The Road Taken by Rona Jaffe

During her life Rona Jaffe wrote sixteen novels and I have now read three: The Best of Everything (1958), Five Women (1997) and The Road Taken (2000).  If Rona has a theme in her books, at least the one's I've read, it's the changing role of women in the 20th century.  Her bestselling classic The Best of Everything for example is about four young women who come to New York to work in publishing and hopefully find Mr. Right.  The book was ahead of its time and along with Five Women well worth reading.

I wish I could say the same for The Road Taken but at least for me I found it a sad book which maybe I needed to be in a better frame of mind to appreciate.  The premise of the novel is interesting.  We follow the life of Rose Smith born on Jan 1 1900 and the book ends in 1999 with Rose about to turn one-hundred.  It's a journey through the turbulent and often tragic 20th century.

The Road Taken is also about Rose's three daughters Peggy, Joan and Ginger who will face choices their mother's generation never faced.  We follow the story of Rose's brother Hugh.  As a young boy he knows he has feelings for other boys that he can't share with anyone.  But by the time The Road Taken ends Hugh, age 80 with his partner Teddy, is going on protest marches to raise money for AIDS research.

Hugh and his sister Rose remain close all their lives possibly because they have an optimistic spirit and they change with the times.  This is also true of Rose's youngest daughter Ginger a brilliant and kind-hearted young woman who is stricken with polio at age 16.  It leaves her in a wheelchair but Ginger is determined to graduate from medical school and go into research and through hard work and determination that's exactly what she does.

Ginger's older sisters, Peggy and Joan, have a harder time managing the 20th century and they are constantly at war with each other.  They are too different and their relationship is permanently broken by a tragic accident that happens halfway through the novel.  Peggy is never able to completely forgive Joan for this accident and the best they will ever achieve is a cold peace.

And as we get deeper into the 20th century we see the enormous changes in society but also time passing by so quickly.  The Road Taken really brings this home in the story of Celia, Rose's stepmother.  Celia is a minor character in the novel, a good woman but rather direct in her advise which can exasperate her family.  The family also marvels at Celia's tremendous energy, going on cruises, volunteering, lunch with her girlfriends, never stopping. 

And then 3/4 of the way through The Road Taken there is a heartbreaking passage where Celia notices that when she calls her friends to chat and make lunch plans her friends  are becoming somewhat annoyed.  Their response is "Celia you just called me ten minutes ago".  Celia is puzzled but not yet alarmed.  She makes a joke about getting old.  The friends laugh as well but Celia begins keeping a list of her friends names on a notepad near the phone crossing out each name after she calls that person so that she will remember not to call them ten minutes later.  I wish I could say that this solves the issue for Celia but when you have seen this illness up close you know it only gets worse.

But on the plus side The Road Taken ends with Rose in pretty good health getting ready to celebrate her 100th birthday with her extended family.  And so to sum up I probably wasn't in the right mood to enjoy The Road Taken.  It got a little too real for me with Celia's story.  But I definitely recommend Five Women and The Best of Everything and I plan to read one or two more novels by Rona Jaffe going forward.

Swamp Story by Dave Barry

I had originally chosen Tourist Season by Carl Hiassen as one of my Ten Books of Summer.   But after a few chapters I realized Tourist Season was not for me and so I decided to go with another bestselling Florida writer, Dave Barry.   His latest novel Swamp Story (2023) is set in the Florida Everglades and focuses on a number of characters who have hit a rough patch and are hoping for something better. 

There is Jesse Braddock, her baby daughter Willa and Willa's father, Slater.  They all live in a cabin in the Everglades where Slater is dreaming of producing a reality TV show called Glades Man but in the meantime he is doing nothing but getting wasted.   Jesse knows that she and Willa need a way back to civilization.

Then there is Phil Teagler, an alcoholic ex-newspaperman.  Phil is looking for a way to make money, stop drinking and repair his relationship with his daughter Stella.  And we have Ken and Brad owners of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer who are trying to attract tourists to their failing business.  Ken at least is trying, Brad thinks it's hopeless.

And so the future is not looking bright when Swamp Story begins.  But then things begin to change.  Jesse discovers a fortune in gold bars buried in swamp land near her home.  She decides to hide the gold until she can figure out what to do.  But bad guys are also after the gold and they know that Jesse has it hidden

Meanwhile Phil is in a bar in Miami when Ken from Bortle Brothers approaches him.  Phil has become semi-famous due to an internet video where he and his friend Stu dressed up as Disney characters for a children's birthday party and the event went viral.  Ken sits down next to Phil with a proposal.

The plan involves Phil disguising himself as a character Ken has thought up  called The Everglades Melon Monster.  They'll film a few videos near Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer and post them online.  People will flock to the Everglades looking for the melon monster and Phil and Ken will split the profits from all the melon monster t-shirts and paraphernalia they'll be selling.  

Phil is skeptical but agrees to go along and the plan works very well.  Thousands of tourists descend on the Everglades looking for the monster and the problems for Jesse Phil, Ken and Brad continue from there.  Swamp Story also includes a separate plot in which a US Secretary of the Interior Witt Chastain, who hates going outdoors, heads down to the Everglades to launch the annual Python Challenge.  And all of these stories link up as we get to the end of the book.  

Swamp Story has been receiving alot of critical praise, including a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, and I wish I could be on board because I like Dave Barry.   Many of us came down years ago to a very different Florida than exists now and the fact that Barry is still living in Miami and still chronicling the weirdness here is comforting to those of us who would like to leave but can't.

And so I wanted to recommend Swamp Story and certainly the characters, Jesse, Phil, Brad and Ken are well drawn and realistic.  I was rooting for them.  But Swamp Story  began to drag for me the deeper I got into it.  Jesse's dilemna with the gold bars and her blossoming relationship with Brad I enjoyed.  But the melon monster storyline takes up a significant part of the novel and did not hold my interest.

But that's just me and Swamp Story is funny and Dave Barry is certainly someone to read, a reminder of the loveable weirdness that made Florida a fun place as opposed to what we have now.

H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Fifty pages into H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald (2014) I put the book down.  It was beautifully written, the international acclaim well deserved, but I am not a birder or particularly interested in nature books.  It was my fault, not the author's, for choosing the wrong genre.

But then a few weeks later I saw that H Is For Hawk was available on Audible as part of my membership.  The author, Helen Macdonald, was the reader and that's not always a great idea but in this case it worked out wonderfully.  Helen Macdonald is a an excellent reader and writer.  And when I got to the part of the book where Helen purchases her goshawk Mabel and retreats to the English countryside to begin Mabel's training I was hooked.  

And I particularly liked that Helen takes her treasured copy of T. H. White's memoir Goshawk (1951) with her on her journey.  T. H. White was a British writer best known for his classic novel The Once And Future King.  And throughout the course of H Is For Hawk, Helen rereads T. H. White's Goshawk and reflects on his life and her own:

"Like White I wanted to cut loose from the world, and I shared, too, his desire to escape to the wild, a desire that can rip away all human softness and leave you stranded in a world of savage, courteous despair."

And then there is Mabel, the young goshawk.  Helen does a good job in H Is For Hawk in trying to interpret what Mabel is thinking and feeling.  And it does seem at first that they are bonding. But part of training a hawk is taking them hunting and that's where the other side of Mabel emerges and it's disturbing.  At one point Helen is injured when Mabel turns on her in the woods

I would have sent Mabel packing at that point but for Helen, fascinated by hawks since childhood, training Mabel was a way to get over her grief at her father's death.  Training Mabel became a way to deal with that loss.  But Helen comes to realize through her experiences with Mabel and reflecting on T. H. White's life that isolating oneself from people is not the answer.  

H Is For Hawk is a book I didn't think I would be able to finish when I first picked it up and now I would say it's a five star read.

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) is Booth Tarkington's most famous novel and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1919.  Booth Tarkington would go on to win a second Pulitzer for Alice Adams in 1922.  That's not an easy thing to do and yet nowadays his novels have been relatively forgotten.  That's a shame because I rather liked The Magnificent Ambersons.  The characters and the story held my attention and I also think there are lessons in this novel about the dynamics within a family that remain relevant.

The Magnificent Ambersons takes place in Midland, a fictional town in Indiana at the start of the 20th century. Major Amberson the grandfather made his fortune in 1873 and with his money he begins building up the town of Midland. There is the Amberson Hotel, The Amberson Opera House, fountains, statues and above all there is the magnificent Amberson mansion where three generations of the Ambersons (the Major, his daughter Isabelle, her husband Wilbur Minafer, their son George Amberson Minafer and Aunt Fanny) reside.

One would think with all their wealth and social standing that the Ambersons would be an insufferable lot.  But actually the Major who is getting on in years just wants some peace and quiet. HIs daughter Isabelle a beautiful and lovely young woman in her day has retained that beauty and innocent good nature as the years have gone by. 

Isabelle when she was young had two suitors: Eugene Morgan and Wilbur Minafer. Eugene was the love of Isabelle's life but he was a bit wild when they were courting and so she picked the safer choice, her husband Wilbur. She is a good wife and Wilbur is a good man but then there is their only child George.  From the day he is born George is spoiled rotten.  Isabelle only sees the angel in him. The rest of the town sees something else and begins hoping that one day young George will get his “comeuppance”.

And the reader can see that day coming because for George "being" is more important than "doing".  He doesn't train for any career because he is counting on the Amberson name securing his wealth and status throughout his life.  But the early 20th century is bringing change to Midland.  New industries are flourishing, factories are opening up, automobiles are replacing horse drawn carriages.  Its becoming harder for wealthy families to live off their inheritance, particularly if like the Ambersons they start making bad investments.

But I came to the end of the novel feeling compassion for George Amberson Minafer because he's not a two dimensional character.  Yes he is a snob and deluded about what his future will look like if he doesn't start applying himself.  But George is not selfish and we see that clearly towards the end of the book in the generosity he shows his Aunt Fanny at considerable cost to himself.  Maybe George's true legacy was inheriting a bit of his mother's generous and thoughtful nature.

I recommend The Magnificent Ambersons.  Its the fourth book I have read for the Books of Summer Reading Challenge.  I better get a move on!

Top Ten Tuesday

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl  has an interesting challenge every Tuesday in which she picks a topic and asks readers and bloggers to choose a list of 10 books that conform to that topic.  Today's topic is Forgotten Backlist Titles - choose 10 books that you really enjoyed that no one really talks about much anymore.  Here are my ten and though many of these authors are well known these books are not read as much as they should be and that's a shame.  I would happily read all of them again:

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James

I have been meaning to read The Sun Down Motel since reading Lark's really fine review (larkwrites.blogspot.com) back in 2020.  I don't know why I didn't get to this novel sooner but now that I have I definitely plan to read more from Simone St James. 

The Sun Down Motel takes place in Fell NY, a small upstate town that has had more than its share of murders:  Betty Graham, Cathy Caldwell and Victoria Lee to be specific.  All murdered between 1978 and 1981 and all unsolved.

And then in 1982 Vivian Delaney age 20 arrives in Fell and takes a job working as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel. It's an eerie place with very few customers and it's haunted.  Viv wants to quit soon after she arrives but her family situation back home is not good and she needs the money.

And what also keeps Viv in Fell is learning about the murders of Betty, Cathy and Victoria.  Viv is bothered by the fact that these women have been forgotten and that their killer has not been caught.  Viv decides to do some investigating of her own.  And then Viv goes missing.  

Fast forward to 2017 and 20 year old Carly Kirk is working as a night clerk at the Sun Down.  Carly has come to Fell with a goal in mind, finding out what happened to her Aunt Viv thirty five years ago.  No one in her family ever talked about Viv's disappearance and as Carly tells us:

"It was only after Mom died that I got mad. Not at Mom, really—she was a teenager when Viv disappeared, and there wasn’t much she could have done. But what about everyone else? The cops? The locals? Viv’s parents? Why hadn’t there been a statewide search? Why had Viv been allowed to vanish into nothingness with barely a ripple?"

The chapters in the Sun Down Motel alternate between Viv's point of view in 1982 and Carly's in 2017.  I liked both women and their determination to solve these murders.  The novel has a larger theme which deals with missing women and how people should care more.  Viv and Carly do care and they are not willing to be bystanders, particularly Viv!

In addition to Viv and Carly The Sun Down Motel has a number of interesting and well drawn characters: the police officer Alma Trent, a local photographer Marnie Mahoney and Nick Harkness a young man who is staying at the Sun Down in 2017.  Nick agrees to help Carly find out what happened to her Aunt Viv and there is good chemistry between them that I think readers will enjoy.

So what did happen to Viv?  Who killed the missing women?  Is Carly in danger for trying to dig this up thirty-five years later?  All I can say is that the last 80 pages of the book tied it all together in a scary believable and page turning way.  I did not see the ending coming and it was well done.

Thank you Lark for recommending The Sun Down Motel.

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river

   And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever

   With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

   All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

   Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high heaven

   And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

   If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

   And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

   If thou kiss not me?

From reading The Outcasts I got the sense that Percy Bysshe Shelley could be reckless and rather thoughtless but he also had a generous nature.  He died young in a boating accident but as with Mary Shelley he was a brilliant writer and his poetry lives on.