Carol's Comments September 2016

Carol’s Comments September 2016

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. Of all my favorite books, I love Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte the most. I first read it at age 12 when I bought the Penguin Classics paperback edition from the Scholastic Book Club in seventh grade. Bronte’s classic was so unforgettable and moving that I’ve read it many times throughout my life. In fact, it fueled my love for Gothic themes in fiction and films ever since. 

So when I learned from the New York Times Book Review that Charlotte Bronte (born April 21, 1816) would be celebrating her 200^th birthday this year, I decided to commemorate it by dedicating a blog to her by focusing on several recent books inspired by her and her literary masterpiece. When I started to explore my choices, I remembered that I already read some excellent re-imaginings of Jane Eyre such as Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Margot Livesey’s The Fight of Gemma Hardy in 2012.

The first book I chose was The Madwoman Upstairs by first time novelist Catherine Lowell. Set in 2013 Oxford, England, Lowell’s story centers on Samantha Whipple, a 20 year old American college student and last remaining Bronte family descendent.

After Samantha’s eccentric Bronte scholar father Tristan Whipple dies in a fire, she learns from a British National Bank representative that her father stated in his handwritten will that her true inheritance was a long lost artifact called the Warnings of Experience. Very confused by this revelation, Samantha enlists the help of her handsome professor James Orville to unravel the mystery of her real inheritance through encrypted clues her father leaves for her in the Bronte sisters’ novels and significant places around Oxford University, particularly at the Old College. While trying to discover facts about her strange inheritance, she unearths some long buried family secrets which mainly concern her father and his obsession with his Bronte ancestors.

Lowell’s cleverly written novel, almost bordering on historical biography helps the reader learn a lot about the Bronte sisters unconventional lives and their motivations  and meaning for writing their respective novels: Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and of course Jane Eyre. I especially enjoyed The Madwoman Upstairs because it takes place in academia, a totally unexpected quirky setting for a fast-paced adventure story. Ultimately, this utterly captivating book filled with many unexpected plot twists will thoroughly delight anyone who adores gothic fiction with a modern edge. 

After finishing The Madwoman Upstairs, the novel piqued my interest in the Bronte family even more.  So I then selected the new biography Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman. This comprehensive biography which reads like a historical novel actually chronicles the lives of the entire Bronte clan beginning with Charlotte’s father Patrick Bronte (born in 1777) who sadly outlived his wife Maria and all his six children. He died in 1861 at age 84.

After their two older sisters Maria and Elizabeth both died young of tuberculosis in 1825, the remaining four siblings Charlotte, her brother Branwell and younger sisters Emily and Anne were literary prodigies. For example, as children they already designed intricate fantasy worlds in their juvenile stories; Charlotte and Branwell creating Angria while Emily and Anne rivaling their older brother and sister with their alternate imaginary kingdom Gondal. 

Harman’s well researched biography gives the reader insight into Charlotte Bronte’s life and how her various stints as governess especially her employment in 1842 as tutor for Constantin Heger’s three daughters in Brussels greatly influenced Jane Eyre’s narrative and character development . For instance, Heger later became the model for Edward Rochester as well as inspiration for other male protagonists in Bronte’s lesser known novels like Villette. Published in 1847, Jane Eyre is the first novel to use a first person child narrator.

Harman's enlightening biography could be easily transformed into a feature film or a Masterpiece Classic miniseries. I highly recommend it.

I’m not particularly attracted to reading short stories. They always seem to end too abruptly. I much prefer novels because I can immerse myself in them for hours. However, after I read a positive review in the New York Times about Reader. I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre, many of the fanciful tales described by the reviewer intrigued me so much I decided to be adventurous and sample a few of them. 

Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the collection includes 21 provocative stories by today’s most innovative women authors like Emma Donoghue, author of the bestselling novel Room. After reading every story, I thought the more contemporary ones which focused on various concepts and phrases from the original novel were lackluster, a bit superficial and strangely disconnected.

My favorite stories re-imagined Jane Eyre through different perspectives. Here are four that fascinated me the most:

First, in Grace Poole Her Testimony by Helen Dunmore, Bertha Mason’s caretaker has a very different opinion about the new governess living at Thornfield Hall. Next Salley Vickers’ Reader, She Married Me, hauntingly recounts Bronte’s classic through Edward Rochester’s viewpoint. He tragically reveals the real reason why his wife Bertha went insane. This story reminded me a lot of Wide Sargasso Sea.  Then Frances Prose’s The Mirror describes what happens to Jane and Rochester after they wed. Set in the present day and including many of the original book’s characters, this retelling offers a very surreal parallel universe perspective of what could have happened at Thornfield Hall without a madwoman in the attic.

Finally, in The Orphan Exchange, Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveller’s Wife,sets Bronte’s masterpiece in a dystopian future where young Jane lives at the Orphan Exchange  after her parents are killed in war. Niffenegger especially focuses on Jane’s beloved friend Helen by imagining a completely different destiny for her with Jane.

Reader, I Married Him also features a short biographical sketch about Charlotte Bronte along with a biographical note section on all 21 contributors who discuss what elements in Jane Eyre influenced them the most.

After much trepidation and uncertainty, I finally decided to pick Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye as my next book. I avoided reading the novel for months mainly due to its macabre and rather ghoulish theme. However, every time I browsed the New Fiction shelves, several copies were always there tantalizing me. Finally, I just couldn’t resist!  Ironically when I did request it, the book was only available at the River Park Branch. So I guess I was destined to review it for this blog.

Set in Victorian England, Jane Steele begins her confessional autobiography by recalling her first murder at age 9 when she accidently (on purpose) kills her lecherous cousin Edwin Barbary when he attempts to molest her. Soon afterward, her beloved mother Anne Laure-Steele dies of a laudanum overdose. Then Jane’s hardships really begin.

Soon afterward, her wicked Aunt Patience Barbary forces her to leave Highgate House, her father Jonathan Steele’s family estate and attend the infamous Lowan Bridge School.  During her seven years there, Jane survives by becoming an expert liar. She and the other students endure the cruelties of Headmaster Vesalius Munt especially dreading his daily Reckonings.

Fortunately, Jane becomes best friends with Becky Clarke and would do anything to protect her. When Jane turns 16, Munt punishes her young friend for breaking a minor rule by withholding food from her for weeks. Jane desperately pleads with Munt for mercy. When Munt gives Jane the abominable choice of entering an insane asylum so Becky will live or staying at Lowan Bridge School and watch her friend slowly starve to death, she murders the sadistic headmaster by stabbing him in the neck with a letter opener.

Obsessed with Charlotte Bronte’s new novel Jane Eyre, Miss Steele senses a strange connection between Eyre’s personal struggles and her own tumultuous life. She even models her own grisly memoir after the title heroine’s engaging autobiography. For instance, Author Lyndsay Faye adds appropriate quotes from Bronte’s original story at the top of each chapter in her re-imagined novel to illustrate similarities in the two protagonists’ narratives.

After Jane escapes to London, the plot fast-forwards to 1851. Now 24 years old and a four time murderess, Jane makes a living by writing lurid tales called “Last Confessions” of newly executed criminals in London’s notorious East End.

One day, she sees an advertisement for a governess to tutor a nine year old girl at Highgate House. She quickly applies for the position after creating false references sent to a mysterious post office box. She readily accepts the position under the alias Jane Stone.

When Jane arrives at Highgate House, she meets the enigmatic butler Mr. Sardar Singh, Charles Thornfield, the estate’s new owner and his young ward. Jane secretly plans to regain her inheritance even if she must murder Thornfield to do so. Complications ensue when Jane falls in love with Thornfield soon after she recovers from leg injuries suffered in an accident.

Like Edward Rochester, Charles Thornfield has many hidden mysteries from his past. The details are more convoluted but still thrilling. As they both grow closer, Thornfield reveals several deep secrets from his life in Lahore as a military doctor during the Sikh wars. 

When Jane commits another murder in self - defense that inadvertently saves Thornfield’s life, she abruptly leaves Highgate House to discover if she can still inherit her father’s estate. While doing so, she uncovers some incredibly shocking family secrets of her own.

Although many reviews sensationalize Jane Steele as a “serial killer” governess, I view her more as an intrepid and resourceful anti-heroine. Reminiscent of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, Edgar Allan Poe’s creepy atmospheric mysteries and a sprinkle of Charles Dickens, Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye’s spectacular tribute to Gothic fiction is the perfect novel for Halloween.

When I finished Jane Steele, I didn’t want to leave Charlotte Bronte and her brilliant literary masterpiece quite yet. After indulging in the Downton Abbey marathon on PBS over the Labor Day weekend, I decided to watch several film adaptations of Jane Eyre.

Since I already reviewed the definitive 1944 film version starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine for this blog four year ago, I first selected the newest adaptation released in 2011. Starring Michael Fassbender as Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as the title heroine, Moira Buffini’s screenplay tells the story mostly in flashback. Although this technique gave the movie a very lush art house film look, the scenes depicting Jane’s miserable childhood living with her cruel aunt and her years at Lowood School seem somewhat incomplete and choppy. Most characters feel rather underdeveloped and peripheral. If I didn’t already know the plotline, the film would be very confusing. More importantly, there is absolutely no sexual chemistry or passion between the lead actors at all. The movie’s only memorable performance is Michael Fassbender’s- mainly due to his enormous sex appeal.

Utterly disappointed in my first film choice, I then watched the 1983 eleven part BBC miniseries starring Timothy Dalton as Edward Rochester and Zelah Clarke as Jane Eyre. With its videotape format, this very faithful adaptation by Alexander Baron reminded me of the original Poldark series starring Robin Ellis broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre in the 1970s. This version splendidly captures the romance and fervor found in Charlotte Bronte’s original story. I would rate it second only to the 1944 feature film classic. Coincidentally, Timothy Dalton also portrayed Heathcliff in the 1970 remake of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights co-starring Anna Calder-Marshall.

All the books and movies reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St. Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at libraryforlife.org for additional information. 

A quick note to my loyal readers: I will be taking a brief hiatus from my blog for a few months so I can binge watch all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls before the new four part follow-up series debuts on Netflix November 25 as well as attending the Dressing Downton costume exhibit at The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana this Fall. Thanks for reading! See you all again in 2017!

Carol's Comments June 2016

Carol’s Comments June 2016

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. After a rather hectic start to 2016, I definitely needed to indulge in some escapist reading this spring and summer.

Despite treating myself to a Downton Abbey Season 6 mini binge marathon over the Memorial Day weekend and faithfully watching Call the Midwife, Grantchester and the final season of Mr. Selfridge on PBS every Sunday, I still suffered from a profound case of Downton Abbey withdrawal. I knew I needed to recapture my love for early 20th century England by finding a novel with similar themes.

While desperately searching for the perfect remedy, I discovered two positive reviews about The Summer Before the War, the new bestseller by Helen Simonson. The first review was in the always reliable Entertainment Weekly. But the second was in a most unexpectedly unusual source: Martha Stewart Living’s March 2016 issue!  The magazine featured Simonson’s second novel as a recommended selection for National Reading Month.

Set primarily in Rye, East Sussex England during the summer of 1914, Simonson’s novel focuses on Beatrice Nash, a very independent, progressive young schoolteacher hired by aristocrat Agatha Kent to teach Latin at the local school. When Beatrice arrives, she meets Mrs. Kent’s two nephews, Hugh Grange, a young aspiring medical student/surgeon and his flamboyant younger cousin, avant-garde poet Daniel Bookham.

At first, the townspeople have a difficult time adjusting to Beatrice’s modern thinking, assertive personality and teaching methods. However, with strong support from Agatha, her husband John (a British Foreign Office official) and especially Hugh Grange, Rye’s conservative education committee begrudgingly agrees to retain her. 

When World War I finally erupts in August 1914, the narrative vividly describes how the war’s brutalities directly and indirectly affect the town. For instance, the citizens reluctantly welcome Belgian refugees to their idyllic world when Rye forms the Belgian Relief Committee. Then later when Hugh, Daniel and other local young men enlist, they and their friends and relatives experience modern warfare’s horrors firsthand.

Despite the novel’s rather sentimental tone and colorful and eccentric characters, the book also carefully explores important themes concerning the realities of war, the refugee crisis, women’s rights and blatant prejudice and discrimination within England’s rigid class system.

The Summer Before the War seemed like a blend of Downton Abbey and a modern Jane Austen novel. I found it very poignant ad heartbreaking at times. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical novels set in early 20^th century England.

Next, I wanted to shift away from romantic historical fiction and find a fun, quirky, fast-paced novel to lift my spirits. So one day while scanning American Libraries online, I came across an article listing the perfect guilty pleasure summer reads. The book that tantalized me the most was Mr. Penumbra’s 24- Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.

Sloan’s zany novel begins in early 21^st century San Francisco when young unemployed web designer Clay Jannon accepts a nighttime clerk position at a weirdly mysterious 24 hour bookstore owned by the eccentric Mr. Penumbra.

Clay quickly notices that along with the infrequent regular customer, several strange rather offbeat people come in and check out creepy books filled with encrypted symbols located in the dark cavernous recesses of the bookshop.  Clay eventually discovers that Penumbra’s store acts as camouflage for a secret book cult known as the Fellowship of the Unbroken Spine. Founded in the 15^th century by Aldus Manutius, one of the first book publishers of Greek and Roman classics, the Fellowship’s followers have attempted to decipher their founder’s Codex Vitae hoping to unlock the secrets of eternal life for over 500 years!

Clay enlists his tech savvy friends: Matt, a special effects designer for Industrial Light and Magic, Kat Potente, a perky Google computer programmer/code breaker and Neel Shah, a young self-made Silicon Valley entrepreneur to help him unravel the Founders Puzzle’s true meaning.

When Penumbra suddenly disappears after Clay steals the Fellowship’s logbook, Clay, Neel and Kat discover that Penumbra has gone to the Unbroken Spine’s New York headquarters safely hidden within the Festina Lente Company ( a business owned by cult’s current leader) to be reinstated back into the Fellowship. The trio hurriedly travel to New York City and intercept Penumbra before he reaches his destination,  

Succumbing to Penumbra’s relentless insistence, the group reluctantly enters the Festina Lente Company where they find Manutius’ original Codex Vitae. Kat is especially confident that Google can decode it in two weeks. Clay and his friends soon realize it is nearly impossible to steal the codex and take it to Google for scanning. They must bring the scanner to the codex. To accomplish this task, they would need James Bond with a Library Science degree! :-) When this effort fails, Clay uses human ingenuity and basic Internet search techniques to successfully solve this complex puzzle.

Ultimately, this very imaginative digital age fairy tale reminiscent of TNT’s The Librarian miniseries starring Noah Wyle is a wild, rollicking adventure that will thoroughly delight almost every reader.  I highly recommend it – especially to reference librarians!

I love the Beatles – especially Paul McCartney.  I typically never review books over 500 pages for this blog. But when I saw in The New York Times Book Review and the St Joseph County Public Library’s online column BUZZED About Nonfiction that Philip Norman had recently written the mammoth 853 page biography Paul McCartney: the Life, I just couldn’t resist!

Although Norman never personally interviewed McCartney for this comprehensive book, Sir Paul gave him “tacit approval” to discuss his personal and professional life with family, friends, music colleagues and associates.

Filled with fabulous photographs, this extensive biography chronicles McCartney’s fascinating life from his childhood, the formation and subsequent breakup of the Beatles through his solo career and beyond.

Since I already knew a lot about the Beatles and Paul’s significant contribution to the group through The Beatles Anthology and the authorized biography The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, I took a nonlinear approach to the book focusing on chapters concerning McCartney’s complicated relationship with John Lennon, his post-Beatles musical career and his marriages to Linda Eastman, Heather Mills and Nancy Shevell. 

Despite its rather provocative style and tabloid format, Paul McCartney: the Life is an essential must-read for all Beatles fans, Ironically, I finished reading this biography on June 18^th, Paul McCartney’s 74^th birthday. Happy Birthday Sir Paul!

All the books reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at libraryforlife.org for more information. Thanks for reading! See you all again next time.

Carol's Comments March 2016

Carol’s Comments March 2016

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. After surviving an extremely hectic holiday season, I definitely needed to indulge in some literary and cinematic comfort food during this past winter. Being a very fervent – and rather obsessed Downton Abbey fan, I decided to binge-watch Season 5 before the program’s series finale premiered on January 3. I also started reading Jessica Fellowes’ Series 5 companion book, A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions and Recipes.

Filled with lavish photographs, this gorgeous book examines the social history of 1920s  England through the context of Downton Abbey’s Season 5 which is set in 1924. Each chapter focuses on topics which would have concerned the Crawley family throughout the year. These include; The Year Ahead, The Children, Farming, Travel, Debutantes, The London Season, Summer, Scotland, The House Party, Living on the Estate, The Sporting Season and Christmas.

The book also skillfully blends Downton Abbey’s storyline with actual events from the period.  It also concentrates on the series’ actual production. Each chapter features a spotlight segment on food, costume, locations, hair and makeup, props, music along with people and places essential to the program’s production such as Ealing Studios, creator and writer Julian Fellowes as well as executive producers Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge and historical advisor Alastair Bruce.

Just for fun, the author sprinkles recipes from the era to tempt and tantalize readers. Modern variations include: Asparagus Tart, Chocolate Soufflés,  Scones, Pimm’s Cup, Cream of Watercress Soup, Meringues with Red Berries, Sole Duglere and Scottish Shortbread.

Of all the companion books Jessica Fellowes has written for the series, I think her first book The World of Downton Abbey and this book are the best. I will always treasure my personal copy of A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey as a special memento of one of my favorite television programs.

To ease my continued Downton Abbey malaise, I next turned to The Lake House, the new novel by my all-time favorite contemporary author Kate Morton.

Set mainly in Cornwall, England, Morton’s book blends gothic fiction with crime thriller while alternating between the pre and post- World War I era, the early 1930s and the present time to unravel the strange, mysterious disappearance of young Theo Edevane in 1933. The story begins in 1933 when the Edevane family prepares to celebrate their annual Midsummer party at their family estate Loeanneth. The narrative then abruptly fast forwards 70 years to 2003 when London detective Sadie Sparrow, while visiting her grandfather, accidently stumbles on the Loeanneth mansion, now in ruins

.

After learning from her grandfather and other townspeople about Theo Edevane’s mysterious unsolved disappearance, Sadie is determined to solve this 70 year old cold case and the reason why the Edevane family suddenly abandoned Loeanneth and never returned.

During her investigation, Sadie discovers that the renowned and reclusive 86 year old mystery writer Alice Edevane is Theo Edevane’s sister. While working together to solve Theo’s disappearance and possible murder, Sadie and Alice unearth even more lurid secrets about Alice’s parents Eleanor and Anthony Edevane along with Loeanneth’s many other residents.

As with all her previous books Kate Morton’s extraordinary storytelling skills create an astonishingly unexpected ending that will absolutely delight every reader.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of Kate Morton’s novels over the past five years. But I would rank The Lake House second only to The Forgotten Garden, my personal favorite.

After finishing The Lake House, I still wanted to return to the Edwardian era but this time through the perspective of an early twentieth century British author. So while rummaging through my own bookshelves, I selected Howards End by E.M. Forster.

Published in 1910, Howards End centers on middle class sisters Margaret and Helen Schlegel and their complicated relationship with the aristocratic Wilcox family. They first meet the Wilcoxes when Helen has a brief romantic relationship with the youngest son Paul.

Two years pass before the family re-enter the Schlegel sisters’ lives. Margaret then befriends Mrs. Ruth Wilcox when the family moves to London near the Schlegels’ home on Wickham Place.

Unbeknownst to Margaret, Ruth Wilcox bequeaths Howards End to Margaret in a handwritten note enclosed in her will before her death. Deeming it invalid, her husband, industrialist Henry Wilcox destroys Ruth’s benevolent bequest for her special friend.

Meanwhile, after attending a concert, Helen and Margaret meet and become friends with Leonard Bast, a poor clerk with artistic sensibilities. Raised by their German professor father as social progressive intellectuals, the sisters view Leonard as a kindred spirit. Wanting to help him improve his financial situation, they ask Henry Wilcox for advice. Wilcox’s flippant solution concerning Leonard Bast’s circumstances leads to a disastrous outcome by leaving Bast indigent, his career completely ruined.

During this time, Henry Wilcox and Margaret grow closer. Despite their twenty year age difference, Margaret agrees to marry him. Disgusted by her sister’s decision, Helen attempts to help Leonard regain his financial status. When this endeavor fails miserably, Helen suddenly travels throughout continental Europe finally returning to England eight months later.

When Helen eventually arrives at Howards End, a distraught Margaret discovers her sister is pregnant. Margaret adamantly defends her sister’s unconventional choice despite Henry’s moral objections. She demands that Helen be allowed to stay at Howards End overnight before she and Helen leave for Germany. Henry reluctantly agrees.

Back in London, Leonard, completely devastated and remorseful about the unwise choices that destroyed his livelihood, travels to Howards End for Margaret’s forgiveness. Tragically when he arrives, Leonard suffers a fatal heart attack immediately after Henry Wilcox’s son Charles savagely attacks him.

This violent act not only leads to ruination for the Wilcox family but also brings vindication to the Schlegel sisters. Howards End now ironically belongs to its rightful owner just as Ruth Wilcox intended.

After watching Much Ado About Nothing and Sense and Sensibility both starring Emma Thompson  on Turner Classic Movies one snowy January evening, I remembered how much I loved her Oscar winning performance as Margaret Schlegel in the 1992 screen adaptation of  Howards End.

Directed by James Ivory, this marvelous film also stars Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham-Carter and Vanessa Redgrave as Henry Wilcox, Helen Schlegel and Ruth Wilcox respectively. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s exquisite Academy Award winning screenplay skillfully captures the essence of Forster’s novel by updating the book’s very sentimental and somewhat verbose early twentieth century writing style by carefully removing superfluous dialogue, scenes and minor characters from the plot.

Consequently, these subtle revisions allow Emma Thompson’s Anthony Hopkins’ and Helena Bonham-Carter’s nuanced and multidimensional portrayals to authentically depict the strict English class system and the British aristocracy’s eventual decline in the 20^th century. Of all the Merchant-Ivory films I’ve seen, Howards End still remains my favorite.

Although Howards End can be found on DVD at most larger public libraries (including St Joseph County Public Library), the film is extremely difficult to locate (even on Amazon and Netflix) and is rarely broadcast on television – except on premium channels like Encore. Fortunately, I own the movie in VHS format and still have a VHS/DVD combo player to watch it! So I was very happy that I still could enjoy seeing and reviewing this superb movie for my blog.

Carol’s Comments celebrates its fifth anniversary with this issue. I’m glad that it’s lasted almost as long as Downton Abbey! Unlike my favorite TV show, I still intend to keep writing this blog for a long time. Thanks to all my loyal readers for all your continued interest and support. Your enthusiasm for the books and films I’ve shared with you has kept me motivated to write this blog. It means a lot to me.

All the books and movies reviewed in my blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at libraryforlife.org for more information. Thanks for reading! See you all next time!