Pure by Andrew Miller

     It's 1785 and John-Baptiste Baratte, a French engineer, has just arrived in Paris to begin a new job.  He has been hired by the Minister to the King to clean up Les Innocents, an old, crumbling cemetery that is literally overflowing with bodies.  In fact, the cemetery is so overcrowded that the graveyard walls have disintegrated and corpses are spilling into people's back yards.  The entire city smells like decay, and some people have even fallen ill due to the toxic air.  John-Baptiste arrives on the scene and is shocked by the state of the cemetery, but optimistic about his ability to improve Paris.

     Pretty soon, however, Monsieur Baratte finds that the task is much more challenging than he first expected.  He thought his presence as the city's purifier would be a breath of fresh air to the Parisians, but they are strangely suspicious of Baratte's intentions.  Les Innocents is rotting the city from the inside out, but the townspeople are curiously attached to it and hesitant to interrupt the eternal slumber of the dead.  As the project progresses, Baratte finds himself increasingly paranoid and alone, despite his efforts to purge the city of its unsavory past.  Baratte finds some solace in the friendship of Armand, a church organist, and Heloise, a Parisian prostitute, but it's not enough to make him forget that most of the city, including his workers, despise him.

     They say that Rome wasn't built in a day and Andrew Miller's novel reminds us that neither was Paris.  The city of romance, the city of lights was, in Baratte's day, a city of filth and poverty, and even though his presence means progress for the city, Baratte finds that traditions are even harder overcome than stacks of bodies.

     Pure is a very fascinating piece of historical fiction.  While John-Baptiste Baratte is a fictional character, the story of Les Innocents is solidly grounded in Paris history, and Miller's re-imagining of this volatile social and economic time is beautifully rendered, despite the unsavory subject matter.  But even so, the book sometimes felt lethargic and detached, and Baratte's personal story felt somewhat withdrawn from the novel's themes.  Perhaps this is due to his own misgivings about the task and his insecurity as a force of change and momentum.  Despite this, Pure offers a bittersweet journey to 18th century Paris, and the subject matter, while grim and sinister, couldn't be more perfect for this time of year.

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Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

     Karen Russell's debut, Pulitzer Prize nominated novel takes us deep into the Florida marshes to Swamplandia!, which was once "the Number One Gator-Themed Park and Swamp Cafe in the area."  Swamplandia! featured all kinds of attractions, but their headliner was the famous Hilola Bigtree: wife, mother of three, and "world-famous alligator wrestler."  But in the prime of Swamplandia!, Hilola died suddenly of an extremely aggressive form of ovarian cancer.  Hilola's death is earth-shattering for the rest of the Bigtree family, but 13 year-old Ava Bigtree is determined to follow in her mother's footsteps and master the skill of gator wrestling.

     Unfortunately, the rest of the Bigtrees aren't as optimistic about the park's future.  Ava's older sister, Osceola, has retreated inside herself and claims to be both possessed by and engaged to a ghost.  Their older brother, Kiwi, decides to leave the swamp and find a job on the mainland, and their father, The Chief, is increasingly vague on the subject of their financial situation.  But Ava is determined to save the swamp and reunite her family - a job that turns out to be much more perilous than wrestling gators.

     Swamplandia! follows a variety of themes, but more than anything, it is a novel about loss and grief.  As Ava says in retrospect, "I didn't realize that one tragedy can beget another, and another - bright-eyed disasters flooding out of a death hole like bats out of a cave" (p. 9).  But Ava soon finds out that dying isn't the worst part of death.  Grief is much worse, especially the kind that tears your family apart, clouds your judgment, and challenges your sanity.  Osceola is metaphorically "possessed" by grief.  Ava's grief is suppressed by concern for her sister and the future of the park, but bubbling just below the murky surface in her desire to become a gator wrestler.  And Kiwi's grief is played out in his descent into The World of Darkness - a rival mainland theme park where he is employed.  The Bigtree family at first attempts an attitude of "the show must go on," but how can the show go on if the star is dead and the supporting cast is in mourning?

     The novel also explores the dichotomy of memory and reality.  Osceola stays as far away from reality as possible, but Ava and Kiwi must slowly face the towering facts.  While Hilola Bigtree is a superhero to her family, in reality, Swamplandia! was never much more than an obscure sideshow attraction.  In the cold light of maturity, their shimmering childhood is not quite as bright as they remember.

     For the quirky, eccentric characters of Swamplandia!, life is full of haunted little surprises.  This is especially true for Ava, whose narration serves to chronicle the end of her mother's story just as much as it charts the beginning of her own coming-of-age story.  And this idea of a blurry convergence is where Karen Russell really shines as a writer.  Whether it's the convergence of life and death, innocence and experience, or fear and courage, Swamplandia! couldn't be a more perfect locale for such a merging.  After all, there's no better place for redemption than a southern swampland, right?

     This book received tremendous praise after its Pulitzer Prize nomination, and while I agree that Russell's prose is spectacular, it's important to keep in mind that Swamplandia! is a very character-driven novel.  Compared to the level of character development, the plot may feel a bit lackluster, and even disjointed at times.  But even so, Karen Russell's poetic prose and stylistic subtleties are more than enough to engage readers.

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Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

     In Seth Grahame-Smith's newest novel, we are introduced to an alternate version of the story of Jesus's birth - and it might make you think twice the next time you see a nativity scene.  In fact, Grahame-Smith's version is anything but peaceful and calm, as the old Chirstmas carol "Silent Night" suggests.  It's violent, bloody, and gruesome.  This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to readers, though.  After all, we knew King Herod was murdering babies left and right, but we didn't have such graphic, detailed passages to really set the scene.

     Unholy Night retells the ancient story from the perspective of Balthazar, better known as one of the wise men who visited Baby Jesus shortly after his birth to shower him with gifts.  But what if their meeting was accidental?  What if Balthazar and the other two wise men were really thieves, escaping the wrath of Herod the same way Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus were escaping?  What if these thieves stole the clothes of noblemen and stumbled upon a breastfeeding Mary and terrified Joseph and soon realized that they shared the same enemy?  But what if, along the way, Balthazar realizes that, even though he is not a religious man, there could be some truth to the great prophecy - the very same prophecy that has prompted Herod to KILL ALL THE BABIES!!??

     Such is the storyline that Seth Grahame-Smith pursues in Unholy Night.   In the same tradition of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the author spices up a well known story with violence, gore, and terror.  But really....is it that far off?  I mean, we all know that Herod was a horrible person.  He killed members of his own family for goodness sake!  He was paranoid, mentally disturbed, and likely suffering from some sort of disfiguring physical ailment.  Seth Grahame-Smith calls it leprosy, wikipedia says it was likely scabies.  Either way, it's super gross considering how much unprotected sex Herod indulged in. 

     This book is like Mortal Kombat meets the Bible.  When Balthazar realizes why Herod is killing a bunch of infants, he is infuriated and vows to stop him, which is how he ends up protecting Baby Jesus.  Plus, as Balthazar says, "there's something about that baby," and he's right.  The child seems to have some sort of protective force surrounding it.  Miracle after miracle occurs before Balthazar realizes that, perhaps in the interest of revenge, it's best to stay under this baby's cloud of protection, which is good because there IS a zombie scene.  How could there not be?

     Unholy Night is daring and controversial, but I don't believe it is blasphemous as some have suggested.  It's basically the same story, but the wise men have different motives.  Balthazar may be a ruthless, untouchable warrior, but he has his own story to tell, which is basically the whole reason Seth Grahame-Smith writes books.  We know so little about history's supporting roles, but sometimes the side characters can be just as interesting as the stars.  We all regurgitate the same version of history generation after generation, but we have to remember...there's more than one side to a story.  And Seth Grahame-Smith's side might not always be that accurate, but it's entertaining, creative, and even thought-provoking.

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Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

     Cleopatra has been a household name for centuries.  The notorious Queen of Egypt has been immortalized by tales of her beauty, cunning, and sexual presence.  Even Mr. William Shakespeare deemed her worthy of starring in one of his most famous plays, Antony and Cleopatra.  But more than two thousand years after her reign, we still do not have a complete biographical portrait of the Queen of the Nile.  As Stacy Schiff points out, most firsthand accounts of Cleopatra are incomplete or bias, as they were mostly written by her enemies.  But Schiff is not a Pulitzer Prize winning biographer for no reason.  In her recent biography of Cleopatra, we have a more comprehensive understanding of Cleopatra's life than ever before.  Very few (if any) primary sources regarding the famous Queen of Egypt survive, but Schiff compiled hundreds of sources from ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greece to provide a much clearer picture of what Cleopatra's existence was actually like.

     The woman we know today as Cleopatra was actually born Cleopatra VII Philopater.  In a nation constantly on the brink of civil war, Cleopatra offered strength, leadership, and hope for unification and peace.  After all, her people knew her as the first pharaoh who bothered to learn their language.  Depending on who you asked, Cleopatra might have been described as a goddess, a leader, a traitor, or a whore.  Even so, the world knew her name, and we've never forgotten it or her influence.

     As a work of biographical research, Cleopatra is impressive - the book is thorough, well-organized, and as comprehensive as it can possibly be.  But as a work of literature, I found Cleopatra to be slow, overwhelming, and dull.  Perhaps if you have a thorough working knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman history then it would be an entertaining read, but for those of us who are not historians, the book feels like homework - after all, the notes, bibliography, and index combined are half as long as the text itself.  As much as I appreciate and respect Stacy Schiff's level of research and the amount of time she dedicated to writing this book, I was disappointed by how very little I enjoyed the reading experience.  I think I spent just as much time looking up the names of obscure historians, philosophers, and political figures as I did reading the text.  I didn't expect this book to be much of a page turner, but I did think it would be a little more engrossing.  This is not our best book club choice by any means.  However, if you have a personal or professional interest in Cleopatra or ancient Rome, Greece, or Egypt, Cleopatra might be just the thing for you.

     This is one of those books that I'm glad I read (for educational purposes), but I'm also glad it's over.  But again, I do want to reiterate the admiration and reverence I have for Stacy Schiff and her ability to turn one of the most mysterious and elusive women in the world into a humanized, well-balanced and better-understood historical figure.

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The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

     In ancient Greece, a young prince has fallen out of favor with his father and the gods, and is exiled to the land of Phthia.  When Patroclus arrives, his status is diminished to that of a servant - he is scared, lonely, and still just a child.  He soon is introduced to Prince Achilles, and the two immediately strike up a friendship.  The boys spend nearly every hour of the day together, and over the years, their friendship develops into something much more complicated and tender.  But Achilles is the son of a goddess - Thetis - and she is not pleased by the nature of their relationship.  She is focused on the prophecy surrounding her son - that he will be a great, famous warrior, but will die young in battle.  As Patroclus and Achilles grow older, their relationship blossoms, but always in the shadow of the prophecy.

     The Greek myths are inconsistent regarding Achilles and Patroclus.  Some stories suggest that they were not just lifelong friends, but also lovers, and some stories do not mention the two in a romantic context at all.  In Madeline Miller's retelling of the classic myth, their relationship resembles that of a secret marriage.  Patroclus and Achilles are devoted to one another and nearly inseparable for almost 20 years.  While their closest friends knew the nature of their relationship, their love and affection for each other is only recognized in the context of friendship to most.  Eventually, the Trojan War intensifies, and Patroclus and Achilles must balance love, warfare, heroics, and honor.

     Even if The Iliad and The Odyssey aren't that fresh in your memory, The Song of Achilles is easy to read.  Miller includes a very helpful list of all the characters in the back of the book that acts as a refresher to figures such as Zeus, Odysseus, Paris, Chiron, and Helen.  I admit, I did have to consult Wikipedia a time or two, but this novel was still very readable and fast-paced.  Reading about such famous characters and stories in such a new context is fascinating, and retelling Greek myths is ambitious (especially for a first novel), but Miller's writing is graceful and natural, and the book is very well-organized and highly researched.  Patroclus and Achilles may not be as famous as Odysseus and Penelope or Orpheus and Eurydice, but Miller's version of their story is equally epic, tragic, and unforgettable - prompting discussions of love, sexuality, gender roles, fate, and sacrifice.

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State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

   In State of Wonder, Dr. Marina Singh is sent deep into the Amazon to investigate the death of her friend, Anders Eckman.  Marina and Anders had been coworkers at Vogel, a pharmaceutical R&D company, until Anders was sent to the jungle to check the progress of a new, top-secret fertility drug.  The drug is being developed by Dr. Annick Swenson, a brilliant but cold and mysterious scientist who was once a mentor to Marina.

   Marina only expects to be in Brazil for two or three weeks - just long enough to find out why Anders died and to gather his personal belongings.  But what Marina discovers in the isolated, primal landscape compels her to resume her mentorship with Dr. Swenson.  The Amazon, with its kudzu of rivers, dense vegetation and deadly fauna is enough to bewilder Dr. Singh.  But the people she meets of the Lakashi tribe defy Marina's understanding of science and nature.  She is grief-stricken over her friend's death, but the Lakashi people offer enough distractions to keep her in Brazil for much longer than she planned.

   State of Wonder is truly an amazing piece of literature.  Every time I thought I had identified a pattern and knew what would happen next I was proven wrong.  The book is a moral dilemma within a mystery within a mystery and before you know it, your head is swimming with questions about science, ethics, mortality and communication.  State of Wonder asks readers to consider their own physical and emotional limitations - and then these limits are challenged and broken by Marina in our stead.  It's easy for the novel to elicit an emotional response from readers when Marina is so identifiable and familiar.  With this book, Ann Patchett reminds us that our own personal world is microscopic, and that the enormity of our planet is unimaginable until our emotional limits and breaking points overlap with someone else's idea of normalcy.

   I'm really glad this book was chosen for my book club.  There are so many moral and ethical dilemmas in State of Wonder that we may be discussing into the wee hours.  This is the first Ann Patchett book I have read, but I'm definitely coming back for more!

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I'm Down by Mishna Wolff

   When you hear something described as "Black and White," it is often synonymous with the idea of something that is definitive or objective.  But for Mishna Wolff, the terms Black and White are anything but definitive - they are confusing and emotionally charged terms.  Mishna and her family may have been legally required to check the "Caucasian" box on official paperwork, but her single father made it clear from an early age that their family would identify with Black culture.  Anora, Mishna's younger sister, fit right in with the kids in their low-income, all-Black neighborhood, but Mishna was never quite able to blend in the way her sister did.  In fact, she stuck out like a very white, very sore thumb.  She wasn't a good dancer, she was terrible at Basketball, and her musical preferences rarely included R&B or Hip-Hop.  But Mishna's father was convinced that they were a Black family, so he did everything in his power to convince his daughter to "get with the program," or rather, get "down."

   I'm Down is a book about racial and cultural identity, but it's also about Mishna's strained relationship with her father.  Because she was "painfully white," she spent a great deal of time trying to impress her Dad, who thought that his children should develop the exact same sense of identity as his own.  But Mishna, unlike her sister, was never able to seamlessly blend into their Black community, and as a consequence, she was never able to blend in with her own family.  This caused declarations failure, disappointment, and even accusations of racism - all directed at a very young and very stressed out Mishna.

   But despite John Wolff's frequently voiced disappointment in his own daughter, all she wanted to do was please him, which often meant pretending to be someone she wasn't.  I'm Down is a very funny and entertaining memoir, but it's also heartbreaking and probing.  When your sense of self clashes with your family identity and cultural identity, it's impossible to determine what is "Black and White."  Wolff's memoir begs the question: Why is it so important that we choose one over the other?

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We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

   Eva Khatchadourian's life changed forever on April 11, 1983 - the day she gave birth to her son, Kevin.  It was supposed to be a day of joy and celebration, but Eva was always apprehensive about becoming a mother, and Kevin is a peculiar child.  He is overly independent, a little too smart, and fiercely manipulative.  Eva is the only one in her family who can see that he is a cruel, calculated individual - at least until the day that 15 year-old Kevin murders 9 of his high school classmates in a sinister, highly-organized fashion.  Written as letters to her husband, Franklin, We Need to Talk About Kevin chronicles Eva's thoughts and memories as she relives Kevin's childhood and the events leading up to the murders.  Through these letters we see an unapologetic woman who never wanted to have children, yet whose life will forever be defined by her son.

   There are so many things I want to say about this novel, but I must first point out that it is so beautifully written that you may forget you're reading prose rather than poetry.  Sometimes I felt like I was reading Leonard Cohen.  For that reason, along with my opinion that Eva Khatchadourian is the most realistic, well-developed character I've ever encountered, I loved this book.  Shriver has tapped into some of the most controversial questions about motherhood and marriage here, and I've never been more sympathetic to a character than I was with Eva.  The nature vs. nurture question has been around for a while, yes, but Lionel Shriver takes the implications much further, especially regarding the emotions, experiences, impulses, and instincts that are ascribed as umbrella terms to motherhood. 

  But just in terms of plot, I am amazed and entranced by Shriver's ability to tell a story.  She doesn't just tell it in terms of chronology or events - Eva's story unfolds as the emotions and memories occur and reemerge.  She must come to terms with things that she never expected to encounter as a wife or mother.  But that is exactly why this unfathomable story is so painfully realistic - because it happens all the time.  People commit atrocious acts of violence every day that end up as white noise in the media.  But white noise on a cultural level can be deconstructed and dissected to reveal the source - all the way down to the deafening shrieks of a single instance in time that, for some, will change everything forever.  We Need to Talk About Kevin removes us as spectators and forces us to realize that none of us are untouchable.

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Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

   Arthur Bryant and John May have worked together for 60 years as detectives for London's Peculiar Crimes Unit until a mysterious explosion abruptly ends Arthur's life.  John is heartbroken over the loss of his best friend and decides to personally investigate the strange and unexpected circumstances of his friend's death.  The clues he finds lead him back to the first case he investigated with Arthur Bryant - a string of murders in a London theatre in the throes of WWII.  It is a case that both Arthur and John had considered closed - until now - leading John to believe that something incredibly dangerous was overlooked 60 years ago.

   This book is like 2 mysteries for the price of 1!  As John relives his first investigation from the 1940s, he also begins to unravel the mystery of his partner's tragic death.  Christopher Fowler is a great writer and did a great job with the organization and juxtaposition of these two stories.  There are so many diverse elements in Full Dark House I can't imagine why it wouldn't appeal to everyone in some way or another.  It includes elements of mystery, history, botany, chemistry, Greek mythology, literature, and even a little bit of romance!  This may sound overwhelming, but Fowler weaves them all together perfectly, and then the story unravels in very unexpected and (dare I say) peculiar ways.  I read this book for my book club and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with the rest of the group later this week.

   Full Dark House is the first in the Bryant and May mystery series (a.k.a the Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery series).  So far there are 10 books in the series, and if you want to know more about the Bryant and May mysteries you can visit Christopher Fowler's blog.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Erin Morgenstern makes magic cool again!

Nectar by Lily Prior

   Ramona Drottoveo  may not be the most beautiful woman in Italy, but there's something about her that makes her irresistible to men.  She is an overweight, albino servant, yet she emits a scent that all men find intoxicating, and this allows her to manipulate people into giving her whatever her cold little heart desires.  Ramona is used to special treatment, and is also accustomed to countless lovers, daily marriage proposals, and oh so many gifts.

   But there's just one problem: when Ramona gives birth to a child, Blandina, her scent disappears and takes the magic of her aroma with it.  Yet Ramona is greedy and spoiled and determined to get what she wants with or without the enchanting scent, so she must be a bit more creative in her manipulations in order to maintain the lifestyle to which she is accustomed.

   This is a very quirky little book, but Lily Prior's simple and straightforward prose makes Nectar read like an anti-fairy tale.  While I was reading this novel I was continuously reminded of The Princess Bride (the movie).  Nectar exudes a similar sense of sarcasm and witty humor, with a fuzzy dreamlike quality.  In fact, I would not have been surprised if Ramona had come across an ROUS or two in the Italian countryside.  Just to give you an idea, here's an excerpt from chapter 37, in which a man who has lost his sense of smell in a terrible accident believes he is still affected by Ramona's scent, despite that fact that the aroma disappeared with Blandina's birth long ago:

And when he couldn't sit with his head buried in her lap, he insisted on carrying an item of her clothing around with him, like a child with a comfort blanket.  He had started talking to the aroma, having identified it with a particularly soft female voice inside his head.  He wrote poetry to the scent and recited it.  He had taken up painting and started painting pictures of it. (page 217)

    Recently, a few friends and I started a book club, and Nectar is our first official book club choice.  We haven't met to discuss the novel yet, but I hope everyone else liked it as much as I did.  Nectar is charming and funny, and through this novel, Lily Prior provides us with an ironic and entertaining portrayal of the effects of temptation and desire.