Book Review: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Genre: Literary fiction

Publisher: Pan Macmillan (Macmillan)

Pub date: June 2012

Source: Publisher via Lovereading.co.uk

Synopsis (From GoodReads)

There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
 
At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

Review

14-year-old June Elbus is a strange young girl – she loves medieval times, plays dress up and spends a lot of time alone, in the woods, dreaming. Her sister Greta who was once her best friend has grown up and no longer wants to have anything to do with June and her childish games. The only person who understands June is her Uncle Finn. But he is now dying of AIDS, a disease that no one will even talk about. Finn indulges June’s flights of fancy and opens her world to music, art and life.

When he dies, June starts to realise that she was not the center of his world and there is a whole lot about Finn’s life that he kept from her. When she is approached by her uncle’s special friend Toby (the man that her family blames for Finn’s death) June starts to see that she is not the only one who misses him.

There is a point in the lives of sisters when they could become best friends or just drift apart without being able to find out what really happened between them. Finn dies at this point in the life of June and Greta. Before he dies, he insists on painting a special portrait of the sisters, which initially seems like a way for him to spend the time he has left with them. But it becomes the thing that drives them apart and also what helps them find their way back to each other.

The story deals with some difficult issues: AIDS in the eighties was unknown and June’s mother can’t even bear to talk about this. It also deals with forbidden love – the one between the two men and also June’s love for her uncle.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a gently told beautiful story of growing up and learning what love really means. Seeing June and her entire family grow, change, forgive and heal is an intensely satisfying journey. June is the kind of protagonist who is easy to love  – even in her innocence there is so much wisdom that it makes you stop and think about life, love, family, friendship and shed a tear or two for all things sad and everything beautiful.

Verdict

Highly recommended. A literary debut to look out for.

Rating: 5*

Many thanks to Macmillan and Lovereading for the review copy.

I received this book as a reviewer for Lovereading.co.uk. Read more exclusive pre-publication reviews on the site.

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Book Review: Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

Genre: Historical fiction/Crime fiction

Series: Maisie Dobbs #9

Publisher: Harper Collins (Harper)

Pub date: 27 March 2012

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis

In this ninth book of the series, Maisie is approached by her father’s friends to look into the death of Eddie. Eddie is a little ‘slow’ but has an amazing ability to talk to horses. When he dies in a factory accident, his friends suspect that there was more to it. Only too happy to repay these men for all the help they gave her family, Maisie takes on the case.

Review

This is only the second Maisie Dobbs book I’ve read, (Review for A Lesson in Secrets) but already there is a feeling of going back to old friends. In this story, Maisie is dealing with her discomfort with where her life is. Still not at ease with her sudden riches and uncomfortable in high society, Maisie is also questioning her relationship with James.

As with other Maisie books, there is a lot more to the story than just the unraveling of the mystery. But perhaps in this one, the suspicious death of Eddie Potts is just the background to other events in our heroine’s life and the world at large. Maisie goes back to her poor Lambeth roots to get to the bottom of what happened to Eddie. Eddie was a horse whisperer at a time when horses were being replaced by cars. The questions remains: who would want to harm this child-like man?

The second world war looms larger on the horizon, and in Maisie life, we see her take stock of her situation. More and more she comes to realise that she is overgenerous and controlling of the people around her. This stems from her guilt of sudden riches, but leaves the people around feeling indebted and unable to repay her. Despite all her activity and social contacts, Maisie comes across as a lonely young woman who misses the simple friendships that many other women enjoy. We see her make some difficult decisions about her life and make some changes.

Eddie’s story is a touching one and finding out what really happened also takes us into the world of war, politics and propaganda. Maisie is at a crossroads in her life and I look forward to seeing where she goes from here.

Verdict

Definitely recommended for fans of the series. If you’re starting to get to know Maisie here, be warmed, the mystery takes the backseat and this is more an introspective novel.

Rating: 4*

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Book Review: The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Genre: Literary fiction

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday (Alfred A. Knopf)

Pub date: 23 Aug 2011

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis (From GoodReads)

The Buddha in the Attic is a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought over from Japan to San Francisco as ‘picture brides’ nearly a century ago.

In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces their extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.

Review

The Buddha in the Attic tells the story of a group of Japanese picture brides who came over to America shorty after the First World War. Sent over on the boat to California, they had no idea what to expect, even the photographs they were shown of their husbands were 20 years old.

Otsuka uses an unusual and highly effective way to tell the story of these women and these people. Almost the entire story is told in the first person plural – we. The “we” of the story is at times the Japanese women who come for a better life and get backbreaking work in the fields and cleaning the Americans’ homes. The “we” is also all Japanese in America. The “they” are sometimes the Japanese men, and later their own children. But always “they” are the Americans who only see the Japanese as other.

Each chapter of the book deals with an aspect of immigrant life: jobs, having children, the racism that they encounter. The story also deals with the children of the immigrants who feel more American and turn their backs on their parents, take on American names and make fun of their mothers’ accents.

After Pearl Harbour the order for internment of the Japanese comes through and it is only now that we hear about individuals – Iyo who left the alarm clock screaming and Haruku who left the laughing Buddha in the attic. It is when all the Japanese disappear from all American cities that the Americans start to wonder where they disappeared to.

This plural voice makes it a little difficult to read at times, but the sparse lyrical quality of the prose and the hauntingly sad story it tells makes it impossible not to go with these women to the end of their journey.

Verdict

Highly recommended. A haunting account of Japanese women and men in America between the two world wars.

Rating: 4.5*

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