How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny

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When I get really stressed out, there’s nothing like a good mystery to transport me from my worries. Louise Penny is a new go-to for me. Her tales of The Chief is Homicide of the Sureté of Quebec, Armand Gamache, are set in the picturesque village of Three Pines, an isolated town that doesn’t even appear on the map. Gamache is a master detective, always one step ahead of his foes. But he’s also a people person, able to recognize the unique talents and abilities of the devoted but quirky staff he surrounds himself with. Another thing I like about Penny is that she is not too dark or violent (like some Scandinavian detective fiction). It’s a page turner but it won’t cause nightmare.

How the Light Gets In is #9 in a series of 13. While the stories can stand on their own, there is a strong meta-narrative that spans the series. In this book Gamache is trying to solve the murder of Constance Oulette, one of the famous (fictional) Oulette Quintuplets. But there is a back story of department corruption which references prior books in the series. I am now going back to fill in the gaps and reading the series in order.

In spite of some holes in my understanding, I couldn’t put this book down and can’t wait to read more.

While perhaps this is not fine literature, for a good mystery I give this a 4.5👍 out of 5👍.

The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

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The Great Gadsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This entry is a double header because The Chosen and the Beautiful is a rewrite of The Great Gadsby from the perspective of Jordan.

It has probably been 30 years since I last read Gadsby so I felt compelled to re-read it before starting Chosen. The rereading was helpful to fully appreciate Vo’s project of retelling the story from a female centric sex-positive and culturally diverse perspective. In retrospect I think I might have been better off reading Gadsby after Chosen so I could experience it fresh and not solely through the lens of the original.

Rereading Gadsby made me appreciate anew the original novel, and Fitzgerald’s beautiful prose. While The Chosen re-figured this foundational narrative of class and exclusion to cast a wider net of difference, it seemed somehow a weak gesture in comparison to the original.

Others I’ve spoken who didn’t try to read the Chosen relationally, seemed to enjoy it as an independent narrative. This reinforced for me the feeling that I might have done better rereading Gadsby after rather than before.

Accordingly I give The Chosen and the Beautiful 3.5👍 out of 5👍.

The Great Gadsby tests out of my rating scale.

Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan

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Jennifer Egan lives in Brooklyn, and one of the great pleasures of this book is the life she brings to its historic structures- the Navy Yard, the Coney Island Parachute Drop, the Red Hook Waterfront, the old houses of Clinton Hill.

This is all just the backdrop however for the inspiring story of Anna Kerrigan, a single woman in Brooklyn in the 1930’s who has the courage to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her father, and also pursue her dangerous dream of becoming a deep sea diver. Anna develops an informal network of women friends who help her overcome her challenges. Nell lends her a bike so she can run out during her lunch hour to watch the divers practice and get back to work on time. Rose invites her to stay with her family so she live closer to the Navy Yard and not tarnish her reputation by living alone. Her Aunt Brianna accompanies her across the country and helps her reinvent her life and care for her child.

Egan deeply researched the stories of Navy Yard workers and this shows in the specificity of the story- the weight of the diving suit, the different classes of married and unmarried working women, how families cared for special needs children. These details made this novel so captivating, and also inspiring.

I give Manhattan Beach 5👍 out of 5👍

The Future of Another Timeline, by Annalee Newitz

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This feminist time travel novel will change your relationship to history and politics. Newitz’s description of going back in time to “edit the timeline” and change the future is a radical re-visioning of how small changes made by collective action can alter our future. A must read I give this book 5👍 out of 5👍.

Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro

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In Klara and the Sun, Ishiguro takes us on a compelling but very disorienting journey into the future. The story is narrated by an Artificial Friend – a sentient robot named Klara. Klara has the ability to learn and observe new things, and even reflect on them. But she is also limited in some mysterious ways by her construction. For example when presented with a new space, her mind grids off her field of view into 24 boxes, which seem to help her process new visual information. This is never explained to the reader; just as Klara is trying to decode the human world, the reader must decode the perceptions of Klara.

In this imaginary future America some event has occurred, which has divided our society into the “lifted” and the left behind. We hear humans talk in passing about the bewildering new caste system, but Klara rarely asks questions, or at least the questions we want her to ask.

What actually does it mean to be lifted? Is it a physical process? A medical procedure? A magical intervention? Or is it a more banal way of describing a large scale gifted and talented program? These questions nag at you throughout the book but remain unanswered.

In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, our attention is shifted to the characters’ relationships. Through our robot eyes however, interpersonal life is equally confusing. Is the AF a machine that you put in the trunk of the car, or a person who rides in the front seat? It seems the AF is something in between- not an equal member of the household – present and listening but standing in the corner. One keeps waiting for Klara to express resentment or anger at the inequality, but Klara seems to only exist to serve, and seems totally content with her life.

There are many other mysteries in this novel, but they are better read than explained. I give this book 4👍 out of 5👍.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

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This book starts as historical fiction and slides into magical realism so gently I questioned my browser as to what was real and what was not.

Set in Victorian London, the narrator, Thaniel Steepleton, is a telegraph clerk in the British Home Office who one day receives a bomb threat from Irish separatists. Returning home the night of the threat, he discovers an intricate gold pocket watch, which Thaniel is unable to open. The watch has no note or clue as to its origin. Then mysteriously on the morning of the impending Irish bomb, the watch suddenly clicks open. Thaniel is both intrigued and terrified when the watch suddenly emits a piercing alarm, which takes Thaniel away from the path of the bomb and saves his life.

Thaniel seeks out the watchmaker, and soon finds Keita Mori, a Japanese master craftsman with a love for making intricate mechanical creatures. A mechanical octopus attaches itself to Thaniel’s leg. Mechanical birds perch on the counter.

Mori’s magic with the mechanical is surpassed however by his ability to see the future. Mori casually mentions to Thaniel at the end of their first meeting that on his next date he should watch out for the waiter dropping his tray. Thaniel is ready when the waiter’s grip slips and avoids catastrophe.

Thaniel realizes that Mori’s uses his abilities to create elaborate ploys to change the future. An assassination plot is hatched by pouring liquid in the base of a tree he frequently passes, thus weakening its root system until one day it falls on an unsuspecting victim.

Watchmaker is full of elaborate constructions and intricate secrets and puzzles. But it also has moments of great tenderness and intimacy. I found this the most pleasurable book I’ve read in a long time and give it a 5👍 out of 5!

I am already on my third book by Natasha Pulley. All books contain the same mix of historical fiction and magic. Some of the characters, like Mori, make repeat appearances in the series. They all share this same sense of adventure and intrigue which is hard to put down!