Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Monsters of Templeton

As I'm reading through my accumulated books, I realize why many of them have sat on my shelves for years. Someone of them just aren't all that compelling. Lauren Groff's debut novel The Monsters of Templeton, however, was a hidden gem. Billed as part contemporary story, part historical novel, and part ghost story in the flap copy, I tacked it on to my series of supernatural books, following Her Fearful Symmetry and The Grift. The ghost story was minimal, though, and it turned out to be one of those sweeping novels covering several generations of a fascinating family. (I'd call it epic, but at only 360 pages, that seems like an overstatement.)

Willie Upton returns to Templeton, her small Hudson Valley hometown, when she finds herself pregnant with her thesis adviser's child. According to an author's note, Templeton is based on the author's home town, Cooperstown. Both were founded by--and named after--one man. Both are home to a famous nineteenth-century novelist. And both are home to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

To get Willie's mind off her predicament, her mother tells her that her father, who Willie had previously believed was one of three random guys at a hippie commune, actually lives in town and is related to the town's patriarch Marmaduke Temple through an illegitimate birth. This sends Willie scouring through the town's history and that of her family, learning many secrets of the previous generations.

The first 50 pages were a little disjointed, and I didn't think I was going to finish the book. But once Willie starts her quest to discover her father, it became unputdownable. After a quick internet search, it seems as if this book got a good reception--Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review--but doesn't seem to be an overwhelming bestseller. It'd be perfect for a book club. I will definitely look for more from Lauren Groff, although I may skip her short story collection Delicate Edible Birds, because I have a strong fear of birds . . . especially little delicate ones.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

No Place Like Home

My latest gym book was No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark. I used to qualify my reading of her books by calling them "brain candy" or "guilty pleasures," but I don't even think that's necessary anymore. She may not be a queen of lyrical prose (and insists on sending her characters to get a "container" of coffee instead of a "cup"), but she can tell one heck of a story. This was one of her best, too! At least of those that I've read.

When she was ten, Liza Barton accidentally shot and killed her mother while protecting herself from her raging stepfather. The crime rocked the small New England town where the Bartons lived, with the community assuming Liza meant to kill her mother. Now as an adult, Liza is living as Celia Nolan, an interior decorator and mother of one grade-school-aged son. As a surprise birthday present, Celia's husband buys her a house in a small New England town . . . the house where Celia/Liza grew up and killed her mother.

As soon as the Nolans arrive, vandals strike the house, which has never shed its stigma, and nearly everyone with any stake in the house or the crime starts turning up dead. Of course, Celia starts to look guilty, and she's constantly afraid someone will discover her true identity.

I usually don't even try to figure our Clark's mysteries. She creates so many plausible bad guys, it's nearly impossible to pick the guilty one. I did suspect one person from the start, however, and turned out to be right. I take this as a significant personal victory! At first I thought there were too many characters to keep straight, but when Clark reintroduces the characters, she does a good job of giving us some detail to remind us who the person is.

After reading The Grift, I appreciate Clark's mastery of mystery and suspense more than ever!

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Grift

The Grift by Debra Ginsberg won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association book prize for mystery this year. I received a copy of the book at the awards dinner last year, so I've been looking forward to reading it. Marina is a fake psychic who charges big bucks to tell people what they want to hear. She moves from Florida to northern San Diego County in California, and is putting money away so she can retire at age 37--not a bad idea. One of her first gigs in California is to work a party where she meets many of the clients that will become her regulars and the central figures--and suspects--in the mystery that unfolds.

About halfway through the book, she develops real psychic ability. This is, naturally, beneficial in solving the mystery involving arson and murder. But it is tough on business. She can no longer give the vague, generic readings her clients have come to expect. She sees detailed pictures of their immediate futures--mostly events they'd rather not hear about. The book is entertaining and a fast read. She's not quite Mary Higgins Clark, but the story does take some fun turns.

Ginsberg has written several memoirs and another novel--Blind Submission--which is a Devil Wears Prada-type send-up of an infamously difficult literary agent in San Diego. I haven't read the memoirs, but I did read Submission because a good friend of mine used to work for the agent. It was a fairly entertaining story, but I think I only enjoyed it because I felt like I was "in" on the joke. I'm not sure if anyone outside of publishing would find it interesting.

The Grift wasn't as good as I expected--I mean, it's award winning, after all--but I don't regret reading it. Continuing my string of books about the supernatural, next up is The Monsters of Templeton, which promises to be part historical novel and part ghost story . . . then maybe I'll head back to reality. Or, you know, as real as a work of fiction can get.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Her Fearful Symmetry

Audrey Niffenegger's first novel since the phenomenal Time Traveler's Wife has been eagerly awaited . . . and yet, she hit the sophomore slump big time. Her Fearful Symmetry didn't start out that bad--in fact, I quite enjoyed the first 300 pages. Elspeth Noblin is dying of cancer, and she leaves her London flat, which sits adjacent to Highgate Cemetery, and everything in it to her twin nieces in America. The daughters of her estranged twin, who is supposed to have run off with Elspeth's fiance, the girls must live in the flat for a year before selling it. Elspeth's lover, Robert, will be their guide to life in London.

The twins, Julia and Valentina, are extremely close, as were their mothers before their split. They often hold hands, share a bed, and dress alike. They never do anything without the other. This incredible closeness--and the love triangle of the older generation of twins--echo Niffenegger's novel in pictures, The Three Incestuous Sisters. Without the actual incest, thankfully.

It was the last hundred pages of the book where it really fell apart. Elspeth's ghost is trapped in her apartment and learns to communicate with the girls. She and Valentina hatch a ridiculous scheme to help Valentina escape the grip of her overbearing sister. Before that, even despite the ghost story, it would have been an okay novel. Nothing compared to The Time Traveler's Wife, but decent enough. There is a very interesting side story about a man living in the same London apartment building as the twins who suffers from OCD. A friend of mine thought that should have been the main story. It was definitely the most interesting part of the book.

It's hard to follow such a smashing success as her first book. Many writers fail in their second efforts . . . so here's hoping the third time's the charm.