Mary E. Trimble

Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is one of the most captivating novels I’ve read this year.

You know something is amiss with Eleanor right from the start. She applies for a job in Glasgow, Scotland, sporting a black eye, missing teeth, a broken arm, and an old scar on her cheek. Even with these marks of violence, she’s hired for an accounts receivable position, which she does with crisp efficiency. She tends to business and doesn’t involve herself with office gossip. Eleanor keeps to herself. She doesn’t share her life, nor does she show interest in anyone else’s. She follows a strict schedule. On weekends she treats herself to take-out pizza and vodka. Every Wednesday evening she talks to her mother on the telephone, a depressing, insulting conversation that leaves Eleanor depleted. Her only entertainment is working the newspaper’s crossword puzzles.

Eleanor has a problem with her computer at work and asks Raymond, the IT guy, for assistance. Later, he asks her to join him for lunch. It’s nothing Eleanor wants to do, but feels it would be impolite to refuse. On the way, they encounter an old man who has passed out on the street. They stay with him until help arrives. Raymond suggests they visit the old man in the hospital to see how he is doing. Although this is way too much social life for Eleanor, she accepts, seeing the good that it might do the patient. One thing leads to another, and Eleanor accepts another invitation, this time from the man’s family to attend a birthday party. She sees for the first time a closely knit family, a family who laughs and accepts one another with love and patience.

Along the way we learn more about Eleanor. She was shuffled from one foster family to another. She loved school—it was her only joy. Slowly, slowly we learn more about her. Or do we?

When a crises occurs, Eleanor’s life is revealed—not only to the reader, but to herself.

I loved this book. Eleanor’s existence is so painful, I ached for her, but I laughed at her preciseness, too. Honeyman does an excellent job of depicting this type of personality and the internal suffering that belies what we first see in individuals who are “different.” I highly recommend Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Book Review: The Forgotten Garden

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Mary

Kate Morton’s novel, The Forgotten Garden, is a mesmerizing story of mystery and imagination.

In 1913 a little girl arrives in Brisbane, Australia on a ship from England. She’s alone with nothing more than a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a book of fairytales. No one claims the little girl, and the dockmaster and his wife take her in. She eventually becomes the oldest of five girls in a loving, caring family. It has always bothered the dockmaster that Nell doesn’t know that they aren’t her real parents; nor does the girl remember her origins. On her twenty-first birthday she is finally told how she became one of their family. It is shattering news to Nell, who feels betrayed.

Thus begins a life of seeking to find her identity. After her own family is grown, Nell is finally free to trace her true origins. Her quest takes her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast, the home of the Mountrachet family.

Years later, Nell’s beloved granddaughter Cassandra takes up the search to unravel the puzzle of her late grandmother’s past.

The Forgotten Garden’s intricate story leaps from 1913 to 2005, then 1975, back further to 1900, etc. yet all the while moving the story forward. It’s a time-line masterpiece with each cycle solving a bit of the mystery while new puzzles surface.

This is a novel that takes time to read and absorb. Kate Morton is a master story-teller with impressive research skills. It’s a large volume—552 pages in a trade paperback—in which Nell’s mystery unravels to explore why she was left alone on a ship, what role an overgrown garden played, and in the end, what constitutes family.

Book Review: The Shell Collector

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Mary

Anthony Doerr’s elegant prose is captivating in The Shell Collector. His attention to detail and his vast knowledge is impressive. First of the seven stories, also the title of the book, is about a blind shell collector, who lives in East Africa on an Indian Ocean beach.

The second story, “The Hunter’s Wife,” tells about a woman with extraordinary visions and the resulting gap this special talent creates in their relationship. The third story, “So Many Chances,” is about a family who moves from Ohio to Maine and the new world the young daughter discovers.

The fourth story, “For a Long Time This Was Griselda’s Story,” is about normal people in Idaho encountering an extraordinary man with a rare talent. Pure love, resentment and rage simmer in this tale. In the fifth story, “July Fourth,” a group of American anglers and a group of British sport fishermen have a lively feud. It’s Limeys vs Yanks, Old World vs New.

The sixth story, “The Caretaker,” begins in Liberia, Africa and ends on the coast of Oregon. This story is one of my favorites, possibly because it begins in West Africa where we served in the Peace Corps. As in life, the story centers on three truths: order, chance, fate.

The last story, “A Tangle by the Rapid River,” toggles between Africa and Ohio, between a world where things grow wild, where you can hear insects sing, and a place where everything is cement, soot and noise.

The Shell Collector is a collection of stories to cherish and to remember.

Book Review: A Three Dog Life

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Mary

Australian Aborigines slept with their dogs for warmth on cold nights, the coldest being a “three dog night.” …Wikipedia

Abigail Thomas’s memoir, A Three Dog Life, is a story of courage in the face of disaster. Plain-spoken and full of wisdom, the book takes us through terror and eventual acceptance of what never can be changed.

While walking their dog in New York city, Abigail’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car and suffered a shattered skull leaving him with serious and permanent brain damage. He was eventually admitted to an upstate New York care facility that specializes in treating traumatic brain injuries. So that she could be closer to her husband, Abigail moved from their apartment to a house a short distance away from Rich’s new permanent home.

They were married for twelve years before the accident, each with grown children from previous marriages. Now 63, Abigail’s life was irreversibly changed. She observed Rich grind through the various stages of brain damage: psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, aggressive behavior, and rages. He had no memory of what happened to him, nor of the year before. He lost short-term memory so that moments after Abigail left, he had no recollection of their visit. But he did have periods of uncanny perceptions and would say things about what she had been thinking. Abigail found ways to cope and to learn how to live alone. One of the things she did was to acquire two more dogs, making a total of three, and the four of them became a team. She found ways to find pleasure in small things and to find new interests.

I loved this touching and profound memoir. Dealing with this kind of tragedy takes patience and grace. I found author Abigail Thomas’s quiet, droll sense of humor refreshing. She managed to make a new life—not one she preferred, but one that was nevertheless satisfying.

Book Review: The Boston Girl

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Mary

Anita Diamant’s novel, The Boston Girl: A Novel, captures the essence of an immigrant Jewish family. College student Ava interviews her 85 year-old grandmother Addie: “How did you become the woman you are today?”

Addie was born into an immigrant Jewish family in Boston in the early 1900’s. During her lifetime, her family experiences many changes in society, changes her parents resist. Addie’s mother, a bitter, complaining woman, sees little good in anything. Her father is mostly silent during his wife’s rages, but Addie feels the brunt of the family’s strife. They live in a cold water flat with a shared outhouse in back of the tenement.

As Addie grows into womanhood, she realizes her life is different from that of her family’s old-world views, and she strives to create an independent life. Addie’s story takes us through WWI, the depression, and ends in the 1930’s.

I found The Boston Girl enlightening with its world views seen through Jewish immigrants’ eyes. As Addie is exposed to other ways of life, she longs to become a part of the new world, but always feels the burden of her parents’ anger and frustration. Anita Diamant is also the author of The Red Tent, which is an entirely different novel than The Boston Girl, so much so that I found it difficult to believe it was the same author. But The Boston Girl has its own value in its sharing of the difficulties of adapting to an unfamiliar culture.

Book Review: A Land To Call Home

Posted on January 27, 2020 by Mary

A Land to Call Home, the third novel in “The Red River of the North Series” is another exceptional Historical Fiction by Lauraine Snelling. The story takes place in 1884-85 in Dakota Territory, in what would become North Dakota.

The story centers around the families of two sisters-in-law, both widowed and remarried, but includes other neighbors and relatives who fight to survive the struggle of taming the virgin prairie. The adults are originally from Norway and they speak Norwegian, though struggle to learn English. As the pioneers face almost insurmountable challenges to “prove up” their individual homesteads, they also work toward their dream of building a real town.

The immigrants’ homes are made of sod, dwellings that are dark and damp. But the women make colorful quilts to liven their environment. Even the combination church/school building is a sod structure. Helping one another, sharing their meager supplies, and living their strong Christian faith carry them through the hard times.

Reading this series has made me appreciate even more the hardships of our early pioneers. I love reading about how those brave people managed, what they ate and how they spent their time. Their lives were centered around their deeply rooted religion. When their faith was tested, they helped one another through it. I particularly enjoyed the first Christmas program in the new soddy school house. In those days there were no problems celebrating a traditional Christmas pageant with a live baby, donkey, even sheep. The community pitched in with materials to make the program a success.

Lauraine Snelling captures the spirit of our hard-working early settlers. As I’ve followed along with many of the same characters in previous books in the series, I applaud their triumphs and despair their hardships. I admire their deep faith and their ingenuity in finding ways to strive. I love the “Red River of the North” series and look forward to book four.

Book Review: A Dog Called Hope

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Mary

A Dog Called Hope: A Wounded Warrior and the Service Dog Who Saved Him by Jason Morgan and Damien Lewis is a well written, moving true story.

While on an anti-narcotics raid, special forces warrior Jason Morgan parachuted into a Central American jungle. He’d served with the famous Night Stalkers on many such missions, but this assignment ended badly for Morgan. Months later he regained consciousness in a U.S. military hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, in chronic pain, and with no memory of what had happened to him.

In the meantime, Jim Siegfried, a Canine Companion for Independence (CCI) puppy trainer, was assigned a dog to raise and train. In the eighteen months Jim would have Napal, a black Labrador Retriever, the pup learned to respond to thirty commands and be prepared for the next training sessions to meet special-needs recipients. It’s a tremendous sacrifice for puppy trainers. The bond between trainer and pup becomes very strong and giving up the dog is heart-wrenching. Some dogs don’t make the grade, but those who do become a life-line to veterans and the disabled.

Jason Morgan’s life spiraled downward to the point of his having no hope. This once-active career military and family man’s life as he knew it ended with his massive injuries. Jason’s life took a remarkable turn when he learned about CCI. He was given Napal and after the two trained together at a California CCI facility, Jason was able to respond to his family’s needs and know real happiness. Not everything ran smoothly in Jason’s life, but with Napal he was again able to find humor, companionship and meaning in life.

A Dog Called Hope is a remarkable story about the strong bond between man and dog. I learned how intensely trained CCI service dogs are and how they can change lives. Although the dogs cost about $50,000 to raise and train, they are free to the recipients. The book opened my eyes to the challenges a wheel-chair bound person faces. But a canine companion does more than pick up dropped objects and open doors. Their constant presence helps build confidence, open up new possibilities, all the while providing unconditional love and joy. I highly recommend this touching and often humorous book.

Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Mary

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance is a stark, beautifully written and sometimes humorous memoir about the author’s growing-up years in a troubled family. Vance’s Appalachian family was originally from Jackson, Kentucky, but later moved to the “Rust Belt” of Middletown, Ohio. In his memoir Vance describes the mind-set of poor, white Americans. The memoir is a passionate, personal analysis of a culture in crises.

Vance and his half-sister were mostly raised by loving grandparents. His mother was an addict; he barely knew his father. His mother went from husband to husband, and even though some of these men were decent, they were never around long enough to help a growing boy get a sense of direction for his life.

Vance did poorly in school, had spotty attendance, and often made unwise choices. After barely graduating from high school, a cousin urged him to join the Marines, a choice that made all the difference in the life he subsequently lived. When he enlisted, he was out of shape, had a sour attitude, and couldn’t begin to imagine what he would do with the rest of his life. By working hard—and that not always by choice—he learned his own self-worth, and gained confidence both physically and mentally.

With his new-found confidence, and with the help of the G.I. Bill, Vance attended and graduated from Ohio State University in Columbus. At the University, he learned how other people lived, that he could contribute to society, and that he could be someone he never dreamed possible. He learned that successful people look at the big picture, not just present-day challenges.

He applied and was accepted at Yale Law School. At Yale he met yet a different class of people, and was introduced to other lifestyles and opportunities. His expanding self-worth influenced his future choices.

Hillbilly Elegy is a powerful book. As one who’s “been there,” Vance describes the problems with so many of the working class poor, how their lifestyle reflects bad choices, resulting in the next generation making the same self-defeating decisions. It’s easy to be critical of people like this, but the remedies are complex and often elusive. Hillbilly Elegy is a fascinating study of a profound problem in today’s American culture.

Book Review: To the Bright Edge of the World

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Mary

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey is a beautifully written historical novel based on an 1885 exploratory expedition to unmapped Alaska.

Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester and his wife Sophie have only been married a short time when he undertakes an assignment to explore regions of Alaska’s Wolverine River Valley. He is accompanied by two other Army men. Along the way they meet up with two trappers and prospectors hoping to locate minerals. A Native woman also joins them whose survival skills prove to be invaluable in their precarious journey.

Forrester’s team experiences harrowing, life-threatening situations, illness and deprivation. While her husband struggles in the wilds of Alaska, Sophie is compelled to remain at their home, an Army post at Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory. Sophie has always been interested in nature, particularly birds, and discovers within herself a talent for wildlife photography while photography was in its infancy. She converts her pantry into a dark room and manages to learn the art of not only photography, but of developing pictures. Thus, she manages to ease her loneliness, despite the disdain of other army wives who spend their afternoons gossiping at teas.

The diaries and letters of Sophie and Allen Forrester are skillfully paced as they face hardships and conquests. Interspersed with Allen and Sophie’s writings is modern-day correspondence between a pharmacist and a great-nephew of Allen’s who is a curator of an Alaska museum. Also shown are excerpts and illustrations from historical documents which span the time period from the 1880s to the present.

To the Bright Edge of the World is an extraordinary novel, not only in its depiction of “man against nature,” but as a story of love, endurance, and hardships faced with courage and grace.

Book Review: One Thousand White Women

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Mary

Jim Fergus’ One Thousand White Women is a fascinating “what if” novel about the United States government agreeing to send 1,000 volunteer white women as brides to the Cheyenne people. As Chief Little Wolf explains the idea at a Washington D.C. meeting, “It is the Cheyenne way that all children who enter this world belong to their mother’s tribe.” Thus, this would be an ideal way for the native peoples to become absorbed into the white man’s way of life. In exchange for the 1,000 woman, the Cheyenne would trade 1,000 horses.

May Dodd had been wrongly institutionalized in a Chicago lunatic asylum. Along with several other women in asylums and prisons all over the country, they took advantage of the offer to be released with full pardon with the condition that they would agree to become a Cheyenne bride. But confined women weren’t the only ones to volunteer—women from all over the country responded to the Cheyenne’s marriage proposal, telegraphing and writing letters to the White House.

Traveling by train to the Cheyenne tribal lands, May Dodd meets the first group of women who will be fellow brides. It’s a diverse selection of women, all with their own stories.

Finally arriving, the women are housed in teepees, called lodges. A Christian minister who works with the Indians officiates, and the women are married in a group ceremony. May Dodd is now the wife of Chief Little Wolf, and she joins him and his other wives in their family lodge.

Through journals, May Dodd writes to various members of her family, sharing her inner-most thoughts and observations. It is through these journal entries that the story progresses. I very much enjoyed One Thousand White Women for its glimpse into Native culture, the status of women in the late 1800s, and the many truths in this imaginary story.