Carol's Comments November 2018

Carol’s Comments November 2018

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. This autumn, my personal life took some unexpected twists and turns. To cope with these uncertainties, I decided to indulge in my three favorite genres: memoirs, historical fiction and gothic fiction. 

After discovering a very insightful and enlightening New York Times interview in late August with Lisa Brennan-Jobs where she discussed her unconventional life as Steve Jobs’ eldest daughter along with her upcoming autobiography Small Fry, I knew I definitely wanted to read it when it debuted on September 4.

In this very enthralling and heartbreaking coming of age memoir, Brennan-Jobs poignantly describes her complicated relationship with a very detached, emotionally distant and vacillating father who through much of her childhood and adolescence refused to publicly acknowledge her as his biological daughter.

Born on May 17, 1978 at a commune near Portland, Oregon, Brennan-Jobs was raised by her unconventional single mother Chrisann Brennan, living a rather bohemian life in Palo Alto, California shielded from her father’s celebrity.

Free of sensationalism and acrimony, in this intriguing book’s final chapters , Brennan-Jobs ultimately obtains acceptance and forgiveness from her father shortly before his death on October 5, 2011. I highly recommend this absorbing memoir recently chosen by The New York Times as a Notable Book for 2018. It is the perfect companion to Walter Issacson’s definitive biography Steve Jobs.

Next I wanted to treat myself to a quirky themed modern historical novel. After browsing through the new fiction section at the River Park Branch Library, I stumbled upon a trade paperback reissue of the 2008 bestseller The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I snatched it up immediately.

Set in 1946 post- World War II Great Britain, Shaffer’s and Barrows’ charming novel revolves around London journalist/writer Juliet Ashton who currently suffers from major writer’s block after churning out frivolous stories about fictional character Izzy Bickerstoff to placate and entertain readers during the war. When Juliet begins receiving letters from Guernsey resident Dawsey Adams, it piques her interest in Guernsey, one of Great Britain’s Channel Islands that was occupied by the Germans  from 1940-1945 as well as the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Adams’ friends during  World War II.

This very engaging book uses a very unique literary technique to narrate Juliet’s adventures in London (and later) Guernsey. The plot consists entirely of letters written by and to Juliet from her publisher Sidney Stark, other friends and relatives and most importantly from Dawsey Adams and other members of the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society.

Through this correspondence, Society members not only tell Juliet what books they enjoy reading but they also vividly describe what life was like under German occupation. In fact, the Society was created by Elizabeth McKenna as a ruse to hide from the Germans that aristocrat Amelia Maugery was hosting a roast pig dinner for her friends; a forbidden activity under the Occupation. Ironically, the Literary Society’s love of books and reading helped the members endure the war’s devastation in their personal lives. Their fascinating letters make the reader feel like the characters are their real friends.

In May 1946, Juliet decides (with strong encouragement from her publisher Sidney Stark) to visit Guernsey and meet the Literary Society members she has been corresponding with regularly. She intends to gather stories from them to include in her new novel. As she unearths more secrets from her new friends about what really happened in Guernsey during the German Occupation, an unexpected happy outcome emerges out of tragic and miscalculated events for Juliet Ashton and Dawsey Adams.

Filled with offbeat multidimensional characters in an unusual and unexpectedly romantic setting, Shaffer’s and Barrows’ marvelous little book will delight everyone. I highly recommend it for book clubs because it demonstrates how reading can powerfully enrich people’s lives.

After finishing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I read in Entertainment Weekly that Netflix had recently released a feature film version of the novel. I currently only had a Netflix DVD subscription. So I quickly added a basic streaming plan so I could review the movie for this blog.

Directed by Mike Newell, this captivating film opens in 1940 dramatizing how Elizabeth McKenna, portrayed by Jessica Brown-Findlay formed the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Then the movie fast forwards to 1946 showing writer Juliet Ashton, played by Lily James on a book tour in London. The collaborative screenplay by Don Roos, Kevin Hood and Thomas Bezucha successfully transforms the book’s very complicated literary plot style into a very watchable film.

Shot on location, the movie’s very artistic ambiance realistically captures the mood of postwar Britain. For instance, the flashback sequences depicting Guernsey’s German Occupation avoid showing overly graphic wartime violence while still retaining authentic historical integrity.

Downton Abbey fans will especially love this adaptation because it features many Downton alumni who play many pivotal characters in the movie. For example, Matthew Goode (Henry Talbot) appears as publisher Sidney Stark; Lily James (Lady Rose) as Juliet Ashton; Jessica Brown-Findlay (Lady Sybil Crawley) as Elizabeth McKenna and Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley) as Amelia Maugery.

My favorite scene from the film happens when Juliet meets the Literary Society members in person for the first time to discuss her Anne Bronte biography. The passion she and the others feel about reading reminded me how books can bring solace and comfort in troubled times and have the power to bring people together. This compelling film adaptation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was a terrific cinematic escape by transporting the viewer back to a simpler time and place.

As my longtime readers know, I absolutely adore Kate Morton. She became my favorite contemporary author when I read The Forgotten Garden for my first blog in March 2011. So when I saw on Facebook this Spring that she would be publishing her sixth novel The Clockmaker’s Daughter in October, I placed a hold on it as soon as the St. Joseph County Public Library put an on order record for it in its online catalog, Five months later when I was one of the first forty patrons to read a brand new copy, I wasn’t disappointed.

Using various perspectives from different time periods to solve a 150 year old murder mystery, The Clockmaker’s Daughter begins in the Summer 2017 when 31 year old London archivist Elodie Winslow finds a sketchbook belonging to Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Radcliffe along with a portrait of a mysterious lady stuffed inside an old Victorian satchel belonging to 19^th century politician James Stratton. The sketchbook particularly fascinates Elodie because it contains an illustration of an eloquent house described in childhood bedtime stories told by her late mother famous cellist Lauren Adler.

When Elodie later learns that this fairy tale house actually exists outside London, a mysterious mansion named Birchwood Manor  actually owned by Edward Radcliffe, she also discovers that in 1862, Edward’s artist model and lover Lily Millington supposedly shot and killed his fiancée Fanny Brown and stole the Radcliffe family’s treasured rare blue diamond necklace. Lily Millington and the necklace were never found. Heartbroken, Edward never recovered from this tragedy. Dying in 1882, he never returned to his beloved Birchwood Manor.

Encouraged by her Great-Uncle Tip, who as a boy lived at Birchwood Manor with his family during World War II to escape the London Blitz, Elodie visits the mansion for clues about the identity of the enigmatic woman in the small portrait and perhaps solve the murder mystery as well.

 

A second narrative thread that meanders throughout the novel centers on the spectral presence of the clockmaker’s daughter  Birdie Bell who spends 150 years at Birchwood Hall recounting the true events which happened there – especially in1862 along with her own life and the various people who resided there throughout the years all profoundly influenced by Edward Radcliffe’s life. These included: Lucy Radcliffe, Edward’s youngest sister who inherited Birchwood Manor in 1882 and established a girls’ school there; WWI veteran Leonard Gilbert who came to the bewitching mansion in 1928 to write Edward Radcliffe’s biography hoping to ease the trauma he experienced in the Great War; and widow Juliet Wright who sought refuge there with her three children during World War II.

For me, the most spellbinding chapters in Morton’s novel were in Part III entitled The Summer of Birchwood Manor. Set in 1862 and told through 12 year old Lucy Radcliffe’s viewpoint, the reader ultimately learns what really happened to Edward Radcliffe, his model Lily Millington and who actually murdered Fanny Brown along with the true whereabouts of the blue diamond heirloom necklace.

As with all of Kate Morton’s novels, The Clockmaker’s Daughter has a surprise ending where past events and mysteries are intrinsically entwined with the present. Reminiscent of Wilkie Collins’ classic thrillers The Woman in White and The Moonstone, the novel’s imaginative ending seemed a bit implausible for a modern Gothic ghost story.

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 sjcpl.lib.in.us for additional information. Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas and see you all again next time!