So Long, Farewell

Obviously I haven't been posting book reviews here for a long time. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading, thankfully! (Recent/current reads include The Four Feathers, A Tale of Two Cities, and the Chronicles of Narnia). But I can barely keep up with my family blog, let alone this one as well. So Leaf and Frame will officially go into retirement, but I hope to post occasional book/movie reviews on All Things Gall.

Thanks to those of you who have stopped by!

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

This novel was a delicious read for me. The gothic undertones, the increasing tension and mystery of the plot, and the fascinating horridness of the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, all lent thrills and chills to this curl-up-in-a-blanket page-turner.

Besides the fascinating plot, this book has much to recommend itself, including great description, brilliant character development, and a consistent first-person point of view, which keeps you in the narrator's head and helps you feel the increasing unease and fear right along with her. She is the young Mrs. de Winter, the second wife of Maxim de Winter, and throughout the book she finds herself pitted against the memory of Rebecca, the seemingly perfect and universally beloved first wife who had died tragically. Mrs. de Winter loves her husband, but cannot shake her feelings of fear and inadequacy as she continually compares herself with Rebecca, and feels with foreboding the very presence of Rebecca's ghost. Mrs. de Winter's self-doubt is perpetuated by Mrs. Danvers, the icily resentful housekeeper who disdains the young new wife and grows increasingly hostile to her. All the while, Maxim seems oblivious to his young wife's fears as he battles his own demons.

The plot has good build-up, and just as I was getting exasperated with the timidity and self-doubt of the heroine, several events occur which propel the book into the final twists and turns of the plot, and Mrs. de Winter is faced with choices that can strengthen her spirit or extinguish her forever.

Compelling, occasionally dark, Rebecca would be the perfect book for a chilly autumn day and a cozy armchair.

Reviewing Three Mystery Series, with a Word from Atop my Soapbox

I have been on a mystery kick for the past few weeks, enjoying some Agatha Christie as well as trying out a few new authors. I always have fun reading Agatha Christie; she may not have invested as much time in character development and witty dialogue as did my all-time favorite, Dorothy Sayers, but Christie sure knows how to craft a good whodunit!

I wanted to try out some mystery writers from the last decade, since most of my reading in that genre comes from the first half of the twentieth century. The three new mystery writers I tried out are Jill Churchill (Jane Jeffry series), Kate Collins (Flower Shop Mysteries), and Laura Durham (Annabelle Archer Mysteries). Churchill published her first Jane Jeffry novel in 1989, while the other two women have been published in the last three or four years.

I read the books for entertainment, but it was funny how making comparisons between them sparked a slightly academic train of thought on the plausibility of amateur detectives. It seems to be a popular trend in mystery writing – putting a non-detective character into the role of private investigator. Just scan the mystery shelves at a bookstore, and you’ll see amateur sleuths springing up in tea shops, flower shops, quilting shops, scrapbooking shops, on and on. I’m not pooh-poohing this trend; I think it would be fun to try to create a believable detective out of someone not normally associated with crime solving. However, believable is the operative word. And from the little I’ve read so far of these kind of mysteries, creating a believable non-professional investigator is hard work.

I think Jill Churchill was most successful in this regard. Her main character, Jane Jeffry, a widowed mother of three, gets caught up in murder investigations just from being in the wrong (or right) place at the wrong (right) time. She is inquisitive, and wants to do what she can to find the killer (sometimes in order to protect innocent suspects), but she doesn’t launch a full-blown investigation on her own steam, interfering with the police and putting herself in outrageous situations. She cooperates. She asks questions and shows concern for the people involved. It helps that she is dating a detective – she can get details from him and put her sharp mind on the right path. But of the three main characters in the respective series I mentioned above, I found Jane’s situation and style to be the most plausible as a successful amateur sleuth.

On the score of plausibility, Laura Durham’s wedding planner sleuth Annabelle Archer rates the lowest. Sure, in her line of work Annabelle might run into more people “deserving” of murder, but her eagerness to track down murderers comes across as slightly childish and naïve, someone who is influenced by a little too much television – almost a delusion of grandeur. She gets the job done, of course, but the way she gets distracted from her responsibilities in order to “discuss the case” with her assistant and her gay pal, or to “follow up a clue,” gets to be irritating. I found the wedding planner parts of the novels much more interesting, with the eccentric clients and amusing barely-averted disasters. (Also, interestingly, I discovered the author herself was a big-time wedding planner before turning her hand to writing, and she says on her website that many of the “bridezilla” episodes in her books were inspired by real events.) I would have enjoyed reading a novel based on the nuptial-related trials of a wedding planner; the detective aspirations of Annabelle Archer were implausible at best, and yawn-inducing at worst. For me these books are a fizzle.

For pure fun factor, Kate Collins’ Flower Shop Mysteries get my top vote. Abby Knight, spunky and enterprising, is a completely sympathetic heroine with everyday woes and triumphs, including eccentric relatives, looming bills, a hunky love interest, and the ins and outs of running a local business. I’m not completely convinced about her believability as a detective, either, but it helps that she freely admits she’s practically a snoop and busybody, and her motive of involvement springs from being asked by a desperate friend to put her nosiness to good use. The plots in these books are pretty good, and there are liberal doses of humor and occasional racy romance to swing the story along and provide interesting subplots. So, I would rate the mystery as fair to good, and the overall entertainment very good.

So that is my general, if not vague, take on these three mystery series. I think the days of Agatha Christie-like books, with their deft, candlestick-in-the-library, drawing-in-the-net style, are gone. Nowadays we want to see the everyday protagonist step up, and after a struggle with overdue notices or razor burn, show up the professionals with a combination of dogged inquisitiveness and inspired brilliance. We want a murder mystery with a little “realistic” personal woe or love triangle served on the side. We want to “try out” an old formula in a new setting. Nothing wrong with that, but writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers are a hard act to follow. I guess as a reader I just need to have the right expectations… and secretly imagine how I might craft my own novel featuring an intrepid, lovelorn, twenty-something career woman who… bakes pies! Yes! Oh, wait, someone has already taken that one.

Fountain and Tomb, by Naguib Mahfouz

This was a unique and enjoyable book, consisting of over seventy brief vignettes (some only a few paragraphs long). Speaking in present tense, the narrator describes life in the Cairo neighborhood where he grew up in the 1920s. The stories focus on the people and customs that surrounded the boy and made an impression on him, defining not only his life but the life of the alley. He tells of romances and heartaches, marriages and deaths; he describes both highborn and lowborn neighbors, pious people and lawbreakers. In his telling he neither judges these characters nor asks the reader to. He presents a distinct look at a distinct culture, but is not compelled to defend, explain, or propagate the religion and customs of his people. He merely weaves, in spare but picturesque language, a fascinating portrait of life as seen and interpreted by an observant and impressionable young boy.

I found this book easy and fun to read; the structure makes it easy to read in short segments, although often I was enjoying myself too much to put it down. I loved the brief look at so many different, fascinating people. Sometimes I couldn't help thinking, Are there really this many interesting (even eccentric) people to be found in one close-knit neighborhood? I wish I could observe such types of people and be able to describe their story in such a succinct yet poetic way!

(This review also posted on Bookfest.)

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

This was my first time reading Elizabeth Gaskell, a contemporary of Charles Dickens and the Brontes. I had never heard of her before this novel was suggested for our women's book club, but I learned she also wrote the novel Wives and Daughters, which was made into a miniseries that I enjoyed very much.

North and South chronicles a few years in the life of a young English woman, Margaret Hale, and her family. When Margaret's father decides he can't in good conscience remain a clergyman with the Church of England, the family moves from their country parish and idyllic parsonage in the South of England, to a smoky, bustling manufacturing city in the North. This is hard on all of them, particularly Margaret, who loved the parsonage and country life, and who at first has a strong prejudice against the class of shopkeepers and manufacturers. The Hales endure a succession of tragic circumstances, in addition to reduced social standing and income, including deaths of loved ones. Also central to the novel is Margaret's love-hate relationship with a young factory owner, John Thornton, a rather Pride and Prejudice-like romance that develops very slowly throughout the length of the novel.

North and South has a slow beginning, but I found the characters interesting and well-developed, and the description of life in that city provides commentary on the social and economic consequences of the industrial revolution. The plot eventually picks up the pace, too, with a factory workers' strike; Margaret's growing friendship with a poor working-class family; a hush-hush visit from Margaret's brother, who was involved in a naval mutiny and would be hanged if discovered on English soil; and the tension between Margaret and Thornton.

The novel is thick, but I recommend hanging in there through the slow beginning, because the writing is excellent, with good character arcs, and Margaret is a heroine who should join the ranks of other famous British heroines like Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyer.

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

Probably one of the deepest, most literary mysteries I’ve ever read! This novel contains as much (or more) discussion of philosophy, history, Apocalyptic revelation, ecclesiastical politics, and the purpose of knowledge, as it does of character and plot development, to say nothing of actual “detecting.” But while I felt bogged down in a few places, for the most part the characters and the mystery, as well as the richly portrayed medieval and monastic culture, kept me fascinated and turning pages quite eagerly.

The Franciscan monk William of Baskerville is an admirable protagonist and “detective” (not by profession, of course, but the role he assumes in the story). To me he resembles a combination of other characters I like: Brother Cadfael (another monk who investigates murder), Sherlock Holmes (uses similar methods of reasoning), and Albus Dumbledore (the wise mentor of great intelligence, keen shrewdness and courteous manners).

In the 1320s, there is upheaval in the Holy Roman Empire, marked by power struggles between Emperor and Pope, and accusations of heresies between various monastic orders. A meeting is arranged between two religious factions, one supporting the Emporer and one the Pope, to address the issue of the monastic lifestyle of poverty, which is divisive not only among the clergy, but has acquired political significance as well. William of Baskerville is one who will speak in favor of poverty, and arrives several days early at the designated location of the meeting, an unnamed but ancient and magnificent abbey. Accompanying him is Adso, William’s young novice pupil, who like a faithful Watson is the narrator of the story.

William is renowned for his wisdom and cleverness, and for this reason the abbot of this particular abbey beseeches William to look into the recent death of a young monk. Naturally, the matter proves to be more grave and complex than it first appeared. Over the course of the week that William and Adso spend at the abbey, several more deaths occur, together with apocalyptic portents and rumors of illicit sexual relationships and forbidden books full of dark secrets. As William attempts to unravel the clues, he and Adso encounter a mysterious reticence among the abbot and older monks regarding the restricted library, and William becomes convinced the key to the puzzle lies in that quarter. But discovering how to access the library and make sense of its labyrinthine passages is a whole other challenge. Adding to these difficulties is the arrival of the Pope’s contingent, accompanied by an Inquisitor, who desires to destroy the credibility of the Emperor’s supporters by discovering connections to heretical sects.

Obviously, this story is complex and involved! But despite the intricacies of the plot, the actual episodes of sleuthing and character interaction comprise only half the length of the book. The rest of the 500-some pages are devoted to long passages of discussion and meditation on the other topics I mentioned at the start, particularly the history of the monastic orders involved in the story, and the rise of heresies and doctrines that have led to all the political/ecclesiastical strife. There are also discussions of the value of knowledge and books; the grandeur of the abbey’s treasury; the various kinds of lust that can afflict the monks (not just carnal, but also lust for knowledge); and religious disputes such as whether or not laughter is a holy or a wicked thing, to name some. I confess my attention wandered during some of these passages. But they do enrich the story and pertain to the development and motivations of various characters, so they are not merely excessive rabbit trails!

The Name of the Rose provides a fascinating glimpse into medieval monastic life and the intrigue that could surround people of power, even in the church. Beyond this richness of setting, the portayal of the characters is equally riveting, and together with the skillfully constructed murder mystery, makes for an excellent and enjoyable novel.

Some Books I Enjoyed in March

The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde

Books three and four, respectively, of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Each successive book takes the plot to greater creative heights in this unique fantasy/mystery/literary adventure series. Thursday Next, a literary detective, works to pretect the integrity of various works of literature, and meanwhile gets caught up in danger, romance, reliving war memories, time travel, and fictional characters jumping into the real world. All in a day’s work for this intrepid young woman! These books are so much fun to read (and they make you wish you had a better grasp of classic literature!), and I’m always dazzled by the humor, irony and imagination that Fforde put into these novels. Make sure you read them in order; the story builds from one book to the next.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I can finally say I have read this book! Long overdue, I suppose, but I’m glad to know the story and characters that have influenced much of American storytelling. It was not always easy to read; the dialects sometimes slowed me down, and of course the prevalent use of the word “nigger” was offensive. But Twain’s commentary on “civilized” society was apt and full of the humourous satire for which he is famous. I appreciated Huck’s realistic inner turmoil and the development of his character. He and Jim, the runaway slave, were by far my favorite characters of the book; but all the others, while often annoying, certainly had entertaining eccetricities!

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Just re-reading some old favorites! (And probably my favorite novel of each author, too.)