Fiction

Story in Review: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer

July 2, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 3 Comments

In the last several years, I’ve read The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer at least three times. And each time, I fall in love with the quirky ensemble of characters all over again.

Written entirely in letters back and forth between the dozen or so characters, the timeline follows an author, Juliet, who by chance comes in contact with a group of readers on the island of Guernsey. The story takes place as the island – and England – are rebuilding after World War II, and the novel touches on the years of hardship and horror that the people experience, but does so with sensitivity and an eye for beauty. The authors’ love for the written word shines through the pages, and in true novel form – there is a happy ending for all.

Favorite Quotes:

“I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, something I can’t be silent with.” – p. 8

“Perhaps there is some secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” – p. 10

“No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one – the margin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it – along with first dibs on the new books.” – p. 15

“She said the Queen doesn’t need to impress strangers, but I do.” – p. 17

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.” – p. 53

“I figure hunger makes you desperate when you wake to it every morning.” – p. 65

“I think you learn more if you are laughing at the same time.” – p. 89

“He’s the most un-hurrying person I’ve ever met.” – p. 167

“I did not want to spend my time reading about people who never was, doing things they never did.” – p. 71

What made this a good story? There are a myriad of characters, but you never confuse them – they are each painted with such a unique brush. Choosing to tell the story through letters gives the reader the actual words of the person saying them (er… writing them) and it helps to learn where each person is coming from and their motivations for how they live their lives. It’s also just a delightful tale: falling in love through a common joy found in a good book.

What could have made it a better story? While I love that the book is written in letters, it can be a bit tough as you dive in to keep straight who is writing to whom. This is possibly because I tend to skip the section headings and dive right into the letter, when really I should not. Perhaps a map at the beginning of the novel and a list of the principle characters and their relationship to Juliet would help.

Have you read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? If so, what did you think?

Story in Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

June 4, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 5 Comments

“The Circus arrives without warning…”

Magical. Enchanting. Dreamlike.

Those are a few of the words I would use to describe The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

We needed something to do in Chicago a few years ago before meeting up with some friends, so of course we found a bookstore. I’m someone who NEVER just picks a book off a shelf and buys it without researching it thoroughly. I’m someone who NEVER looks at the New Releases but heads for the dusty shelves of used volumes first. But this book had me from the moment I walked in the store. I went directly to the new release table in the front window, plucked it off the shelf, and proceeded to read it. At least three times.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is the story of two magicians who have been bound to each other to play out a game to which they don’t know the rules. And they have to do it surrounding by everyone they love and without any help.

Against a pallet of black and white, Morgenstern has crafted in this novel a place that readers want to go – Le Cirque de Rêves. The “circus of dreams” is a place where stories can be bottled, where the clouds become part of a maze, and where the magic surrounding you is so palpable that you can’t believe it is real.

Favorite Quotes:

“He forgets that he was someone’s dream once, himself.” – p. 87

“How can I excel at a game when you refuse to tell me the rules?” – p. 117

“The scents, the music, the quality of the light. Even the weight of the velvet curtains at the entrance. They have arranged each element to appear effortless… To make the artificial feel natural.” – p. 134

“It is these aficionados, these reverse, who see the details i the bigger picture of the circus… They are enthusiasts, devotees. Addicts. Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent.” – p. 143

“He notices that all three of them are walking at the same pace, staying easily together as a group. He is much more used to following a few steps behind.” – p. 194

“We add our own stories…” – p. 223

“They were such simple things. Knots and intent.” – p. 273

“The breaking is the easy part.” – p. 348

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at leas the ones worth something, in any case.” – p. 375

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story?” – p. 375

“This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it.” – p. 380

What made this a great story? Morgenstern has a way of crafting a setting that pulls you into the story, of creating a mystery even when the details are all on the table. She writes people full of quirks and heart. The supporting characters are just as alive as the protagonists. And in the end, you really do wonder if the world is made of magic after all.

What could make it better? The book flips back and forth between points of view and dates very regularly. While this lends to the story unraveling as if you were wandering around the circus itself, it can be slightly confusing as you wind yourself through your first reading. On the second reading (or third!) – it is pure magic.

Have you read The Night Circus? What did you think?.

Story in Review: Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

May 28, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 2 Comments

This book is a love letter to the Midwest and the people that live here.

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler is a book that I will read again and again. Through the perspectives of four friends who grew up in Little Wing, WI, we learn what it’s like to live – and love – in a small town, and how the experience follows you to adulthood and then back home again.

Ronny’s life as a bullrider leaves him alone and a little off-kilter. Kip moved to Chicago, made his money, and came back to town a little too big for his briches. Lee became an international rock star, but comes home to recoup on a slowly moving tractor in his fields. And Henry stayed. He stayed, and married – or is it married and then stayed? – his high school sweetheart, Beth. Throughout the story, all four men – and the women they love – are forced to reflect on and make peace with their own decisions, as well as learn how to be friends again now that they are adults.

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes you’d even hear Kip’s voice… narrating fluctuations in numbers that dictated whether or not we could afford orthodontia for our children, winter vacations, or new boots, telling us things we didn’t exactly understand and yet already knew. Our own futures were sown into those reports of milk and corn prices, wheat and soy.” – p. 3

“His eyes were scared in a way I had only seen in horses. We wiped his forehead and did our best to hold him down to the earth.” – p. 7

“All afternoon we rode together over the links, taking our swings and encouraging each other, and he asked me the best questions: about Beth and the kids, my farm and tractors.” – p. 25

“… as I watched their approach I wondering whether the slow pace of a wedding march was for the benefit of the bride on her most beautiful day, or for the aging father preparing to give her away.” – p. 38

“Here, I can hear things, the world throbs differently, silence thrums like a chord strummed eons ago, music in the aspen trees and in the firs and burr oaks and even in the fields of drying corn.” – p. 48

“For all of our Middlewester niceness, I realized that we, that I, could be every bit as cold as our longest season.” – p. 83

“I wanted everything to be perfect… everything lined up just right. Our life arranged like a vase of flowers. Beautiful and controlled.” – p. 196

“You pour everything into a child, all your love, all your attention, all your hopes, all the promises of those kinfolk who preceded you, and you just don’t know.” p. 205

“What he could have said is, I know you better than you know yourself. And this, I think, is what marriage is all about.” – p. 276

What made this a good story? I loved that each section was told by a different person – we really got to know each character and what motivates them, even if we don’t always like what they say or do as they are narrating. I love that a fully-rendered plot plays out on a backdrop of descriptions about the Midwest: about the weather, the people, the culture. Butler knows his subject matter and isn’t afriad to say hard truths about the characters of the region.

What could have made it a better story? There are a few moments where the rich descriptions overtake the plot and you get a little lost. Where run-ons keep you from making progress in the story. It’s an interesting blend of modern writing and traditional plot trajectories, and they don’t always jive perfectly, but the moments where it doesn’t work are far fewer than the ones where it does – I still say it’s worth a read.

Have you read Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler? Or any of his other work? Let me know what you think! I’d also love other suggestions for books that fall in a similar vein.

P.S. If you liked this, you’d probably enjoy Michael Perry’s Population 485.