this town, his old school is about to turn 125 years old, a successful rugby player as a young man until injuries stopped that, he has a successful real estate business, still married to Helen, two grown children - one done ok, one not so much, and of course carries around the kudos of being mayor. Popular, affable, definitely a favourite son.  

The stars are aligning however in a way that throws Pearly slightly off his nice straight lineal track. Nothing major, just a few little spanners falling into the works that make him question his life and his purpose here on earth. The upcoming election for a third mayoral term makes him do something morally questionable that lingers at the back of his mind, his son forces him into some reanalysis of his performance as a dad, the impending school reunion takes him back to those years and his fellow students now all in their mid-60s, measuring the success of their lives. The stunning Otago landscape is beautifully evoked by Marshall, as is the small town nature of life in the provinces - Pearly is a big fish in a small pond. The other characters are equally interesting and well rounded - Helen, his old friend Gumbo, his political opponent Philip,  his relationship with the town clerk David,  his brother Richie who now runs the family farm. There are some beautiful moments in this - the disastrous trip he makes to Christchurch with his town clerk, his loyalty to his friends, his growing awareness of his own inner self. He already is a good man, but somehow he has become a bit smug, a bit full of his own self-importance. I loved how Pearly learns about his self, and manages to find a better man, leading of course to a good outcome by the time I reached the end. 

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens

 Perfection, utter perfection. Everything about this book is divine. I was a little nervous reading it as it has had so many fabulous reviews, favourite read endorsements, you must read this etc etc. So some trepidation at impending disappointment. Not at all. 

The story of a little girl, abandoned and alone, who grows up all by herself, solely reliant on her instincts, her curiosity and intelligence as she carves a place for herself in the unique ecosystem she lives in, as unique as she is. Kay faces down prejudice, unwanted attentions, betrayal and disappointment. At all times she trusts her inner voices, her own sense of self, and gives a completely new meaning into the idea of aloneness. I loved, loved, loved this. All power to this young girl - give this book to your daughters and the young women in your lives. 

LOST ROSES by Martha Hall Kelly

The author wrote a great book with Lilac Girls, and has now taken a step back a generation using much the same structure as she takes on the Russian Revolution. She uses the voices of Eliza Farriday (mother of Caroline from Lilac Girls and the only connection with the former book), and two women caught up in the horror and mayhem of the collapse of the Romanov monarchy and disintegration of Russia. Eliza is wealthy, connected and determined to help her old friend Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. Sofya and her family are the enemy in the new Russia, and face difficult and frightening times as they struggle to survive. Varinka, is the third narrator. She and her mother live an impoverished existence near where Sofya's family has its country residence. She is drawn into caring for Sofya's baby son, and is forced into making some difficult decisions to ensure her own survival as well as that of the boy. 

So that's the basic plot outline, and it is a good plot. Within this frame work and 420 pages a lot happens in New York where Eliza lives, in St Petersburg and in Paris. There is a lot of violence, horrible things happening all well documented historically if the reader wishes to know more, people struggling desperately to live, White Russians being ruthlessly hunted by the Reds, very little mercy. In New York Eliza struggles with the death of her husband, her increasingly way ward daughter, but these were pathetically trivial compared to what was going on at the same time in Russia and I found Eliza, despite her good intentions very annoying. Especially as the book went on.

And this is just a part of what reduced my initial 'great story' feeling to one of 'not so great'. The first half is pretty good - good story set up, interesting characters, great historical backdrop well described, quite high level of tension as to what is going to happen. The second half felt like a completely different person was writing the book, as if the care had gone, or the author had only a few days to complete the story. A certain amount of disbelief started to occur, things happened too quickly, the writing got shabby and lazy, the flow and connection stopped, there were too many easy and unlikely coincidences, it rambled. By the time I reached the end I no longer liked any of the characters, and of course it is not the characters' fault - it seemed the writer no longer cared about them. There have been terrific novels written of this appalling time in Russian history, but this is not one of them. 

LOST CONNECTIONS by Johann Hard

I know little about depression, anxiety and how they can devastate people's lives. I have also done little to further my knowledge of it over the years.  However having a close relative living with depression for many years now, and having been to three funerals of suicides in a 10 month time span, one of which I had a close involvement with, this has defiantly moved to the front of my brain as something I should really read more about. This particular book seems to be Top of the Pops at the moment, so worth a go.  I really should give it to my relative to read to see what they think of it, as reading the reviews on-line it seems to have very mixed reactions. More 5 stars than 1 star though, so must be making sense to many. 

The focus in this book is about how depression has been treated in our recent history, both medicinally and within the society structure we live in. The author has suffered from depression for many years, realised he wasn't getting better with the drugs being peddled to him, so takes himself down the path of trying to learn more about why we get depression, how it could be treated, why Big Pharma has come to dominate, and where our futures may lie with what he considers are modern day Western lifestyle illnesses. He is a very worthy convert, producing much research, speaking to experts, going into communities doing things differently with amazing results. And it is so great to read how lives have been changed through these different approaches. He writes so well, so engagingly, this book is a real joy to read. He manages to make all the sciency stuff easy to understand, does not get bogged down in too much theory or jargon. The chapters are short, the stories of people's lives fascinating. I learnt a lot about the nature of depression, what he sees are the nine causes of depression, and the seven reconnection strategies pivotal to producing the type of society where depression is significantly less than it is now. i won't go into all that here as there are plenty of reviews detailing his approach, the key being connectedness to other people, joint goals, having purpose and a feeling of self worth. Amongst other things. 

However, I don't really believe despite his zeal for curing the world at large, that this will happen in a hurry.   Drugs will still be the main form of management, and we have a long, long way to go to create the perfect world where everyone feels their lives are worthwhile. There is no mention in the book of those with severe mental illness  - schizophrenia, psychosis, post natal psychosis. Are these really lifestyle illnesses as he seems to imply? I kept waiting for these subjects to crop up and even went to the index where they aren't mentioned. So some disquiet surrounding this book as being the cure-all manual to the awfulness of depression and anxiety.

Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed reading it very much, I learnt a lot, it opened my eyes wide to the possibilities of improving the lives of those around us, and how to give our own lives more insight. Worth a read. 

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins

Lydia and her 8 year old son are on the run. Their entire family has been massacred at her niece's 15th birthday party. Lydia's journalist husband has pushed the buttons of the local drug cartel head just a little too hard, and the retribution is horrifying. Lydia and her son Luca are the only survivors and are now running from Acapulco to as far north as possible - to America. What a journey - terrifying, dangerous, exhausting, traumatic. Awful things happen, small acts of kindness, everybody is a baddie,  hopes are dashed. Murder, rape, theft, humiliation, hunger - can all happen in one day.

There is almost as much written about the writing and publication of this novel as there is about the novel itself. Almost all the criticism revolves around the American author being half-white (the other half is Puerto Rican, but definitely not Mexican), so how on earth can she be qualified to write about the Mexican migrant experience, or even about being Mexican. Her characters, their behaviours, plot backgrounds are very stereotyped portraying Mexicans and Mexico as border line 3rd world, entirely violent, rife with poverty and many other portrayals that us in the West, especially those outside the US, have of Mexico and its people. And that a non-Latino woman can get a book about a Latino issue published and promoted ahead of Mexican and other Latino writers, especially female writers. These would be the main criticisms, and you can go onto Good Reads and read the passion, anger, and vitriol that the publication of this book has produced. Over 10,000 people have made reviews of this.

I have no idea what is true and what isn't, how much of the actual migrant experience has been embellished or ignored or is accurately portrayed in this novel. Despite all that, and in the words of one GoodReads reviewer, this is a great piece of fiction writing - don't forget that word fiction -  and whether the author is sufficiently qualified to write such a story does not detract from this being compelling, horrifying, tragic, joyous, and a complete page turner. I certainly could not put it down, had strange and weird dreams, I bet my blood pressure was elevated while reading this. Is a book that makes you react in such a way, that keeps you thinking long after it is finished, that makes you want to read more about the subject matter a bad book? I don't think so - anything that increases awareness of those whose lives are different from ours has to be a good thing. Very worth while reading. Read all the other reviews after finishing the book.

THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish

The Girl on the Train set on a Thames Riverboat with a male protagonist so equally appealing to all readers.  And just as good. The slightly brain numbing routine of going to work every day on public transport, through the changes of the seasons, the calendar, the job of driving taken care by others, thus releasing the brain to do any infinite number of things - day dream, spy on fellow travellers, have a beverage of some sort, get to know fellow travellers, build relationships and friendships with them until the vessel stops, disgorges everyone, breaking up the surreal world all have been travelling in. So it is for Jamie when he starts getting the river boat with Kit, the partner of Jamie's wife's work colleague Melia.

The story is narrated by Jamie beginning 2 days after Christmas, as he makes his way into London City to his cafe job, expecting  Kit to also be there, but isn't. The police meet Jamie when he disembarks, to be told that Kit has disappeared some 3 or 4 nights previously on the ferry ride home, and it appears Jamie is the last to see him alive. Over the next few days, Jamie's concern increases, as does the concern of Melia and Clare, with no trace of Kit anywhere. The present day is cleverly mixed up with the events of the previous 12 months when Kit and Melia first entered Jamie and Clare's lives.

Kit and Melia are an enchanting and captivating couple, late 20s, no money, living well beyond their means. Both Jamie and Clare, a couple well into their 40s, are drawn to Kit and Melia, an intense friendship developing between all four of them, Jamie and Clare finding themselves drawn into the web of the younger couple. Increasingly as the months pass till Kit's disappearance at Christmas, the lives of the four become more mixed up, more entwined, to the extent that memory and truth also become increasingly mixed up. It is very good, deftly handled, the question always being is what we see really what we are seeing. There are many surprises and twists, and it was only when I read just one word in a sentence that how I thought this was unfolding was not in actual fact how it did unfold. 

THOSE FARADAY GIRLS by Monica McInerney

You will know the saying 'blood is thicker than water' - well, for the Faraday sisters it is more like the thickest glue you could imagine. Such family bonds would, for many people be excruciating, but somehow, you never really can get away from your family.   In 1980s Tasmania, the five Faraday girls, ranging in age from 25 to 17, live with their father in Hobart. Their mother died some years previously, the youngest Clementine not really having much memory of her. She did leave some diaries, however, there is some confusion around  where they may be, or if they are even still in existence.

Julia, the oldest at 25, has taken over the 'mother' role - cooking, cleaning, organising etc; Miranda at 23 is totally self absorbed, and with a tongue on her that makes lemons look sweet; Eliza and Sadie are in their late teens,  both at university, and Clementine is at school. Dad Leo is an inventor of sorts, desperately mourning his wife, shutting himself away in his shed 'inventing'. Things change dramatically when Clementine announces she is pregnant. The sisters all pledge for the next five years to put their lives on hold to raise this child,  ensuring Clementine finishes school and goes to university. And so it happens. 

But not without resentments, secrets, inner turmoils and lots of emotion! The child, Maggie, is a darling and slowly it is Sadie who takes on the 'mother' role so Clementine can pursue her studies. This all comes to a head when Maggie is six, and the family is torn apart by one totally unexpected action. We then jump ahead twenty years. The sisters are scattered all over the place, Maggie has fled London for New York, and the annual Christmas gathering in Ireland is fast approaching. The family has never recovered from the event that took place 20 years ago, leaving a gaping fracture. Leo, now an old man, is determined to gather all his girls in one place for the first time in all those years, and he needs Maggie to help him achieve it. 

Perhaps a trifle long, but I really did enjoy this family saga. Like all good families, all the members are flawed, troubled, moving and merging alliances, unable to communicate effectively with each other. There are secrets which continue to control and haunt the sisters and their father. Maggie is the one who has been sheltered from much of this, so naturally becomes the agent to bring them all together. I liked and disliked all the girls, and their father which is what happens in your own family anyway. Full of intense emotion and a reasonably satisfying ending.