After Her by Joyce Maynard

 

After Her by Joyce Maynard 

Publisher:  William Morris

Published:  August 20, 2013

ISBN:  978-0062257390

Pages:  320

Rating:  5 out of 5

 

Book Summary:  It's the summer of 1979, and a dry, hot, northern California school vacation stretches ahead for Rachel and her younger sister Patty-the daughters a larger-than-life, irresistibly handsome and chronically unfaithful detective father who loves to make women happy, and the mother whose heart he broke.

Left to their own devices, the inseparable sisters spend their days studying record jackets, concocting elaborate fantasies about the life of the mysterious neighbor who moves in down the street, and playing dangerous games on the mountain that rises up behind their house.

When young women start showing up dead on the mountain, the girls' father is charged with finding the man responsible, known as The Sunset Strangler. Seeing her father's life slowly unravel when he fails to stop the murders, Rachel embarks on her most dangerous game yet: setting herself up as bait to catch the killer, with consequences that will destroy her father's career and alter the lives of everyone she loves.

It is not until thirty years later that Rachel, who has never given up hope of vindicating her father, finally smokes out the killer, bringing her back to the territory of her childhood, and uncovering a long-buried family secret.

As with her novel, Labor Day, Maynard's newest work is part thriller, part love story, Loosely inspired by the Trailside Killer case that terrorized Marin County in the late seventies, her tale delves deep into the alternately thrilling and terrifying landscape of a young girl's first explorations of adult sexuality and the loss of innocence, the bond between sisters-and into a daughter's tender but damaged relationship with her father, and what it is to finally trust a man.

 

My Thoughts:  I just loved this book.  It’s heart-warming and heart-breaking.  It’s humorous and suspenseful as themes of youth and innocence, love, loss and family relationships course through the pages of this part coming-of-age, part mystery story.  

Told in the voice of 13-year old Rachel, After Her is set in Northern California, Marin County just outside San Francisco. Rachel lives with her younger sister, Patty and their mother.  Rachel and Patty are on their own most of the time since their mother suffers from depression and spends most days in her bedroom reading library books.  Their father no longer lives with them, a fact that saddens both girls.  They love and adore their father, Anthony Torricelli, a detective with Marin Homicide Division, and are immensely proud of him. Joyce Maynard does an amazing job of bringing these three very different characters to life.  It was easy to imagine Office Torricelli as a beat cop, then later as a revered homicide detective, especially through the stories Rachel proudly relays.  My favorite scenes are the times he spends with Rachel and Patty and Rachel talking about being with him.  He may love his job and spend a lot of time away from his girls, but there is no doubt he loves them.

Rachel is like many 13-year old girls:  anxious to be an adult, excited about the changes her body will go through and impatient for it to happen. She wants to be one of the popular kids at school yet she loves spending her free time with Patty.  She and Patty, left to amuse themselves, use their imaginations and creative abilities to concoct games and adventures.  Early in the novel they are inseparable. Their love and dependence on each other is the ideal of sisterhood.  Rachel and Patty's relationship is one all sisters hope to have.

Into this quiet idyll comes the Sunset Strangler who is killing young women on Mountain Tamalpais, the mountain behind Rachel’s home.  She and Patty spend a lot of time there and know many of its secrets.  Maynard describes the mountain in such detail we can see it there in the distance and easily imagine Rachel and Patty hiding in trees or walking its trails. Their dad forbids them to play on the mountain anymore but the lure of the forbidden is too great and the mountain is such an indelible part of their lives, Rachel and Patty cannot stay away.   I think it’s interesting to note the author’s ability to mix reality and fiction.  For example, not only is Mt. Tamalpais real, but the Sunset Strangler in the book is loosely based on the real life Trailside Killer case in Marin County.

Rachel devises a plan whereby she and Patty can discover and find the killer.  Then they’ll give the solved case to their dad making him proud and showing him how much they love him.   At the same time Rachel discovers that information about the specific, individual killings gives her an “in” with the popular crowd.  She’s soon spending afternoons at the home of the most popular girl, discussing the murders, boys and makeup.  Rachel is also set up with a popular boy and experiences her first kiss and more.  She’s confused and torn between being popular but disliking the way the popular kids spend their time and being home with Patty having fun.  But for a while the lure of popularity is too strong.  Although Patty doesn’t understand why Rachel wants to spend time with these kids, she knows it’s something Rachel has to do.  Patty never gets angry at Rachel but gives her the space she needs to discover whatever it is she’s searching for because that’s the kind of bond they have.  It’s so sweet.

Maynard’s writing is the perfect style for the story.  In Rachel she’s created a wonderfully balanced character.   She’s the model of girlhood innocence on the cusp of adulthood, both excited for and fearful of growing up.  Rachel has a deep awareness of how harsh the world can be because of her father, a good but flawed man, his work and the ubiquitous media stories about death.   I also found the ending very satisfactory. Not open ended, it goes beyond just the “end of the case”.  Maynard avoids sappiness or morbidity, finding a balance that leaves the reader not feeling short changed but with the feeling of having had a full experience.  What I seem to have difficulty understanding are the activities of the kids at such young ages.  That kind of sexual experimentation didn’t happen with me and my peers at such a young age.  If this is what Maynard turned up in her research, then I worry for this and future generations.

This was my first experience reading a book by Joyce Maynard.  I am already looking forward to the next book of hers I read.  Hopefully Labor Day!

Review: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Publisher:  Penguin Books
Date: May 25, 2004 (Reprint)
ISBN: 978-0142004333
Pages: 294
rating: 4.5 out of 5

Book Summary:  Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator, began her working life at the age of thirteen as a servant in a Belgravia mansion, only to be discovered reading in the library by her employer, Lady Rowan Compton. Fearing dismissal, Maisie is shocked when she discovers that her thirst for education is to be supported by Lady Rowan and a family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche. But The Great War intervenes in Maisie’s plans, and soon after commencement of her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service overseas. Years later, in 1929, having apprenticed to the renowned Maurice Blanche, a man revered for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie sets up her own business. Her first assignment, a seemingly tedious inquiry involving a case of suspected infidelity, takes her not only on the trail of a killer, but back to the war she had tried so hard to forget.

My Thoughts:  The Maisie Dobbs series caught my eye when the books first began appearing on reader's blogs sometime last year.  I guess I'm an Anglophile since I'm a big fan of most British culture and literature and also enjoy some of the British TV series. I also like the literary mystery genre, as well as thrillers, books about criminal investigations and detective fiction.  (That said, there's quite a bit I don't like in those same genres but that's for another day!).  So, when Trish, from my favorite book site, TLC Book Tours, emailed me about an upcoming tour highlighting Jacqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobb's book, Leaving Everything Most Loved, as well as a month-long celebration of the rest of the Maisie Dobbs series, I was ecstatic. Choosing which books I wanted to read, (all of them! But I knew I couldn't read all of them in one month and actually enjoy them). took me some time.  I chose the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, to learn who Maisie is and what the series is about, and a more recent book, A Lesson in Secrets, because I  liked the plot and I loved the cover (not the best reason for choosing a book but I've done it before and it's worked for me!) .

When I began reading Maisie Dobbs, I honestly, didn't like it. This book was very different from what I expected.  It was intense, dense and laden with descriptions of everything from people's behavior to decor, both rooms and people, to the view out a window. But now that I've finished it, I feel foolish for having put any expectations on the story when I began reading it.  I really enjoyed this book.   Maisie Dobbs was very different from any other mysteries or criminal investigation stories I've read.  The more I read, the more I enjoyed Maisie's story particularly the character of Maisie.  JacquelingeWinspear creates terrific characters reminiscent of real human beings.  Maisie's father, Frankie, for instance, is a dear older man and a father any woman would love to have.  He adores his daughter and would do anything for her.  I sympathized with him completely and cannot imagine any parent not empathizing with Frankie over the decisions he has to make.  It's obvious Winspear understands people and the behavior of human beings.  She shows an awareness for how complex humans are and makes it clear that what you first see and experience of a person isn't all of which they are composed.  Humans have many underlying layers of personality with both good traits and faults.  I wondered while reading Maisie Dobbs, if Winspear wasn't an author might she be a psychologist or counselor of human beings? It wouldn't surprise me!

 Maisie displays these similar traits of understanding human behavior.  She's aware that there's much more to a person than meets the eye.  Maisie is opening her own  "P.I." business as this story unfolds.  It becomes clear early on (Chapter One) that Maisie is much more that your basic PI as she and her patron (and former employer), Lady Rowton try to figure out what Maisie should name her business.  As the narrative progresses it becomes clear that Maisie has quite a knack for analyzing people' s behavior.  Maisie's behavior, both physical and mental, is described in the utmost detail by Winspear throughout the book.  At first, I wasn't sure why this.  When I focused on the narrative and paid attention, I realized that Maisie's has a knack for understanding how and what people arte feeling, even when they themselves aren't sure.  I was thrilled when i realized Maisie's 'talent' and the situation, especially since one of my few, favorite TV shows is Criminal Minds which concentrates on the cases worked on by attorneys in the FBS's Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Maisie's understanding of people isn't the only reason to like her or to enjoy this book.  Maisie is a serious young woman but she has a great sense of humor and it's worth it to get her laughing. Maisie's from a working-class family.  A sad and debilitating tragedy enables Maisie to begin working for Lady Rowan Compton.  This changes Maisie's life in remarkable ways. But had Maisie not been intelligent, clever and talented, she wouldn't be opening her own business in the Spring of 1929. 

Maisie is sincere, hardworking, kind and very interested in other people.  It's her character that drew me into Winspear's first novel and hooked me on the series. Winspear fashioned an unique character in Maisie but, even more so, an amazing investigator, unlike any other.  Maisie is more interested in her clients and her victims more than any other detecive or investigator I've encountered and learns as much as she can about them.  This is one of the few places I found fault with Winspear's books.  Maisie has more energy and time than everyone else.  Although Winspear writes of Maisie retiring at night, she accomplished more in daylight hours tahn anyone. She's a super-woman.  So far that seems to be her only fault!

I highly recommend Maisie Dobbs to anyone interested in mysteries and criminal investigations as well as British fiction.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.  I will be posting my review of A Lesson in Secrets on Monday, March 24, 2013so long as it fits with TLC Book Tours schedule.  Trish, I apologize to you for posting my reviews on dates other than we discussed.  I hope this is okay.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Penguin Books for the opportunity to read and review Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. 

What Happened to My Sister by Elizabeth Flock

What Happened to My Sister by Elizabeth Flock

Date Published: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-0345524430
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.0 out of 5

Book Summary: Nine-year-old Carrie Parker and her mother, Libby, are making a fresh start in the small town of Hartsville, North Carolina, ready to put their turbulent past behind them. Violence has shattered their family and left Libby nearly unable to cope. And while Carrie once took comfort in her beloved sister, Emma, her mother has now forbidden even the mention of her name.

When Carrie meets Ruth, Honor, and Cricket Chaplin, these three generations of warmhearted women seem to have the loving home Carrie has always dreamed of. But as Carrie and Cricket become fast friends, neither can escape the pull of their families’ secrets—and uncovering the truth will transform the Chaplins and the Parkers forever.

My Thoughts: Caroline Parker (Carrie) first appeared as a narrator in Elizabeth Flock’s dark, troubling novel, Me & Emma (my review). Flock continues the story of Carrie and her family in What Happened to My Sister. Although it’s been seven years since Me & Emma graced bookstore shelves, little time has passed for Carrie. This book opens with Carrie and her mother, Libby, driving away from Murchison, the small North Carolina town where they lived, after a horrific incident altered their lives. Carrie believes they’re on their way to her Grandma’s house, possibly in Asheville, but they only make it as far as the rundown Loveless Motel in Hartsville.

I was looking forward to this book, especially because Carrie and her mother are forging a new life together. I hoped things would eventually work out for them, though I expected it would be difficult for a little while at least. Remembering Flock’s exploration of the psychological manifestations of Carrie’s struggles and how she coped with life, I hoped for a similar treatment of Libby considering how rough life had been on her. I hoped, at least, to know Libby better and understand her behavior a bit more. Unfortunately, What Happened to My Sister is as different from Me & Emma as seemingly possible. Where her first book was layered, smart and sad but inspiring with some shocking twists, this book is predictable, one-dimensional and dull. It becomes difficult to believe this Carrie is the same person from Me & Emma. She meets with so many favorable circumstances and amazing coincidences, we’re forced to suspend belief to the nth degree and enter a land of fairytales. Towards the end, a couple of surprises are revealed but for readers who didn’t figure them out on their own, they come too late to prove exciting.

I can’t help but wonder what inspired the Flock to wait seven years for a sequel that is so polar opposite of the original. There are too many ridiculously fortuitous situations that make everything else about the book predictable. Had the first book not been so good, this may have held up on its own as better-than-average chick-lit, but as it is, when compared to its predecessor (as all sequels are, unfairly or not), I found What Happened to My Sister to be just a plain disappointment.


See Elizabeth Flock's Website
See Elizabeth Flock's Facebook Page

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to review What Happened to My Sister and to Ballantine Books for an ARC copy of the book.

Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

Date Published: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Mira Books
Pages: 288
ISBN:  978-0778320821
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

Book Summary: In many ways, Carrie Parker is like any other 8 year old girl; playing make believe, dreading school, dreaming of faraway places. But even her naively hopeful mind can't shut out the terrible realities of home or help her to protect her younger sister, Emma.

As the big sister, Carrie is determined to do anything to keep Emma safe from a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of their drunken stepfather, Richard - abuse their mother can't seem to see, let alone stop.

After the sisters' plans to run away from their impoverished North Carolina home unravel, Carrie's world soon takes a shocking turn, with devastating results. In one shattering moment in the Parker sisters' lives, a startling act of violence ultimately reveals a truth that leaves everyone reeling.

My Thoughts: In the small southern town of Toast, where 8-year old narrator Carrie Parker lives, poverty is as much a way of life as is staying out of each other’s business. Even if a child’s being hurt. Teachers, store clerks and other townsfolk offer Carrie a kind word, candy or a pat on the head, but nothing more despite having a good idea about what’s going on behind closed doors at the Parker house.

Elizabeth Flock has filled Me & Emma with a cast of dysfunctional, flawed characters, even the best of whom is difficult to like because, even though many of the townsfolk are kind to Carrie, no one does what it takes to “rescue” her. Even the surroundings are colorless. As such, Carrie’s days are only about survival. When not in school, Carrie spends most of her time trying to avoid Richard, her mean and angry step-father. Carrie daydreams frequently and relies on memories of her murdered father to cope when she’s lonely, hurt or scared, which is most of the time. Using Carrie to narrate the story, the author offers us a first hand look at what goes through the mind of an abused and neglected child.

A fascinating and perplexing side to Carrie is her relationship with her mother, for example. Though I found it difficult to like a mother who rarely shows love or concern for her small daughters, doing little to protect them, Carrie loves her. She doesn’t seem bothered by Momma’s distance and irritability. Rather, she excuses most of her mother’s behavior as a result of losing her husband. Carrie even tells us Momma doesn’t like Emma (Carrie’s younger sister) very much but explains it away because Emma looks so much like their deceased daddy. Carrie has many happy memories of the loving family she had when her father was alive. She holds on to who her mother used to be, rather than seeing her as she is. Is this a defense mechanism, Carrie hoping she’ll be like that again one day? Again, Flock shows how complicated a little girl’s world can be when raised amid such chaos. Adding to Carrie‘s confusion and fear is the fact that Momma herself is frequently abused by Richard.

The fact that Momma gets angry at anyone trying to act on her behalf, to “interfere” as she sees it, helps answer one of the more obvious questions the first half of the book raises: how come no one saves Carrie? Well, if her own mother’s attitude is “mind your own business, even if it means I’m going to be beaten to a pulp”, how can we expect anyone to take action on Carrie’s behalf? This is the author taking the reader to another place and seemingly another time. It’s as if Toast, North Carolina is a town left in the past, never progressing into the 1990s. So even though Carrie doesn’t understand what her Momma sees in Richard, she never questions it. She just accepts that he’s there and that for now, all she need concern herself with is avoiding him. There is no blame directed at her mother. But the reader, being a product of a modern society, will still occasionally feel sympathy for Momma - usually when she is being bashed around by Richard. At times this is going to leave the reader frustrated, wanting to reach out and shake Carrie into reality. Here the author has made an amazing parallel, connecting two societies separated by place and attitude because we find that, for different reasons, we’re just like the people of the town: we want to help, but can’t.

Carrie, at least, isn’t alone most of the time. Emma, her quiet and tough younger sister, scared of nothing is the sweet, well-mannered Carrie’s constant companion. Together they forage for food when Richard eats it all or their Momma is too drunk to make anything. The rest of the time they find fun and safe places to hide away from Richard and his wrath.

Halfway through the book, the Parker family moves to a more remote area in North Carolina. The tension that was slowly building as the story progressed increases as Richard’s temper flares constantly now and momma becomes more irritable and distant. Carrie and Emma spend more time away from home. They befriend a gruff, elderly neighbor, Mr. Wilson. He’s the first adult to openly address Carrie’s home situation and offer she and Emma hope for the future. In the hands of a less-skilled author, this could come off as a forced way of taking Carrie out of an otherwise dead-end (perhaps literally) existence. But there is attention to detail and explanations that, taken in the context of where and when the story takes place, makes sense, and isn’t made to seem “inevitable”.

Flock shows exceptional skill in psychology of people, but especially children. Through Carrie the author encompasses the extent and importance of day dreaming and why it might even be necessary to such an extent for Carrie, in particular. Past events and her current life impact Carrie in such a way that she has no choice but to daydream in order to cope and survive. It’s important for me to let you know that I can’t explain the why’s of all of this without “spoiling” the end of the story. You don‘t want me to do that. Trust me! What I can say is events at the end of the story are a direct result of the many layer’s of Carrie’s personality. The crux of this book is about the psychology of Carrie’s struggle to cope and survive her life and show Flock’s mastery of the human condition when facing a horrible situation. One with no signs of things changing for the better.

This is a fascinating and extremely well-written book, one worth reading. But it’s not a happy one. It might be especially difficult for the parents of small children to read. If you’re okay with the subject matter, I highly recommend Me & Emma.

Elizabeth Flock's Website
Elizabeth Flock's Facebook page

Mailbox Monday ~ August 27th

Welcome to Mailbox Monday, a weekly meme originally created by Marcia at A girl and her books and hosted during August by Jennifer at 5 Minutes for Books Below are the titles I received for review, purchased, or otherwise obtained over the course of the past week.

Wilderness of Error by Errol Morris ( for review from The Penguin Press via TLC Book Tours)

Collateral by Ellen Hopkins (for review from Atria Books via TLC Book Tours)

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (for review from Harper via TLC Book Tours)

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke (for review from Harper via TLC Book Tours)

The Bookie’s Son by Andrew Goldstein (for review from sixonseven Books via TLC Book Tours)

The Other Half of Me by Morgan McCarthy (for review Free Press)

Sunday Salon ~ Getting back to it in this new year!

I’m slowly getting back into the swing of blogging regularly after being largely away from my computer for most of the last month or so. It’s a relief not to feel exhausted from trying to sit and hold my head up. Thinking back on it, it’s a little frightening how tired I felt from the pneumonia. It’s such a relief to feel well again. Now I just have to work the laziness - from forcing myself to continue to rest once I began to feel better - out of my system. It’s kind of amazing how quickly your brain - mine, anyway! - can get used to not thinking or being used!


I have a long list of reviews to finish and a shorter list of reviews that need to be written in full. I worked on several while recuperating but when I read what I thought was my finished review I didn’t like much of what I’d written! Ugh! I hate when that happens. So I figure I will post reviews of books I’ve read recently and intersperse reviews of older reads every few days or something like that. I’m trying to shorten my reviews a bit, too, a least while I have so many to work on.


I finished The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Shine which turned out not to be as light a book I expected. It’s very good and has some wonderfully flawed, dysfunctional characters! I also finished Carry The One by Carol Anshaw, also very good. My neighbor returned Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (yay!) so I am reading it again. I wasn’t that far into it before so I decided to start at the beginning. It’s so worth it, anyway! I’m also reading All the Flowers of Shanghai by Duncan Jepson. I’ve read several reviews of this book and, although I’m not exactly sure what to expect from this book, I know it’ll be an interesting reading experience! I signed up for a group read of The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano  hosted by Richard at his blog, Caravana de recuedos. I didn’t get to start reading the book last month like I wanted to because I was sick so I’m not sure I’ll finish by the end of January (700+ pages!) but I’m enjoying what I’ve so far read.


So that’s about it for now. Life’s been very quiet in my world the last couple of months, of course. I’ll leave you with this fun tidbit...there may be a new small, furry addition to our family! Stay tune as for updates as the situation develops...! lol

Have a wonderful Sunday!
Happy Reading!