Library & Literary Miscellany

Rhett Butler’s Peopleby Donald McCaig (2007)

Rhett Butler’s People, the fully authorized prequel/sequel, to Gone with the Wind gives us the story from Rhett Butler’s perspective. McCaig invents the backstory that shapes Rhett–the family black sheep and Southern “almost-but-not-quite” gentleman. Readers get the inside look at how and why Rhett starts, stops, and starts giving a damn. The story also provides justifications for the details that mar Rhett’s character in the original (for example, Rhett’s purported illegitimate son, his arrest for killing a black man, his Klan involvement).

Rhett Butler’s People narrates not just the story of Rhett and Scarlet but also the stories of others whose lives are connected with Rhett’s life. His beloved sister Rosemary, his illegitimate son in New Orleans Tazewell Watling, his free black friend Tunis Bonneau, his schoolmate turned rogue and war hero Andrew Ravanel, and others get expanded space to tell their own stories in McCaig’s novel.

Rhett Butler’s People also covers a wider time frame than Gone With the Wind. We are privy to Rhett’s childhood on a rice plantation before the war begins, his experiences as a blockade runner and soldier during the war, and his life in the Reconstruction Era after the war. All this leads up to choices that he and Scarlett are faced with regarding helping to reconstruct not only their beloved South and also with whether or not to bother reconstructing their relationship.

Overall, reading Rhett Butler’s People provides an entertaining and informative look into the Civil War Era, although, compared with Gone with the Wind, it does give short shrift to the Rhett and Scarlett saga. Still, those who enjoy US historical fiction may find it well worth taking a second look at a long ago damned love story with its added look into the war.

For other modern works that have taken alternative looks at old classics try March by Geraldine Brooks (Little Women) and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Jane Eyre). For another alternative look at Gone with the Wind, try The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall.

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The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander (2004)

“My name is Mikhail Semyonov. I live in Lake Forest village, Illinois state, the United States of America. I am ninety-four years old. I was born in Russia before the revolution. I was born in Tula province and my name then was not Mikhail or even Misha, as I am known here in America. No, my real name–the one given to me at birth–was Leonid Sednyov, and I was known as Leonka. Please forgive my years of lies, but now I tell you the truth.”

So begins Misha’s recounting of the real story of his emigration from Russia to the United States. Robert Alexander’s The Kitchen Boy unfolds Misha’s story by degrees–at times moving painstakingly slowly and at times rushing towards its inevitable, tragic conclusion of the assassination of the Romanov royals by the Bolsheviks.

After decades of silence, Misha tape records his story of the events surrounding the Romanov’s execution for his granddaughter to listen to upon his death; in his recording, he continues to weave together lies and truth. The guilt he feels over surviving that night when his beloved Romanovs met their deaths is palpable and becomes increasingly understandable as his narration unfolds.

Misha declares himself to have been the kitchen boy for the Romanov family for their last years through their final days in the House of Special Purpose in Yekaterinburg. In this role, he was charged with the task of carrying smuggling notes between the Romanovs and their purported rescuers. Their subsequent deaths mark his failure in this charge.

The recording reveals that for the remainder of his life he lives in the shadow of their deaths, repeatedly replaying the events of that night and questioning his actions prior to that night trying to deduce how he could have acted differently to save them. He says, “I am the last living witness and I alone know what really happened that awful night…just as I alone know where the bodies of the two missing children are…”

Misha’s story–The Kitchen Boy–is a story full of history, tragedy, guilt, love, and forgiveness. I would particularly recommend it for those interested in learning more about Russian history in general and the Russian Revolution of 1917 in particular or for those who enjoy stories full of mystery and conspiracy. Plus, Alexander throws in a twist at the end regarding the fate of the missing Romanovs. Robert Alexander is also the author of Rasputin’s Daughter and The Romanov Bride.

To find other books that center around theorizing and/or extrapolating on the Romanov’s execution and the missing children, try selecting one of the works from the annotated list of books over at Royalty.nu.

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Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (2007)

* reviewed based on an advance reading copy

“Generations of Waverleys had tended this garden. Their history was in the soil, but so was their future. Something was about to happen, something the garden wasn’t ready to tell her yet. She would have to keep a sharp eye out.”

Claire Waverley surmises that her life is about to change, and she is correct. Her sister Sydney is about to return to town. Regardless of how hard they have or have not tried, the Waverley women-who in the time span of this story consist of Claire, Sydney, Bay, and Evanelle–have not escaped their heritage as Waverleys. In small town Bascom, North Carolina, the Waverley family has always been viewed with suspicion for their odd prescience and for the mystical garden with the equally foresighted apple tree growing in it.

Each infamous Waverley woman has coped with public suspicion in her own way—Claire through closing herself off from others, Sydney through leaving, Bay through ignorance of anything amiss, and Evanelle by embracing it. As Garden Spells opens, many years have passed since Sydney’s flight from Bascom. At Sydney’s return to Bascom (with her five-year-old daughter Bay in tow) following her flight from an abusive husband, the Waverley women slowly begin to rebuild their relationships with each other and with the outside world.

It takes prodding from Evanelle, the eldest remaining Waverley, and from Bay, the youngest to help the two sisters Claire and Sydney to let go of their past hurts and their fear of public scrutiny and to embrace their special skills. Claire’s skills run to cooking and creating dishes that have powerful affects on people’s emotions and lives. Sydney’s gift is cutting hair.

Claire exerts careful controls over every aspect of her life, her love-life included. She’s afraid of letting herself love. She reasons that in loving she opens herself up to the possibility of getting hurt if those she loves end up leaving (like her mother and then her sister did). As Sydney says, “She just doesn’t like when she can’t control things. Some people don’t know how to fall in love, like not knowing how to swim. They panic first when they jump in. Then they figure it out.” Both Claire and Sydney spend the book figuring it out with the help of family, friends, neighbors, and other miscellaneous Bascom denizens (including, in Claire’s case, one particularly handsome and persistent neighbor).

The apple tree’s life force makes the herbs around it more potent. Also, consuming its apples has unprecedented effects on what one is able to see, bringing some knowledge to light that before eating the fruit had not been apparent (in other words, the apple tree in the Waverley’s garden has some parallels to the age-old tree in another garden in Eden). Together, Claire and Sydney learn to appreciate the garden’s magic and their own skills, and they discover anew how much they love and need each other.

And that’s pretty much Garden Spells in an apple seed (as opposed to a nutshell). I figured it was about time I reviewed this one since I picked up the ARC at ALA 2007 Annual and since Sarah Addison Allen just released a new book The Sugar Queen.

Other books involving cooking and magic and/or sisters and magic include The Wishing Box by Dashka Slater, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. For more relating to family myth/history, estrangement, and (more and less successful attempts at) reconciliation, try The Aguero Sisters by Christina Garcia, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, or The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

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Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (2007)

Omnes mundum facimus
(We all make the World)

Omnes mundum facimus is a central belief of the branch of a secret crime-fighting organization known as the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons (nickname: Bad Monkeys). The Bad Monkeys department works alongside other branches of the organization such as the Department for Optimal Utilization of Resources and Personnel (nickname: Cost-Benefits) and the Department of Ubiquitous Intermittent Surveillance (nickname: Panopticon) to expunge evil from the world by whatever means necessary.

Bad Monkeys kicks off with Jane Charlotte, a woman claiming to be a Bad Monkeys operative, narrating her story from within the walls of the psychiatric ward of the Las Vegas Clark County Detention Center. Dr. Vale enters “the nut wing” to interview/interrogate her, ostensibly to determine her sanity. Jane obligingly recounts for him all of her experiences leading up to her present position in the nut wing (in addition to possible insanity, she’s being held for murder).

Jane tells Dr. Vale that her actions with the Bad Monkeys organization have all been for the express purpose of ridding the world of evil. As Bad Monkeys personnel, she has the authority and the intel to eliminate “bad monkeys” who have evaded society’s usual modes of justice.

Jane’s conversation with Dr. Vale shifts back and forth between present day dialogue and flashbacks of Jane’s J.D. (juvenile delinquent) youth. Jane details her life pre-Bad Monkeys as well as her experiences after joining the Bad Monkeys.

As Dr. Vale listens to Jane’s story, he frequently requests clarification and points out incongruities. While Jane always has a ready answer, readers are left to wonder about the veracity of Jane’s tale and about the very existence of the Bad Monkeys organization.

Organization tools such as the N.C. (natural causes) gun nudge the book over into the realm of science fiction, but there’s a great deal of psychological drama and suspense here as well. In a book replete with plot twists and page turning events, just who’s a bad monkey and who’s not Ruff leaves up to debate until the book’s final pages.

Bad Monkeys is an adult book that may well also enthrall many young adults. For those looking for more, there’s always Ruff’s other works and/or the Bad Monkeys super secret website to explore (shhhh…). Or you could try choosing a book from one of the following booklists:

Overbooked: Psychological Suspense Crime Fiction Booklist This list contains “Darkly atmospheric stories, disturbing mind games, engrossing and compelling characters - stories that generate a sense of unease . . .” which seems to aptly match up with the ambience of Bad Monkeys.

Hennepin County Library: A Child’s Look into an Adult World: Quirky Psychological Fiction “This list is made up of books that deal with heavy subjects but are narrated by children, offering a somewhat innocent look at the highs and lows of modern life. If you appreciate a good mystery told from a psychologically unique perspective, some of these books are absolute winners!” (Note: the books on this list are Bad Monkeys read alikes in the sense that they contain psychological drama, but, by and large, they don’t have as much emphasis on the crime and/or suspense aspect).

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Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (2007)

Being as this book marks the fifth book into the Thursday Next series, one would imagine that Jasper Fforde might be running out of new ideas for his BookWorld and his characters. But that would be wrong thinking indeed as Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is every bit as inventive and delightful as the first four books in the series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. First Among Sequels is set 14 years after the last novel, Something Rotten, and, as usual, all is not right in the BookWorld and Thursday Next is needed to save the day.

To briefly, insomuch as possible, elucidate the world on which the series is based Fforde has basically created an alternate England where the BookWorld is more than just words on a page. Thursday works as a Jurisfiction literary detective for the Special Operations Network (or SpecOps); in this position, her raison d’etre is to investigate and correct anomalies in the literary world.

In First Among Sequels, Thursday, as usual, has quite a full plate what with her family problems, her issues with her proteges/replicas/clones, and the BookWorld dilemmas. To briefly elaborate:

• Family problems: Since SpecOps has been largely disbanded, Thursday has been working undercover as an Acme Carpets carpet layer. She has been omitting the truth about her daily activities to her struggling writer husband Landon. Her son Friday remains mired in the apathy of adolescence and shows no signs of embracing his predestined role as leader of the Chronoguard (the time travel force) anytime soon. One of her three children may not, in fact, exist. Her pet dodo Pickwick has lost its feathers and requires a knit sweater for warmth. Enough said.
• Protege/replica/clone issues: Thursday has had her adventures written up in a series of Thursday Next books which means that other versions of her exist in the BookWorld. Thursday has been charged with training both Thursday 5 (wimpy with a good heart) and Thursday 1-4 (nasty with plans of BookWorld domination) to become competent, productive agents of Jurisfiction.
• Bookworld dilemmas: There are many, but to name a few, the read rates are plummeting as the public gravitates to reality TV-watching, the Goliath corporation is mucking about trying to enter the BookWorld again with its probes, and a serial killer is on the loose who takes out series’ main characters, effectively killing the character and the series (Sherlock Holmes being just one of the characters to take a hit). The Council of Genres (COG) has been coming up with inane solutions in attempts to stem the plummeting read rates (e.g., Pride and Prejudice as a reality TV-like book (horrors!)).

Whew, and all that above really only touches the surface of what Fforde has going on in the book. Be warned that this book does spend more time outside the BookWorld than many of the previous books, but (for the most part) even these parts are amusing and inventive. Still, it’s the BookWorld activity that really makes the pages worth turning. First Among Sequels is zany, clever, and replete with unresolved plot lines that leaves room for additional forthcoming adventures with Thursday and her clan in the BookWorld.

Quotes I’d be Remiss to Miss:

“One of the odd things about the BookWorld was that when characters weren’t being read, they generally relaxed and talked, rehearsed, drank coffee, watched cricket or played mah-jongg. But as soon as a reading loomed, they all leaped into place and did their thing.”

“There was a distant hum and a rumble as the reading approached. Then came a light buzz in the air like staic and an increased heightening of the sense as the reader took up the descriptive power of the book and translated it into his or her own unique interpretation of the events–channeled from here through the massive imaginotransference Storycode Engines back at Text Grand Central and into the reader’s imagination. It was a technology of almost incalculable complexity, which I had yet to fully understand. But the beauty of the whole process was that the reader in the Outland never suspected there was a process at all–the act of reading was to most people, myself included, as natural as breathing.”

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Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (2007)

“I will be honest with you. I have no wisdom, none at all. The truest thing I can tell you is that whatever we have between us is all we’ve got. Oh, and of course Mr. Dickens.”

So begins Mr. Watts (Pop Eye) in his not-so confidence-instilling speech to the children at the inception of his informal, short-lived teaching career. Showing he does actually possess wisdom to some degree, Mr. Watts also tells the children “I want this to be a place of light…No matter what happens.” Mr. Watts is the sole remaining white man on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea throughout the dark times of the 1990s civil war.

In Mister Pip, Matilda narrates her story of going to school and learning about life and literature even as death and violence circles her village. As Matilda notes, school with Mr. Watts is different. “This was school, but not how I remembered it. Perhaps that’s why everything felt strange, as if we were trying to squeeze into an old life that didn’t exist anymore, at least not in the way we remembered.” Through Mr. Watts’ teaching methods, the children learn to navigate the new circumstances of their lives. A large piece of Mr. Watts teaching centers around helping the children discover new and personal connections with Mr. Dickens’ Great Expectations from which Mr. Watts reads one chapter every day.

To supplement Great Expectations and the other gaps in Mr. Watt’s knowledge (what is chemistry the study of again?), he invites the children’s parents into the classroom so that they can share their own particular knowledge. Out of these occasions the children come away with new insight into topics such as the color blue, faith, the devil, octopus slaughtering and turtle cooking techniques, sex, and weather forecasting (”Trust crabs above all others”). But it is the reading of Great Expectations that provides the classroom anchor and the daily haven even as the village is surrounded by both government and rebel troops.

As Pip and his story become more important and intertwined with the children’s stories, the parents become increasingly uneasy. Matilda’s mother, Dolores, in particular, feels that Great Expectations has no relevance to the children’s lives. For Dolores, her Bible is the only worthy book: “Faith is like oxygen. It keeps you afloat at all times,” and she worries that her daughter’s interest in Pip may lead her to disregard her ancestry and the teachings of the Good Book. Dolores begins to see Mr. Watts as her enemy and rival.

All of this unrest over Great Expectations leads to the only copy of the book disappearing, but by that time, the children know the story so well that they re-create Pip’s story from their memories and their imaginations. Mr. Watts teaches the children that they each have a unique voice and he encourages them to use it, “Your special gift that no one can ever take from you.”

Dolores’ insecurities about the book and about Matilda’s connections to it lead her to tell Matilda to record her ancestors’ names on the beach. Dolores hopes that this action will force Matilda to remember and revere her ancestors like she remembers the book. But Matilda feels more connected to Pip, and she ends up with “Pip” inscribed into the sand on the beach. When the redskins (government soldiers) see “Pip” written in the sand and when they keep hearing his name, they decide that Pip must be a rebel spy. They demand that he turn himself in.

The redskins issue ultimatums to the villagers that they procure Pip or else. Without the book and without a Pip to bring forth, Mr. Watts declares himself to be Pip, and he begins a multi-evening storytelling event in which the tale he tells is partly Pip’s, partly the islanders’, and partly his own as soldiers and villagers alike listen on. All do not live happily ever after, however, as this is war and the redskins and the rebels trust no one and treat others’ with wartime brutality.

Mister Pip stands as a profound post-colonial work commenting on story construction and the power of story, the atrocities of war, and the vicissitudes of human morality. Mister Pip has been recognized as such, making the short list for the Man Booker Prize and winning the Commonwealth Prize and the Alex Award (click here for more Alex Award Winners: adult books with special appeal for young adults).

Takeaway Quotes:

“A gentleman is a man who never forgets his manners, no matter the situation. No matter how awful, or how difficult the situation…A gentleman will always do the right thing.”

“…to be human is to be moral, and you cannot have a day off when it suits”

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)

*some spoilers follow

Nana said, “Learn this and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

In his first novel following the success of the The Kite Runner, Hosseini once again brings readers into Afghanistan. Whereas The Kite Runner focuses on telling the story of boys and men, A Thousand Splendid Suns portrays the lives of two Afghan women. Hosseini relates Miriam and Lila’s stories as women in Afghanistan during a time when their country devalued and disrespected women’s rights and provided them with restricted power of choice in the events of their own lives.

“Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami…Mariam did surmise, by the way Nana said the word, that it was an ugly, loathsome thing to be a harami, like an insect, like the scurrying cockroaches Nana was always cursing and sweeping out of the kolba.” Mariam’s classification as a harami positions her to be rejected by respectable members of Afghan society. Accordingly, following Nana’s death, Miriam has little choice but to accept the marriage proposal of Rasheed, a man who turns out to value his wives only for what they can give him–progeny. When it turns out that Miriam cannot, in fact, give him this desire, he turns the full force of his cruelty and abuse upon her.

The parallel story is that of Laila whose circumstances also conspire to force her into marriage with Rasheed–Laila’s parents have been killed, and she is pregnant by a man whom she loves but believes to be dead. Laila marries Rasheed, and, for a time, Laila and Mariam are the bitterest of enemies until they become the best of friends.

The story shifts back and forth between the perspectives of these two women as together they endure in their country perpetual war under different rulers with different level of tolerance of women–Soviets, the mujahideen, the Taliban. Together they endure in their home life perpetual fear, powerlessness, and abuse. Because they are together, they also help each other to hope for a better future for Laila’s children. When Taliq (Laila’s childhood love) returns, the far-off promise of hope draws near to reality.

A Thousand Splendid Suns reveals the lives of two women whose courage, resilience, and love keeps them going and makes them memorable characters; it also shows the interconnections between sacrifice and redemption, situation and choice, and power and powerlessness. For other books that are set in and around Afghanistan try:

Non-fiction:

• Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
• The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
• The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan by Christina Lamb
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan by Ann Jones
• Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom by Sulima and Hala and Batya Swift Yasgur

Fiction:

• Measuring Time by Helon Habila
• The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
• The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
• The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
• Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples (young adult)

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The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian (2007)

Double Bind (definition from Dictionary.com)

n. A psychological impasse created when contradictory demands are made of an individual, such as a child or an employee, so that no matter which directive is followed, the response will be construed as incorrect.

Laurel Estabrook is nineteen years old when her life is irrevocably altered by a brutal attack. She was riding her bicycle on the roads of Underhill, Vermont when the attack happened, and she has subsequently given up bicycle riding and she avoids any and all mention of Underhill. Not only does she give up bicycling, but she also withdraws from life in many other respects. She occupies herself with “safe” pursuits–her photography and her work at BEDS, a homeless shelter in Burlington. It is at BEDS that Laurel meets the fifty-six-year-old transient Bobbie Crocker.

Bobbie’s claims of past fame were regarded as those of a mentally ill man when he was alive. It is not until his death when he is discovered to possess a photograph collection that supports his claims. BEDS workers (Laurel, in particular) begin to wonder who Bobbie was and where he came from. The collection contains old photographs with famous people–musicians, sculptors, and more–as well as more recent photographs from Underhill. Mysteriously, a few of the photographs show a dirt road and a girl on a bike. Also in the collection are photos of a mansion–the home of Pamela Buchanan Marshfield, daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby fame.

Bohjalian’s complex and enigmatic intertwining of the stories of Laurel, Bobbie, and Pamela renders the ending as a surprise but also as an ending that, in retrospect, makes complete sense. He augments the significance and mystery of his story by playing off the plot of The Great Gatsby such that as Laurel digs into Bobby’s past the secrets of the Buchanans become increasingly central.

If you like psychological thrillers where you have to dig and keep reading to uncover the real story, then Bohjalian’s The Double Bind will be a good pick. The book does skip among characters and perspectives and time frames, so it can be confusing. In the end, you may still not know what constitutes the real story, but through turning the pages of Laurel’s story you may have an increased insight into the dire straits of the homeless, the vulnerability of the mental ill, and the long lasting scars from past trauma.

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Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (hardcover 2006, softcover 2007)

Suite Francaise requires slow and careful reading in order to appreciate its scope, its historical significance, and its range of human characters and emotions. Suite Française—comprising the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—succeeds as a piece of literature that probes the heights and depths of human nature.

Suite Francaise’s first part, ‘Storm in June,’ details the characters’ hasty departure from Paris in the summer of 1940. The second part, ‘Dolce,’ details life in a German occupied French village. In each of these parts, Nemirovsky weaves together multiple stories seamlessly so that readers recognize that while the experience of war does look different depending on one’s angle–whether it be victor or vanquished–war has long-lasting, deleterious effects on all who come within its inexorable reach.

Characters from Part 1 (such as the family Pericands, writer Gabriel Corte, gas-thief Charles Langelet, the bank employee Michauds) and from Part 2 (such as Lucile Angellier and her mother-in-law, their live-in German commander Bruno von Falk, and Benoît and Madeleine Sabarie) each have his or her moral fiber tested to the breaking point (and, in many cases, broken) by the war.

In both parts, Nemirovsky juxtaposes extraordinary scenic beauty and human cruelty. She shows the raw and ranging emotion experienced by all individuals touched by the war–fear and resignation, contempt and compassion, narcissism and selflessness, revenge and forgiveness, hate and love. Suite Francaise’s poignancy and tragedy is augmented by its author’s fate; in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Irene Nemirovsky died a month later at the age of thirty-nine leaving the world with only story fragments and plot outlines of the remaining three pieces of her masterpiece.

For more works by Nemirovsky, 2007 saw the publishing of Fire in the Blood a posthumously published work that also speaks to village life in France (albeit pre-war this time) as well as to the human condition.

As a side note, IMDB lists Suite Francaise as possibly being a future 2009 movie. There’s really no information available at the link, but I thought I’d point it out as something to be watching for anyway.

As a second side note, I am a big fan of Metacritic as a source of media reviews (and as a source for my own what do I read, view, listen to next). You will find that Suite Francaise tops the list of all-time highest book reviews scores with 95 out of 100. An incredible score for an incredible, significant work.

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The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (hardcover 2006, softcover 2007)

Mythology, storytelling, books in general—these topics are paramount in the lives of the characters of The Thirteenth Tale. “All children mythologize their birth” begins the prologue of Vida Winter’s collection of tales Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, a collection from which the thirteenth tale is inexplicably missing.

When young reclusive, literature lover and biographer Margaret Lea meets older, master storyteller Vida Winter, the secrets of the thirteenth tale that have lived buried in the past for so long are inexorably brought to bear on the present. Both women have secrets and both women are longing for a chance to share those secrets. Their outlet comes in the eccentric relationship that develops between them; in this relationship, they find empathy and understanding as they share their secrets with each other and, in so doing, set the truth free.

Margaret agrees to become Vida’s biographer, if and only if, Vida tell her the truth. Vida, a consummate storyteller has given myriad versions of her life to many other news seekers. However, this time Vida agrees that she will relate only truth. As Vida begins telling her story, the past and the present begin to coalesce. This story-within-a-story gothic tale lays bear truths of familial bonds, of destructive relationships, of loves and of losses that, in the end, cannot stamp out the strength of the human spirit.

The Thirteenth Tale delves deep into the past as it draws upon gothic constructs to revive the past—beginning with the strangeness encompassing the Angelfield family—from the sadistic and masochistic proclivities of siblings Charlie and Isabelle passing forward onto Isabelle’s equally unstable twins Adeline and Emmeline. To add to the gothic ambience, Setterfield throws in ghosts, orphans, mental illness, lunatic asylums, destroyed gardens, a downtrodden estate, a wily governess, a wise but aging housekeeper and gardener, and a fatal fire with cataclysmic consequences.

Margaret’s meticulous research and relentless observation imbues a sense of reality and forthcoming answers into the mysterious plot. Setterfield’s novel has a touch of Jane Eyre-like creepiness and insanity smattered with a sprinkling of Rebecca-like mystery.

Words, both true and untrue, are shown to have powerful and lasting effects on life. Setterfield’s masterfully layered novel requires careful attention in order to understand the truths about human nature and the continuing relevance of the past to the present that she buries within The Thirteenth Tale.

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