Review: Unfinished Cathedral by T.S. Stribling

I believe I Mooched this copy of the third installment in Stribling's epic trilogy of the Vaiden family and their story that spanned about sixty years of great change in the South.  This book follows Jerry Catlin, who is now a Methodist preacher, as he returns to Florence, the scene of his boyhood love for Sydna Crowninshield, now married to Miltiades Vaiden.  Milt has arranged for Jerry to return to the local church, mostly to accomplish the building of the titular cathedral, where Milt hopes to be laid in state when he passes away.  Jerry is an interesting sort of preacher, and I was frankly surprised that he chose that path in life, given his period of atheism in the last book.  His attitudes and beliefs are a little liberal for what I would expect of a Southern preacher in the 1920's.  The book covers a lot of territory:  Jerry is still kind of in love with Sydna; Milt and Sydna now have a daughter, Marsan, who gets pregnant by a local boy; six African-American boys are put on trial for the alleged rape of a white girl, and almost lynched by a mob, but the lynching is stopped by Milt, who remembers the lynching of his own son years before; there is a real estate boom on in Florence, which Milt is skeptical of; the boom eventually busts and leaves just about everyone in Florence penniless, which eventually leads to Milt's death; Marsan weds her teacher, with whom she is actually in love, to avoid the shame of being an unwed mother; and Jerry weds the church organist, Aurelia, to get over his love for Sydna (it doesn't work).

I enjoyed this last portion of the trilogy very much.  The criminal trial of the six boys was a major part of the middle of the book and, due to my profession, I found it very interesting.  The various romantic entanglements of the Vaidens and their extended family were amusing, as well.  I especially liked the forward-thinking Marsan as a character.  I wish I had the brainpower tonight to discuss the symbolism of the unfinished cathedral (Milt's life?) and get into the deeper issues presented by this book, but I'm tired.  I do wish Stribling had told us the outcome of the rape trial...did it ever finish?  What was the verdict?  And there is a passing reference at the end of the book that seems to indicate that Jerry's wife, Aurelia, was murdered.  Was she?  How did Jerry react to that? 

Overall, four out of five Whatevers.  Everyone should read this trilogy.  It should be taught in schools for its interesting viewpoint of the South, from the Civil War through the Great Depression.  I highly recommend all three of the books.  I'm holding on to them, in case I want to re-read them in the future.

2015-2

Review: Guardian of the Vision by Irene Radford

 I believe I purchased this book from Amazon, to complete my series, since I read it on my Kindle.  It is the third in Radford's Merlin's Descendants series.  I received the first in the series as an Early Reviewer book years ago and have also read the second book, and I think I also received the next book from Early Reviewers as a review copy.  Regardless, I do have the rest of the books, too.

I didn't like this one as much as the others I've read.  I'm not sure why - could be a few reasons.  This book focused on Griffin Kirkwood, another of Merlin's descendants, as the series title suggests.  However, this is the first book that focused on a male protagonist, instead of a female.  Also, at the beginning of the book, Griffin is a Catholic priest.  I am a member of that illustrious religion that is called Raised Catholic, and as such am not particularly religious at this point in my life.  So reading about Griffin's priestly duties was kind of a turn-off for me.  Thirdly, it took a LONG time for this book to get going.  Pretty much until Griffin renounced his calling and started using magic, things were pretty boring.  It took a while for the book to draw me in, which I don't recall being an issue in the previous books.

Anyway, this book follows Griffin and his twin brother Donovan.  Griffin, who has the gift of his ancestor's magical abilities, chooses instead to enter the priesthood.  Donovan, who doesn't possess the same abilities, wishes he had them and spends most of the book trying to draw out the magic he knows must be inside of him.  The Kirkwoods also have a sister, Meg, left a "half-wit" after a brutal rape.  Meg also possesses some of the Merlin's magical traits, but she is unable to focus them, due to her lower mental capabilities.  Who will become the Pendragon once their grandmother, Raven, passes on?  Will either brother be able to stop the beautiful Roanna, host to the Demon of Chaos, Tryblith?  Or will the conflict between Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, between the Protestants and Catholics, release the demon to wreak havoc upon England?

I'd only give this one three out of five Whatevers.  That is up from the two that I was giving it right up until the end.  The excitement of the ending was enough to convince me to give it a slightly higher rating.  It was just too difficult to get into the book.  Recommended for those who are reading the rest of the series, but not for too many others.

2015-1

Review: To Be the Best by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Final book of the year!  I finished this one tonight, just squeaking it into the 2014 totals.  I'm pretty sure I Mooched my copy, as it is a used book, and about the only place I get my used books is from BookMooch, so...

I was reading this book while staying with my family over Christmas, and I was trying to describe what it was about to my sister, and it was actually really hard.  It's a family saga about a woman who created a department store chain.  And that makes it sound so boring, but it's really a great series of books.  This book, like Hold the Dream, focuses on Paula O'Neill, Emma Harte's granddaughter and the current head of the Harte's Department Stores chain (and its attendant businesses).  The book begins several years after the last one ended.  Paula and Shane are married and have two children of their own.  Things continue to go well for the Hartes, O'Neills, and Kallinskys.  Until an old enemy rears his ugly head.  Will Paula continue the tradition of excellence initiated by the great Emma Harte, or will she make a misstep and cost herself the company?  Is a hostile takeover in the future for the Harte chain?

This one wasn't my favorite of all the books.  I still think the first book was the best.  In To Be the Best, there is a more disjointed focus on some of the minor players that kind of took me out of the main storyline.  I do understand why those people were introduced, and they played important parts in the later chapters of the book, but it wasn't done very organically, so it felt jarring to me.

Overall, though, the book was a good, solid entry in the Harte saga.  Four out of five Whatevers.  Recommended for folks who are already into this series, for those who enjoy sweeping family sagas, and for those who like stories of corporate intrigue that smack of the 1980's.

2014-13

P.S. I made it to a whopping 13 books this year, which is two more than last year, so goal realized!  I blame Les Mis, that doorstop that I started the year with (but which was totally worth it).

Review: Ferney by James Long

I finished reading Ferney on Sunday, but I've been so busy with giving my class their final and Christmas shopping that I haven't had time to do a review.  This book is another that was in the bag of random books my mother-in-law gave us a couple of years ago.  I don't quite know what to say about it.  I guess I liked it, but it's kind of not a book you LIKE.

Ferney is about a woman named Gally and her husband, Mike.  They are looking for a new home, somewhere out in the country, somewhere outside of London.  Gally has suffered from debilitating panic attacks and crippling nightmares - the burnman and the boilman.  She's never understood the origin of the dreams, but they intrude upon her sleep nevertheless.  When Mike and Gally come across a little, run-down stone house in Penselwood, Gally knows this is the place.  After they buy the house and start renovating it, her nightmares subside, and they meet an elderly neighbor man named Ferney.  Ferney tells Gally an unbelievable story about why the house seems so familiar to her, where her dreams come from, and who she is.  Will she choose to believe his yarns, or will she stay firmly rooted in her present?  What will she do if forced to choose between Mike and Ferney?

I knew nothing about this book before reading it, but I'm glad I did.  At first, it was really hard for me to get into the book - it was atmospheric, but the atmosphere was primarily foreboding.  I didn't want to go back to it, because I felt sure something terrible was going to happen.  But the story ended up sucking me in, and I flew through the rest of it.  For me, finishing a book in a week or less is almost impossible, so I must have really liked this one!

Four out of five Whatevers.  I took off one Whatever for the sense of foreboding that initially kept me at bay.  Recommended for those who like historical fiction, for fans of magical realism, and for those who enjoy a good Gothic read (I don't know that it's strictly Gothic in nature, but it had that feel to it).

2014-12

Review: The Store by T.S. Stribling

In my pursuit of reading the Pulitzers, I purchased this gorgeous copy of T.S. Stribling's 1933 winner, The Store.  I'm sure I spent quite a bit of money on it - it's leather-bound, gilt-edged, and has a ribbon bookmark - I'll be adding it to my permanent collection.

This book, the second in Stribling's trilogy, follows the further adventures of the Vaiden family, focusing specifically on Miltiades Vaiden.  It is now post-Reconstruction in Florence, Alabama.  Milt hasn't made much of himself since his days as a Civil War hero and local leader of the Ku Klux Klan.  Milt is still rankled by what he perceived as a local store owner's "theft" of cotton from the family, and he sets out to get the family's rightful property (or the money owed them therefrom) back from the store owner, J. Handback.

Where Stribling really excels in this book, as he did in his last, is in the close examination of race relations in the post-Reconstruction South.  With the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, it was clear to me that we haven't come that far since the late 1800's - certainly not as far as we should have.  White landowners in the South are struggling with how to deal with former slaves who now have rights.  Milt Vaiden embodies the lost soul of the white Southerner who has been thrust into an existence that he is neither prepared nor happy for.  Once a Civil War hero, a successful overseer, and leader of the KKK, in the New South, Milt Vaiden doesn't know what to do with himself.  The book explores the lives of former slaves as they, too, seek to learn how to make do in a land where they no longer have the protection of their former owners, but do not quite have a fully independent existence, due to how they are seen and treated by most whites in the South.  The book also explores the lives of those biracial products of rape and/or consensual relations between (usually) white male slave owners and their former slaves, particularly through the person of Toussaint Vaiden.  How is a man who is neither white nor black to make his way in the world after the Civil War?  Where does he belong, and how does he fit into the self-segregated society that is blossoming after Reconstruction?

As in the last novel, there are many uses of derogatory names for former slaves.  The casual way the n-word is used is by far the most disturbing part of the novel, although I'm sure it was par for the course in that time and place (and may still be in some places).  There were no rapes in this novel, but ***SPOILER ALERT*** there is a lynching at the very end.  Not recommended for those who would be overly offended by these issues.

I give this book five out of five Whatevers.  I see why it won the Pulitzer.  There is so much about it to admire - the way Stribling strips down race relations after the War and really tries to present both sides of the issue; the slight tinge of spiritualism that invades the book; the examination of love, and the many ways in which one can love another person.  I couldn't put it down over the Thanksgiving break, and I'm very glad I read it.  I would not say that I liked Milt Vaiden, as a character...he was somewhat of a scalawag.  But there were other characters I loved (including Gracie, former slave of the Vaiden family, and Lucy, the educated black woman who tries to teach the neighborhood's black children and eventually marries Toussaint).  Highly recommended for an interesting look at the Old South as it became the New South, and for a look at race relations that might just be needed in today's society, as well.

2014-11

Review: Guardian of the Trust by Irene Radford

After reading the first novel in this series, Guardian of the Balance, I decided I needed to get the second book, so I bought it off of Amazon.  This book brings us to the early 1200's in England - Arylwren's dedcendant, Resmiranda Griffin (Ana), shares the magical abilities of her ancestor, but having been raised in the Church, she is hesitant to use magic.  As a child, she is pursued by a dark force which she doesn't understand, so she spends much of her formative years running from convent to convent, hiding from the man with the black aura who seeks her.  As an adult, she meets Sir Hugh Fitz Chenenoir, who saves her from a raid on her latest hiding place, and the two begin to fall in love.  However, the two are soon separated.  Can Ana defeat the man with the black aura?  Will she and Sir Hugh ever be reunited?

I did enjoy this book, but not as much as the first.  There was a lot more history in this one - King John, the Crusades, even a bit of a cameo by Robin of Locksley.  Sometimes the court intrigue and royal history got to be a little much.  I did enjoy the magical parts, and the love story between Ana and Hugh.  But I didn't like Ana as much as I liked Wren, in the first book.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was that she was much more religious than Wren, and more reluctant to use her magic.  She spent a lot of the book dithering about whether or not using magic would estrange her from God.  I just wasn't into the religious overtones, although I understand that it was a symptom of the times.

Recommended for fans of the first book, for anyone who likes a pretty solid love story, and for anyone who enjoys stories about the Middle Ages.  Four out of five Whatevers.  I'll be checking out the next one, if only to find out which descendant of Ana it deals with.

2014-10

Review: Hold the Dream by Barbara Taylor Bradford

I read A Woman of Substance, the first book in the Emma Harte series, a few months ago, and I loved it.  I wasn't sure the second book would measure up, but it certainly did.  Emma was still around in this one, but it mostly focused on Paula, her granddaughter, who took over the company when Emma went into semi-retirement.  There isn't much to say about this one.  It was much of the same corporate intrigue and family drama that populated the first book in the series.  I don't know why, but these books give me a nice, cozy feeling when I read them.  They remind me of the 80's, although they are set a little earlier than that.  I guess it's the materialistic 80's mentality - "Greed is good" and all that.  But I find it enjoyable to read about the joys and sorrows of the Harte clan.  Four out of five Whatevers.  Recommended for those who like corporate intrigue, family drama, or 80's-style writings (see above).

2014-9