The Believers - Zoe Heller

The Believers is a book I have had on my shelf for a while now - I'm not even sure why I purchased it in the first place but it was what I pulled out when I was in a mood for a really good character driven book during the past week - it definitely hit the spot!

The novel focuses on the members of the New York living Litvinoff family - Matriarch and UK born and bred Audrey and her radical lawyer husband Joel and their three children, Karla, Rosa and Lenny. Each member of the family plays a very different role in terms of their own lives but also in terms of the dynamics and structures of the family unit and we see these roles played out after a significant event occurs soon after the beginning of the book.

I loved this book for many reasons but one of the main reasons would have to be the different types of strengths displayed by the main female characters. The Litvinoff daughters are struggling to try and find their own place in the world separate and distinct from the lifestyle and choices their strong willed and viewed parents have steered them towards. I enjoyed the real sense of struggle that was portrayed in these two characters especially.

The mother and wife of the Litvinoff family, Audrey, would have to be one of my favourite fictional characters ever! She is so horrible in so many ways - harsh, abrasive, rude and judgemental but I still lover her! She just seems so real and solid - she never wavers and I believed in her for that.

The male characters in the novel really seemed to take a back seat in the storyline - even though they were the basis for so many of the actions and choices made by the female characters the narrative seemed dominated and driven by the females to me.

If you are a lover of strong, character driven novels then I think you would really enjoy this book - it is a novel that made me think about the issues while at the same time it allowed me to get lost in the lives of the characters. I'm looking forward to reading more of Heller's novels.

The Group - Mary McCarthy

I know The Group is a book that is well reviewed, and for the most part, really well liked in the blogging arena. I had read and heard so much about it and it sounded like the perfect read for me - a book focusing on the lives of a group of women who had graduated from college together in 1930's New York - great era, great focus, great city - all the right ingredients were there but unfortunately this book fell flat for me.

I really struggled to warm to or connect with any of the characters - I tried to put myself in the shoes of the characters and think about the social and political time they were living in - especially for women - but for some reason it just did not capture my interest. I certainly appreciated the strong writing but a lot of the time I thought the writing was there to demonstrate the strength and talent of the writer as opposed to telling the story. I found the endless internal and external monologues of the characters tedious and at times I felt like I was being preached too in relation to the time in which the book was set and then published.

At first I felt disappointed in myself as a reader - such an important social feminist novel and I can't get into it!! But then I relaxed and let myself off - this just wasn't the book for me - there will always be plenty more that are!

Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold

I bought Girl in a Blue Dress when I was in Sydney a few weeks ago - every bookshop I walked in had it displayed rather prominently so I was "forced" to at least take a look. The cover did entice me - I enjoy reading books about female characters by female authors so this book did fit that description - and I find the cover pretty and sensual - the picture of the lower part of the face of a young girl with what I would imagine was a pretty revealing blue dress for the Victorian era - it was drawing me in (I think the UK and US covers might be different to the Australian one though??).
Before I purchase a book I always read the publishers blurb (not always reliable I know but I need something to go by) and I also like to read the blurb about the author - it was actually the latter that made me finally purchase this book. Gaynor Arnold is actually a social worker by day and a writer by night - exactly what I would like to be! I have the social worker by day thing covered - just need to get working on my night time persona. If I can connect with an author in some way through their limited description on the back cover I will almost always take the risk and buy the book - I have been known to purchase a book simply because the author was born in the same year as me!
I have to say I did purchase the book for another reason - it's connection with the Charles Dickens story. Having just finished Wanting by Richard Flanagan I have been searching out books related to the life of this writer. As I said in my review for Wanting I have never really read much about Dickens himself or the life he led so I am wanting to discover more about this "character" - even if it is only a fictional account.
Which leads me to Girl in a Blue Dress - a novel based on the marriage of Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine through the use of fictional characters that embody their persona's and situations - Alfred and Dorothea Gibson.
The book is told from the perspective of Dorothea as she reflects on her life with "The One and Only" following his death:

My husband's funeral is today. And I'm sitting here alone in my upstairs room while half London follows him to his grave (p. 1)

As I have said, I am not all that familiar with the real story of Dickens and his marriage, and Arnold makes it quite clear in her Afterward that even though the marriage of Charles Dickens was the inspiration for the book it is a work of fiction and she has changed many things about the story. Arnold goes on to say; "In spite of these alterations, I have always attempted to keep true to the essential natures of the two main protagonists as I have come to understand them". I would love to hear from any of you who have a deeper knowledge of the life of Dickens than I have and who have read this book - is it close to the real story do you think?

I did not find my lack of knowledge about Dickens a hindrance when reading this book at all - in fact, I think it probably helped me to engage with the story more for what it was as opposed to always thinking "that's not right" or "that never happened".

Arnold tells a brilliant story (and apparently the judges for the Man Booker Prize made this comment when they longlisted the book for the award in 2008) - I was engaged with Dorothea and her telling of her story from the very beginning. Why is the wife not attending the funeral of her husband? Why is she hidden away in a room while the rest of London grieves openly? You are caught from the very beginning.

Dorothea begins to reflect on her life with Alfred as the funeral goes on without her, she tells of their initial meeting and the passionate courting that occurred without the permission of her parents. Once married the passion seems to be exchanged for reality, work and pregnancy. Alfred becomes absorbed in and consumed by his writing and Dorothea gives birth to 8 children in fairly quick succession:

Sometimes I did not think Alfred liked me so well as a woman. He did not like to see me retch, or sweat, or toil up the stairs with my gown kirtled up and panting with shortness of breath. He would look away and laugh, talking of my interesting condition as if I had grown stout of my own accord, as an act of contrariness; as if he had nothing to do with it (p. 94)

The picture painted of Alfred Gibson is not a pretty one - he appears as selfish, self-absorbed, cruel and arrogant. His treatment of his wife (admittedly as told by the wife herself) is horrific - even though no physical violence is ever portrayed the verbal abuse, isolation, betrayal and character assassination that Dorothea endures through the words of Alfred renders her a lonely character cut of from her sisters, her friends and most importantly her children.

Despite this Dorothea remains firm in her love and admiration for Alfred - something which I did struggle with throughout the book. I had to keep in mind the era in which the novel was set and the expectations of woman, particularly married women, of this time. There is a slight change in Dorothea towards the end of the novel where she does make a claim for the rights of woman when speaking to a close friend:

"Yet all the same how can it be proper for a woman to be married twenty years, then cast aside on a pittance? How can we lose the right to see the very children we have raised? Why do we need to go cap in hand for every bit of money that we need? If woman made the laws, wouldn't things be different? (p. 404)

The author's writing style is also based in a strong narrative - you do feel as though Dorothea is in front of you having a conversation about the life she has led with her husband. However, the books seems quite long in places - at times I found Dorothea's reflection repetitive and overly sentimental - but the author does not indulge in these passages for too long before changing the scene so in this way I was always kept interested and engaged.

Apparently it took Arnold 5 years to write Girl in a Blue Dress - I hope she seriously thinks about putting social work on the back burner for a while so that we can read her next novel sooner rather than later.

Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear

I have never really been much of a mystery reader - I'm not really sure why, just haven't been drawn to them in the past. But I have been reading some wonderful recommendations in the blogging world for various mysteries and in particular Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. I have been reading a little differently this year, trying different genres and styles of books I have previously avoided or just simply not gotten to - so I have decided to give the mystery novel a go.

I love reading books set in England - particularly around the times of WW1 and WW2 - so in that regard Maisie Dobbs was a great choice for me.

Maisie is a woman who started life as a member of the working class, she began working as a maid for Lady Rowan Compton and her family in the early 1900's. Her natural instincts for reading and learning drew her to the attention of her employer in another way and Maisie began to be mentored by Dr Maurice Blanche, with the support of Lady Rowan, in the ways of the intellectual world. Maisie eventually won herself a place at Cambridge University but this was interrupted by the arrival of WW1 where Maisie went to serve as a nurse in France.

The book starts in 1929 where Maisie is beginning to set up her own personal investigation business and it sweeps back and forth between 1929 and the past where we learn of Maisie's introduction to the world of investigation and her involvement and personal losses in WW1.

I did enjoy reading this book, and I will continue to read the others in the series, but I did have some problems with the plot development (which I thought was pretty predictable and simplistic) and Maisie herself.

Things just seemed to jump into place in terms of the plot - people were where they needed to be when they needed to be, people were conveniently met when they needed to be met etc... I found this a little contrived but I was able to see past it to still enjoy the story.

As for Maisie, she did annoy me at times! I was trying to work out what it was when Maisie herself seemed to describe the reason for me:

She knew she was out of bounds. But this was not new for her. She spent much of her life out of bounds, living and speaking where, according to some, she had no business.

This is normally a trait that would endear me to a character, particularly a female one, I love to read about strong female characters, but for some reason I found Maisie overbearing and bossy at times - particularly with her clients who she felt it was quite ok to order around!

I realise I am probably being a little harsh - and I need to place the character in the context of her times.

I also struggled with Maurice - jumping into Maisie's mind constantly with his little philosophical mantras!

But for all of these complaints I did enjoy the story - the setting in particular. So, I will give Maisie Dobbs another go but would also love to hear of any other suggestions for mystery books as I feel a little addicted now!