{Review} SMALL MERCIES by Eddie Joyce

ISBN #: 978-0525427292

Page Count: 368

Copyright: March 10, 2015

Publisher: Viking

Description:

(Taken from book flap)

An ingeniously layered narrative, told over the course of one week, Eddie Joyce’s debut novel masterfully depicts an Italian-Irish American family on Staten Island and their complicated emotional history. Ten years after the loss of Bobby—the Amendola family’s youngest son—everyone is still struggling to recover from the firefighter’s unexpected death. Bobby’s mother, Gail; his widow, Tina; his older brothers Peter, the corporate lawyer, and Franky, the misfit; and his father, Michael, have all dealt with their grief in different ways. But as the family gathers together for Bobby Jr.’s birthday party, they must each find a way to accept a new man in Tina’s life while reconciling their feelings for their lost loved one.

In unflinching but lyrical prose, Joyce shows us one mother’s struggle to keep her family together and preserve the memory of her son. Following Gail as she moves from the corner offices of white-shoe Manhattan law firms to the blue-collar gin mills of the outer boroughs, Small Mercies reveals a different New York, one that exists in the hearts and minds of its inhabitants.

Presented through multiple points of view, Small Mercies explores the conflicts and deep attachments that exist within families. Heart-wrenching and profoundly relatable, Joyce’s debut is a love letter to Staten Island and a deeply affecting portrait of an American family.

Charlene's Review:

Small Mercies is a haunting story of a family in the aftermath of the loss of Bobby, their son/brother/spouse, on 9/11. Mr. Joyce paints a picture with his words: A picture of life before, and life after. 10 years later, Bobby’s widow announces to his mother, Gail, that she has met a new love, and Gail must find a way to tell the family, all of whom are still grieving.

With the focus on the family, instead of the terror attack, this is a new twist on a fateful day. Perhaps the most humbling of all. When the cameras faded and the stories died, the families were left to find a new normal. Small Mercies is a look at the reality of survivors of 9/11 and how they must learn to live as the casualties of an act that took America’s innocence. The guilt of the family "business" , the unspoken words, the wishful thinking, and the unspeakable grief of a mother are all demonstrated in a heart-wrenching novel full of real, raw emotion. The true beauty of this story is the flawed, hurting characters that cling desperately to each other, every bit as much as they suffer alone.

I have read many books on the subject of 9/11 and Small Mercies is one of the best, as it reflects not on the horror and destruction of that day, but the ability of the human spirit to rise from the ashes.

5 out of 5 stars!


*A hardcopy of this novel was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

{Review} UNBECOMING by Rebecca Scherm

ISBN# : 978-0525427506

Page Count: 320

Copyright: January 22, 2015

Publisher: Viking

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

On the grubby outskirts of Paris, Grace restores bric-a-brac, mends teapots, re-sets gems. She calls herself Julie, says she’s from California, and slips back to a rented room at night. Regularly, furtively, she checks the hometown paper on the Internet. Home is Garland, Tennessee, and there, two young men have just been paroled. One, she married; the other, she’s in love with. Both were jailed for a crime that Grace herself planned in exacting detail. The heist went bad—but not before she was on a plane to Prague with a stolen canvas rolled in her bag. And so, in Paris, begins a cat-and-mouse waiting game as Grace’s web of deception and lies unravels—and she becomes another young woman entirely.

Unbecoming is an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel that turns on suspense and slippery identity. With echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Scherm’s mesmerizing debut is sure to entrance fans of Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, and Donna Tartt.

Mandy's Review:

One of the definitions I found on Merriam-Webster's website for unbecoming is "not according with the standards appropriate to one's position or condition of life." I would say this novel, specifically the character Grace, exemplifies this definition over and over again.

Early on in life Grace understood that she was different, that she wasn't quite right emotionally. She didn't know how to be loved or show love. She knew that there was something bad in her and she wasn't sure how to get rid of it. Grace's family wasn't rich so when one of rich boys showed an interest in Grace she immediately became unbecoming.

Grace became everything Riley wanted her to be. During her transition, she spent more and more time with his family, integrating herself into their home and hearts. Mrs. Graham even began to think of Grace as her daughter and even made one of the rooms in their house Grace's bedroom.

After high school, Grace went to college in New York where she began to change again. She adapted herself to how the snobby girls dressed, acted, talked, etc. One incident in New York affected Grace so badly that she went back home to Tennessee and to Riley ... the last place where Grace thought she knew who she was.

It's while Grace is back home that a plan enters her mind. This plan will change her life forever, but it won't change who Grace is. She will always be someone who is inherently a bad apple.

I have mixed emotions concerning this novel. It was well-written in character portrayal and story development. There were times, though, where the subtleties of the conversations sometimes left me confused. Once I finished the novel, I could replay some conversations in my mind and realize where the subtleties lay. They weren't so obvious during my reading, unfortunately. I think they may have been blatantly obvious to the author while she wrote this novel but I have yet to develop my telepathy skills and, therefore, was left clueless a few times.

Overall, the novel is interesting enough for me to tell you that you should give it a go. I would've liked to see a slightly different ending. Perhaps something involving karma finally biting Grace in the behind.


*A hardcopy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

{2015 Amazing Book Race Review} THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd

ISBN #: 978-0670024780

Page Count: 384

Copyright: January 7, 2014

Publisher: Viking; First Edition

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

Mandy's Review:

I would like to think that if I had been born in the time where slaves were prominent, I would've been part of the underground railroad and/or abolitionist movement. Reading this novel, though, makes me realize how little women's opinions were valued during this time. Would I really have the will and domineering spirit to go against the norms of society?

On her eleventh birthday, the spark of equality for all people was ignited in Sarah's spirit when her mother presented her with Hetty as a gift. Sarah, bless her heart, had a very naive, limited view of the world. She thought she could just go to her father and have him set Hetty free for her. What Sarah began to realize on that day was that her family held more value in maintaining society's standards than going against the grain. At one point in her life, Sarah FINALLY begins making choices to fight against the prejudiced flow of society.

Hetty, as typical of many slaves, was born a slave to a slave mother. Unlike some slaves, she's actually able to stay with her mother on the same plantation. Hetty yearns to be free. She finds little ways over the years to proclaim her independence. Not once does Hetty allow herself to believe she's a slave. She inherently knows that it's important for her mind to be free. If her mind is free, then she's free. It's only a matter of time that her body follows suit ... whether in life or death.

I enjoyed this novel for the literary aspect. It's not a fanciful read. It's meant to be read seriously and with care. It's slightly heavy in its content, but would appeal to the majority of literary readers out there. I would definitely read this book again.


*A physical copy of this novel was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.