By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult

Genre - Contemporary and Historical Fiction

Sometimes I feel as if the more the world changes the more it stays the same. Such seems to be the case in the world of theater as illustrated by Jodi Picoult’s upcoming novel By Any Other Name. Picoult explores through fiction set in the present and in the time of Shakespeare that William Shakespeare was not, in fact, the writer of the plays and poems credited to him. In the modern setting Melina Green feels she has been burned as a woman aspiring to write for the theater. An early experience of being dismissed by a harsh male critic has left her shy of trying again. When she researches and discovers that her ancestor Emilia Bassano may have written some of the plays of Shakespeare, she tries her hand again at a new play. In the Elizabethan times we follow the life of Emilia Bassano - courtesan, playwright, wife, and mother, learning of the struggle of women to work independently in this time. Her life is for this “modern” woman often horrifying. 

I love Jodi Picoult’s character development - her people never disappoint. Melina is certainly not perfect, but that is the beauty of Picoult’s writing. She consistently challenges us with complexity and a refusal to provide an easy answer. So here’s the thing. I understood her frustration and her response to her evaluation by theater critic Jasper Tolle; I can even relate to how she allows that one incident to shape her writing career moving forward. Her decisions seem perfectly logical and are in many respects. The evidence that women are not treated fairly in the theater world seems clear. I was able to feel her angst. But the implications of allowing the world to believe that Andre, her best friend, is the playwright added a layer for which I was not prepared. In many ways I learned right alongside Melina about the gravity of what she asked of a member of another marginalized group. Tolle himself who should be easy to hate - struggles with social cues and has to learn his own lessons and face his own negative role in Melina’s and other stories. The use of Melina’s play structurally to transition us into the Elizabethan age and Emilia’s life works beautifully and creates the comparison and perhaps the illustration that not enough has changed in the intervening years. But my visceral hatred of how Emilia is treated is proof enough that change has happened. How she is bartered to and by men, how she becomes a courtesan, her inability to escape abuse, her inability to utilize her talents - so painful to read. Along with excellence in character development, Picoult expertly crafts these two timelines - so differently, yet painfully similar. Her research is impeccable - says the old lady retired librarian. 

And says the old lady retired literature teacher, you don’t have to love Shakespeare’s (?) work to love this book, but the layers my years of teaching and reading Shakespeare added in terms of plotting and dialogue was for me a delight. I enjoyed reading the very words I have admired for so long in this novel as part of Emilia’s life. So I am left with two primary impacts. The first is, I’d like to teach Shakespeare just one more time with a more thorough look at the scholarship challenging him as the author. I just know - I can picture the students - that the discussion of the works would be so much more enriched and lively. Up until now, I didn’t take the scholarship surrounding anti-Stratfordians so very seriously, and I now feel compelled to give it all another look. While we may never know for sure - wow, credit should be given where credit is due and removed where it is not. I know Picoult had access to sources that I could likely never touch, and she used them well. The second is - my word - we should be very careful to safeguard our rights as women. I think I have been in danger of taking them for granted - because I wasn’t a part of the fight for them. I think that attitude is even more prevalent in women who are 10-30 years younger than I am. I won’t do politics here, but recent developments have dampened my assurance. A cursory google search will remind us that women have only been voting in the United States since 1920 - in spite of Abigail Adams’ impassioned pleas in the 1700s. Only since 1974, (I was 8!) have women been allowed to get a credit card or a mortgage in their own names without a man cosigning. My mom couldn’t get a credit card. My. Mom. In By Any Other Name, Jodi Picoult does what she does very well. She writes a novel to make her readers think - about a variety of issues - in this case about the rights of women and the marginalized. Progress does not equal a finished job; nor does any right seem to be guaranteed. She does give us hope but without providing easy answers. She provides a call to action even. I am a long time fan of Jodi Picoult’s books and her August 20 release is stunning. I will be recommending By Any Other Name far and wide. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for allowing me to review an advance reader copy.

The Snap - Elizabeth Staple

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

I am grateful to have been asked to read and review the ARC of Elizabeth Staple’s The Snap. Set in the world of professional football management, I’m not sure I would have had the good sense to choose it otherwise. Poppy has worked hard to break ground as a female media director for a professional football team. She is in a firestorm, when the team’s coach unexpectedly dies - could it be murder? Through the current struggles, Poppy reflects on her time as an intern within the same organization. Many secrets are revealed along with the cut throat nature of the business. 

To be honest, Poppy was difficult for me to wrap my head around. Her world was vastly different from mine. Staple does a remarkable job of illustrating that world - that I found somewhat horrifying - in a way that the outsider can understand it. Within that world, I can better understand Poppy and her choices. Poppy is driven; she works incredibly long hours to reach her goals. WhileI can relate to that fairly easily, her setting requires a different set of parameters to reach that success. I’d love to clutch my pearls and say, “Well, I would never…” But part of the success of this novel is that Staple so clearly illustrates a toxic workplace that is especially damaging to women, I could see why she did what she did. Another very difficult character for me was the coach. I struggled as a teacher with being sometimes asked to believe that excellent athletes walked in rarified air. His character, for me, was the culmination of that attitude over years. The subtlety with which Staple developed him worked so well in this novel. In terms of plot, the murder mystery works well with the characters and setting to further illustrate the world of sports, big business, privilege, and intrigue created here. For me the ending isn’t tied up into a neat bow that makes it all “0k” for me, but, folks, isn’t that life?

I love being challenged by a book different from the norm for me. The Snap by Elizabeth Staple did so. I served as a teacher my entire career, a traditionally woman’s field. I welcome learning what other women experience in the world through reading. Packaged with a suspenseful mystery, this is an excellent read on a number of levels. Thanks to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for asking me to review this work.

Nice Work, Nora November - Julia London

Genre: Contemporary, Coming of Age, a bit of Romance

What a fun, thoughtful, and delightful read Julia London’s Nice Work, Nora November is. Nora November is recovering from a near drowning experience. She creates an anti bucket list and she tries to overhaul her life which she quickly remembers is just not that happy. She has suffered from depression and has lost strong relationships with some she loves through it - including her sister and cousin. She has met the perfect man as a hostage in an armed robbery and lost his phone number. She hates working as a lawyer in her father’s law firm. She does not follow through on her promise to maintain her late grandfather’s garden plot in a community garden. So…she vows to work on the garden, to learn to cook, to play basketball, to renew relationships, and to find the lost Jake. Her journey has its ups and downs but is a joy to read.  The copy I read was narrated by Karissa Vacker who brought Nora to life for me!

And, of course, Nora is what I loved most about this book. I am clearly a character driven reader. Nora is baffled at the beginning of the book; she can’t remember much of what led to her near death experience, but boy is she determined to change her life. She isn’t wallowing so much as figuring out what will make her happy moving forward. And listen, she doesn’t have a built in support system. She has alienated her sister Lacey and her cousin Walter. She has nothing in common with her social climbing, career oriented parents. Oh her dad is deliciously hateful. She misses her grandfather - who accepted her unconditionally - so much. But what is beautiful is that through her chaos and a variety of mishaps, some more serious than others, she builds a new family:  Kathleen who harrasses her in the community garden, Willow who is an unwilling partner to her mom at cooking class, Nick from the garden center. And while she doesn’t know it, she is circling closer and closer to Jake who has inherited a garden plot from one of his dying patients. Small world, right? And slowly Nora is working to repair her relationships with Lacey and Walter. I loved all of the people and all of the shenanigans. London expertly develops and manages it all - walking Nora forward in a believable way. 

I feel a little bored by my musing on my dislike of change. But gosh, I really do admire Nora’s desire to create a life that she loves. Her depression is portrayed honestly - right down to losing a therapist for insurance reasons - and being shamed over medication. Yet, it does not control the narrative or her life. I love that approach - not lighthearted, but hopeful. I am a huge fan of the list approach. I am list driven. I have always done better at work and on a project with lists. The checking off of items, I love it. And yet, yet, I’ve done few lists in this my first year of being retired from full time work. I’m not a trained counselor, so I won’t try to figure that out, but perhaps a list or two wouldn’t go awry for me. (Dear google, I see the blue underlines for my style choices. I’m doing it anyway.) Finally, I respond to praise - always have; I could explain why, but who has the time? Teacher observations? Way more stressful than the kids and the curriculum. Maybe I do miss the feedback though? Anyway, when Julia London gets us to the “nice work” part of Nice Work, Nora November, I could only think well done. Well done - what a book!

The Midnight Feast - Lucy Foley

Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Trouble is afoot in the woods in Lucy Foley’s new thriller The Midnight Feast. A new resort has opened in the woods on Francesca’s family land. She intends to offer the highest class of treatments for her wealthy guests. I had found myself becoming drawn to resorts in my reading. This novel may have cured me. The locals are not impressed with Francesca’s  offerings either. While she purports to be supporting local interests and businesses, she is instead importing goods and cutting off right of ways. Mysterious things begin to happen and everyone wonders if the ancient birds who are thought to be guardians of the woods  are responsible. Echoes of Poe’s “The Raven” adds to the enigma..

With a wide cast of characters, Foley creates a layered and suspenseful mystery. Bella is a mysterious guest. Through her journal we find that she has had very close ties with Francesca and these woods in the past. Eddie is a local working as a dishwasher secretly as he thinks his family won’t approve. Francesca’s besotted husband has secrets of his own that seem to be catching up with him. Everyone seems to. Through this variety of narrators, Foley expertly illustrates how the sins and mistakes of the past can have profound impacts on the future. She plumbs the need for revenge and for reparation. The structure is complex as Foley manages different timelines. We know fairly quickly that someone has died and that the resort has burned. She tracks the progress of the day of those discoveries. She tracks the events leading up to the fateful night - through the different points of view of these characters. She uses a summer journal to explore events from years before - when Francesca and Bella were kids. I am as always fascinated at her ability to manage the complexity of the work - in such a way as to build suspense and keep me guessing. Throughout, she weaves the legends of the birds - who guard the land and exact justice - an excellent fantastical element. 

I recently had a conversation with a friend who finds herself living in a nursing home at a fairly young age. She mentioned how often the older residents speak of their regrets - the relationships they would repair - the things they would do differently. In many respects Lucy Foley is focusing on these ideas in The Midnight Feast. Certainly the events and regrets - the need for revenge and change are much more intense as needed for such a successful thriller, but the needs seem very similar to me. I spend more time than I care to admit revisiting the past - considering what I might change if I could. While some reflection is productive and necessary, the danger of too much time spent there is clear. Foley captures well the horror that can happen if a balance between the two cannot be achieved. I think The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley coming on June 18 is my favorite of her works - a beautiful balance of entertaining thriller and insightful look at human nature.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley book cover

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn

Genre: Historic Fiction/Suspense

Kate Quinn has never disappointed me - and The Briar Club might be my favorite of her novels thus far. It’s possible I say something like that after each of her new novels. Set in a boarding house (maybe I’ll become fascinated by these like I was with boarding schools and am with  fancy resorts (oh, but I’m reading a book about to change that!), The Briar Club focuses on the very, very  different women and children who live there. Grace, a new and rather mysterious resident, brings them all together for a meal each Thursday evening in her tiny attic room furnished with just a tiny fridge and hot plate. These disparate folks form a family of sorts. Each chapter of the book focuses on one of the house’s residents. Their individual stories come to a crescendo in a complex way illustrating the power of strong relationships even to overcome the darkest secrets. 

Even though it starts with a murder - a ghastly one, I’ll admit, at first I was a bit baffled at this novel. I had come to expect certain things from Kate Quinn, in terms of history and suspense.  And though surprised a bit, I loved the structure immediately. I have been recently fascinated by the short story form (thanks Sidle Creek!), so I love how Quinn creates chapters that  focus on a member of the Briar club and reads much like a short story. We get to know Pete a young boy living in the house owned and operated by his single mother; Nora who loves her job in the National Archives (and maybe a gangster too), Reka an immigrant artist who is furious at what has been taken from her;  Fliss who lives with her daughter there while her husband serves as a doctor in Korea, Bea who is missing her career as a professional baseball player; Claire who is working multiple jobs to earn the money for a home of her own; Arlene who works for HUAC and has been left embittered by an affair from her youth; Grace who seems maybe the most mysterious but is also the glue that holds this group together with her Thursday night gatherings, until she needs them in a big way. We meet many of their “people” along the way, learning a great deal about life just after WWII in our world. The subtlety with which Quinn builds her overarching story within these stories is creatively amazing and reflective of her extreme writing talent. I am so glad she used this format to create such an unexpected work.  She concludes each chapter with a recipe based on the featured character.  Quinn also used the boarding house as a character - between each chapter was a brief interlude where the house would update the reader on the murder.  So many elements working so well together. 

As with my recent read of Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful and Jolene McIlwain’s Sidle Creek, I am struck very much by the form and its function in this work. If I were still teaching English - I’ve said that a time or two of late - I would have so much material here. I also love the illustration here of the power of friendship. In this novel, friendship alleviates loneliness, enables and supports strength and courage, quite literally saves lives, supports change. Quinn tackles mob mentality, gender equality, corruption, domestic abuse, child neglect, crime, and more. She teaches history, creating the spirit of Washington DC in the 50s - we see politics, recipes, a national baking contest.  How I admire Quinn’s ability to do all of this in such an inviting, suspenseful, and entertaining way. Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club publishing on July 9 is a must read. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morris for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book cover of The Briar Club by Kate Quinn