The Great Unknown by Peg Kingman

It was a time of social turmoil.

The working man wanted his voice heard in government. The Chartist movement was met with a violent reaction from the powers that be; the leaders were imprisoned or they fled the country.

It was an age of science.

Gentlefolk became amateur naturalists, collecting specimens of life living and dead. Fossil discoveries caused great wonder. Theories were created to explain the fossil records, some contorted to fit the Christian idea of time and history. Scandalous books were published suggesting a natural history that upset the Christian hegemony.

In natural law, Constantia knew, there is no justice. Suffering does not matter at all...We have a better idea than that despicable one. We can imagine something far better. We have imagined it; do imagine it; and we call it God.~from The Great Unknown by Peg Kingman

My Victorian Age professor had our class read pivotal books published in 1859, including The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. The professor told us that the ideas behind Darwin's book had been around; Darwin's genius was to put the puzzle pieces together, grounded in sound scientific research. Darwin dragged his feet publishing his theory, knowing the havoc it would bring.

The Great Unknown by Peg Kingman is set in 1846 when people were beginning to think about the questions Darwin finally, publicly, addressed in 1859.

There is a mysterious woman at the heart of the novel who goes by the alias Mrs. McAdams. She left her husband and traveled to the city to give birth to twins, one of whom died a month later. She is enlisted to be a wet nurse to a brilliant family who warmly welcomes her.

Mrs. McAdams struggles with issues of identity. Her mother's early death left clouded her true paternity. And she wonders about the big questions: are we ruled by chance, nature, or God? What does it mean to be human? What separates us from other creatures?

Several books are central in the novel, books that arouse deep thoughts from the characters. One is the 1845 best-selling, iconoclastic Vestiges of the National History of Creation. Another is the 1831 On Naval Timber and Arboriculture, which sounds like a yawner, but its appendix included a discussion of natural selection.

Vestiges became a best-seller. It appears and reappears in the novel, traveling from hand to hand.

They were dangerous things, book; best locked safely away in cages, like fierce beasts in a menagerie. ~from The Great Unknown by Peg Kingman

Mrs. McAdams's backstory is slowly revealed. Her quest to find her natural father takes her on an interesting and surprising journey. She questions many things--why a baby with extra digits is not embraced as an evolutionary improvement; whether things happen by chance or design; if humankind has the power--clearly, it does have the will--to reverse the spinning of the galaxies. 

The Great Unknown is an idea-driven story, and I found myself intrigued to read on for the questions posed are timeless.

As a quilter interested in quilt and fiber history, I was interested in Mrs. McAdam's vocation creating 'bizarres', designs for roller-printed cottons that were popular in the 1840s. Her designs were inspired by the minuscule life she discovered under the powerful new microscopes. Science had even invaded fashion! Colors, too. The newly discovered aniline dyes replaced the plant-based dyes, and new colors rose to popularity: mauve and purple, chrome yellow and orange, and greens that did not fade to blue or tan or rely on arsenic.

1830s-40s prints. 

Our heroine's journey takes her into her past to discover her true family roots before she returns to her husband. All their hopes are realized in a strange and circular way in a satisfying resolution.

In the 19th c, science was embraced as a panacea to society's ills, a way to reverse the natural order. Science disturbed the status quo and challenged Biblical authority, upended humanity's place in the universe and scheme of things.

But as Mrs. McAdams and we know, it appears that chance is what really rules the universe.

I was granted access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Great Unknown
by Peg Kingman
W. W. Norton & Company
Pub Date 18 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781324003366
PRICE $26.95 (USD)

If Anyone Asks, Say I Died From the Heartbreaking Blues by Philip Cioffari

If Anyone Asks, Say I Died From the Heartbreaking Blues by Philip Cioffari is a nostalgic journey into a specific time and place. A novel this personal can be limiting for the reader, but Cioffari's hero's transformative experience is moving and universal.

The day Hunter turns eighteen is also the night of his Senior Prom. His date is the girl of his dreams. Beginning in the morning as his job takes him across the hot beach sand, fearful his date would see him hawking orangeade, he holds huge expectations that it will be a very special night.

Little did he know it would be a night of rejection and of finding love, of fear and heroism, an episodic journey from childhood to manhood.

Music and movies ground the novel in a specific period. I loved, for instance, his description of the sound of the sax in Harlem Nocturne as "the hollowed-out echo of a soul's longing."

Poetry is a part of Hunt's life. He is friends with a homeless man whose academic career was lost to "wine and Irish whiskey." Hunt stops by to hear the man's latest rewrite of T. S. Eliot's Hollow Men. Hunt and Johnnie Jay banter phrases of The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock while wandering the nighttime city streets.

I noted similarities to The Catcher in the Rye: the New York setting, the teenage protagonist's episodic encounters across a varied landscape, hanging out in bars and getting a beating, the deceased brother. But whereas Holden is unable to act on his vision of saving children from the realities of adulthood, Hunt takes selfless risks to protect others several times over.

I was intrigued to know more about Cioffari's motivation for his novel and invited him to contribute his thoughts.

*****

Nostalgia and its Benefits
by Philip Cioffari

One way of looking at nostalgia is that it is a strategy for whitewashing the past, of remembering only the good things. The way, for example, folks of a certain age talk about the good old days. Of course the truth of the matter, if we take a sober look, is that the good old days were in fact a mixture of good days and bad days. Each moment we live through has its share of stress, struggle, highs and lows. We can select which side of the equation we want to emphasize. To some extent, it’s a matter of conscious choice. But not, I think, completely so.

When I look back upon the period of the late fifties/early sixties, the time period of my novel, If Anyone Asks, Say I Died From the Heartbreaking Blues, I have a generally warm feeling for both the age and the setting, the Bronx, where I grew up. But if I step back a moment, I realize that the era was also an emotionally turbulent one for me. I mean that in the sense of the growing pains we all suffer through in the process of figuring out who we are and what our place is in the world. So to write a truthful book I knew I had to present both the joys and sorrows of coming of age at that time.

Childhood (including adolescence) is a flame that throughout our lives, no matter to what advanced age we live, burns inside us. I choose the verb burn advisedly because I don’t think any one of us makes it through that period of our lives without experiencing a significant amount of hurt. The extent to which that affects the way we live thereafter varies with each of us. I know, for me, it colors a lot of what I do and think. It works its way into my writing in various ways, sometimes pushing my stories to the darker side. With this novel, however, I wanted to take a lighter approach, to present our growing pains in a more amusing, if not outright comical, manner.

So I chose senior prom night, which also happens to coincide with my main character Hunt’s eighteenth birthday, making the day and the event doubly significant. The story unfolds over that twenty-four hour period. Romance, heartbreak, recovery, new beginnings—all make an appearance.

Among the many influences on the story I would mention the music of that period as one of the strongest. I spent a lot of time listening to old records, each with its particular memories attached, and I chose song titles for the novel’s four sections: Try the Impossible; In the Still of the Night; Shake, Rattle and Roll; and Earth Angel. 

The movies of that era were another influence. Rebel Without a Cause, The Wild Ones, East of Eden, Some Came Running, King Creole (an early Elvis film), Singing in the Rain, Marjorie Morningstar—to name but a few. I loved the strength of both the male and female characters—their ability to rise above adversity, their hope and resilience.

Perhaps the strongest of my influences, though, were literary ones: the passion of the Beats in their poems and essays, the works of Tennessee Williams and Graham Greene and Carson McCullers, among others. But if I had to choose one particular work it would be, most assuredly, The Catcher in the Rye. It’s a novel I cherish as much now as when I first read it. What strikes me most about it is the way Holden offers help to those he encounters throughout the story. Though he is trying to manage his own problems, which are significant, though he has this tough exterior that he shows to the world, he never fails to extend a helping hand to those in need. That ability to rise above one’s own burdens to help others is what I see as my main character’s strongest virtue.

Which brings me to that other side of nostalgia I alluded to earlier—the unconscious side of it. As a species, we are continually drawn back to the past. Whether it is a disguised yearning to return to the warmth and safety of the womb, an anchor to hold onto during unhappy periods in our lives, a way of enhancing the present moment, or simply a chance to relive our experience with people and places no longer available to us, nostalgia serves many purposes.
In the most positive light, it’s a way of bringing our lives full circle, of preserving and relishing our most significant experiences, reminding us of all the good things that have made us who we are.

*****

I love a good memoir, fictional or nonfiction. Cioffari's is rooted in a specific time and place, and yet readers will recognize the timelessness and universal human experience so beautifully rendered.

I received an ARC. My review is fair and unbiased.

IF ANYONE ASKS, SAY I DIED FROM THE HEARTBREAKING BLUES
by Philip Cioffari
Livingston Press/University of West Alabama
Pub Date 14 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781604892383
PRICE $24.95 hardcover (USD)/$17.95 paperback

Inland by Tea Obreht

At the turn of the century, deep in the middle of the Arizona desert, Nora waits for her missing husband to return with water. Racked with thirst, Nora talks to her dead infant while tending to her vision-impaired son and her husband's superstitious niece. Two older sons are getting into trouble instead of running their dad's newspaper.

At the same time, a haunted immigrant Muslim 'Turk' and his comrade camel recall their many adventures with the army and running from the law.

This wild and original idea for a Western tale delves into new territory filled with desert and thirst, lawmen and murder, secret desires and secret liaisons, ghosts, and alien monsters.

Obreht is a masterful stylist and Inland is brimming with quotable lines from descriptive to insightful.

Stowaway burrs dimpled her hem. ~from Inland by Tea Obreht

The longer I live, Burke, the more I have come to understand that extraordinary people are eroded by their worries while the useless are carried ever forward by their delusions.~from Inland by Tea Obreht

Life's happiness is always a famine, and what little we find interest nobody. What use is it, the happiness of some stranger? At worst, it driver onlookers to envy; at best, it bored them. ~from Inland by Tea Obreht 

Where did Obreht come up with the idea behind this unusual story? History.

Red Ghost terrorized the wilds of Arizona

Obreht was inspired by real people and events. The U.S. Army did have a plan to employ camels and camel drivers, feral camels did roam the west after the plan fell through. Hi Jolly in the novel was one of the camel drivers.

Wedding photo of Hi Jolly/Hadji Ali

Read about the Camel Corps and Hi Jolly
https://armyhistory.org/the-u-s-armys-camel-corps-experiment/
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps
https://truewestmagazine.com/hi-jolly-camel-corps/
https://chicagomonitor.com/2016/03/the-story-of-hajj-ali-hi-jolly-and-the-u-s-camel-cavalry-corp/
https://www.thenationalherald.com/145342/legends-lore-red-ghost/

What a masterful handling of material and plotting! What gorgeous prose!

I won a copy of the book on LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.

Courting Mr Lincoln by Louis Bayard

I reread Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard in conjunction with its paperback edition blog tour.

On this second reading, I again was again impressed by Bayard's handing of Mary Todd. I love her outspokenness, her willingness to stand up to convention and assert herself. She has a stubborn streak, and yet is vulnerable.

"There had to be, in her soul, there lay some rebel contingent."~from Courting Mr. Lincoln

Mary has come to Springfield to live with a married sister. She is escaping an unhappy relationship with a stepmother but it is also intended that she find a husband, being twenty-one and on the threshold of spinsterhood. She can not settle for the available men hoisted upon her as suitable. Lincoln is unsuitable, but Mary sees his gentleness and kindness and relishes their political talk. She grew up on politics in her home.

Mary Todd Lincoln

"The man how wishes to woo me will send neither flowers nor chocolates but elections returns."~from Courting Mr. Lincoln

Lincoln describes her, and himself, as broken birds, people who have suffered and carry the scars from childhood.

"But those are the ones that turn out the toughest, arent' they? The broken ones." ~from Courting Mr. Lincoln

Courting Mr. Lincoln with Mary Todd Lincoln on
my quilt Remember the Ladies

Lincoln is self-effacing, acutely aware of his shortcomings in social status and origin, his bleak prospects as an itinerant lawyer. He does not want to drag Mary down to his level.

Abraham Lincoln c. 1946

"El Greco frame stretched beyond sufferance. A mournful well of eye. A face of bones, all badgering to break through.~from Courting Mr. Lincoln

Joshua Fry Speed

Joshua Speed, Lincoln's lifelong intimate friend and soulmate, jealously watches his friend's courtship of Mary. They had pledged to avoid marriage, remaining eternal bachelors. Bayard's Speed educated Lincoln in matters of social niceties, from apparel to dancing. Lincoln is described as brilliant but rustic to a fault.

The novel is well-grounded on historical events, from Mary's idea of making a pathway to walk into town by tossing shingles ahead to Lincoln's deep depression and indecision that caused him to leave Mary and Springfield.

Bayard wisely skirts detailing the nature of Speed and Lincoln's intimacy in sexual matters. One can read between the lines as one wishes.

Bayard's writing is wonderful, I love his descriptions and language. He brings these characters to life.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Courting Mr. Lincoln with my Presidents Quilt

Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard
Algonquin Books
February 11, 2020
ISBN-10: 1643750445
ISBN-13: 978-1643750446

Eden Mine by S. M. Hulse

I was a big fan of S. M. Hulse's debut novel Black River and have been eagerly awaiting Eden Mine. Hulse has a magic pen that creates a vivid sense of place and complex, conflicted characters embroiled in devastating moral choices.

However damaged it might be, however poisoned, however marred, it's not just our home; it's what remains of our family. ~from Eden Mine by S. M. Hulse

Tall Montana mountains on the east side casts their shadows on the valley until near noon. The silver mines left their legacy of polluted water and broken families. Jo and Samuel Faber's grandfather worked the mines for thirty years to afford a plot of land at retirement. Their father died in a mine collapse.

Eden on one side, Gethsemane on the other, the mountains define Jo's world, a paradise she loves, haunted by ghastly memories of her mother's brutal murder. Her brother Samuel had hoped to leave this dying town. Instead, he became Jo's protector, her guardian. For when the disgruntled lover murdered their mother, a bullet also struck Jo.

The orphaned siblings lost too much, including their faith, but they had each other. Samuel, Jo knew, would always protect her. Jo enjoyed "casting the world in its best light" in her paintings that she sold at the gas station gift shop, and she also saw her brother in his best light, ignoring his darker attractions and anger.

The first sentence in the novel sets the conflict: "My brother's bomb explodes at 10:16 on a late April Sunday morning." Unable to fight the takeover of their family land through eminent domain, Samuel acts out. He never planned for anyone to be hurt--that's why he bombed the courthouse on a Sunday morning.

Samuel did not know that a church met in a storefront across the street. People were hurt, including the pastor's daughter.

Sheriff Hawkins comes to Jo. He has protected the siblings since their mother's death. He knows Jo could help the law find her brother. He knows the truth of that awful day when their mother's murderer was beaten to death.

Alone to face the looming deadline to vacate their family home, besieged by law and paparazzi, Jo finds aid from an unexpected person: Pastor Asa whose daughter lays in the hospital, a victim of Samuel's bomb. He is adrift spiritually, his faith unable to explain or cure what has happened.

Samuel agonizes over how he came to come to this point. His biggest choice is yet to come. Can he change?

Jo loves her brother. How long can she remain silent about what she knows?

Pastor Asa rails at his impotence to heal what is broken, the wife who died young, his comatose daughter. He is in the desert, hoping to find the still waters of faith again.

Hulse has again offered a novel that satisfies on so many levels: the propulsive plot, characters who are sympathetic and conflicted and real, a landscape painted in detailed richness, and the universal and timeless theme of being lost and seeking forgiveness and faith.

I was given a free book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Eden Mine
by S. M. Hulse
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pub Date 11 Feb 2020
Hardcover $27.00 (USD)
ISBN: 9780374146474

The Bear by Andrew Krivak

In The Bear, Andrew Krivak weaves a hauntingly beautiful novel of elegant simplicity, visually rich and unforgettable. The story of a girl and her father surviving alone in a wilderness becomes a fable, a testament to familial love, and a portrait of humankind's place in the world.

This is a novel that entered my dreams, strangely offering a sense of peace and a feeling of oneness with the natural world. Strange because this is also a dystopian novel set in a future when mankind has disappeared and his civilization has crumbled, reverted to its basic elements. 

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: Desolation

These two remaining humans live an idealized oneness with nature. They have some antiques--a glass window, some moldering books, a silver comb--singular heirlooms of another time. The father teaches his daughter how to fish and hunt, how to turn animal fur into clothing and blankets, how to sew shoes from leather and sinew. They drink pine needle tea and gather nuts. The weeds we heedlessly poison become their salad. The maple helicopters that we curse when cleaning the gutters are their survival food.

What a long way we have come, we humans with our large brains and big dreams and greedy appetites! I look about my yard and neighborhood and understand suddenly the plenty that surrounds me. Not just my father's apple trees that bore thousands of fruit this year, but the maple trees and the oaks down the road. Not just my raised bed of chard and kale but the weeds I diligently pull up one by one.

Krivak's heroine is aided by her totem animal, the bear whose profile is seen in the mountain where her mother's bones rest. With winter, he sleeps and the girl is aided by a puma. These magical creatures feel a kinship--a kinship humanity has rarely returned.

Oh, no, we are to conquer and subdue and use and abuse! 

But what has that gotten us?--Decimation of species, destruction of the environment, pollution that poisons us, alienation.

The gorgeous style of Krivak's writing, his story of survival and death, the love and respect shown by his characters, themes eternal and crucial, earmark this as a must-read novel.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is unbiased and fair.

Read Andrew Krivak's personal note on writing The Bear here.

The Bear
by Andrew Krivak
Bellevue Literary Press
Pub Date 11 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781942658702
PRICE $16.99 (USD)

The Light After the War by Anita Abriel

Inspired by her mother's story, Anita Abriel's The Light After the War takes readers across the world following the paths of girlhood friends Vera and Edith from Budapest to escaping the Nazis and hiding out in Austria, to Italy and Venezuela.

Believing they had lost their families and loved ones, the girls try to move on with their lives after the war. Edith dreams of becoming a fashion designer and Vera had hoped to be a playwright but settles for copywriting.

The background of Jews migrating to more tolerant societies was new and interesting. There is referred violence and death relating to the Holocaust and the girls must resist predatory men, but there is nothing graphic in the story. The concentration is on their determination and friendship, and the charmed luck their beauty brings in the form of helpers and aides along their journey.

Easy to read and easy to digest, with star-crossed lovers and jealousy, the novel felt more like a romance than heavier WWII-era historical-fiction fare. The resolution will satisfy those who believe in fate and true love.

I was given access to a free book by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The author has published under Anita Hughes with several books becoming Hallmark Channel movies.

The Light After the War
by Anita Abriel
Atria Books
Pub Date 04 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781982122973
PRICE $36.00 (CAD)