Vacationers

Emma Straub
Vacationers

Picador UK, 2014

The Posts leaves stuffy Manhattan to Mallorca to spend two weeks in the house of a friend. Posts at the same time are anticipating the holiday and the sea in Spain, but not sure that it will solve their intrafamily problems. But tickets have already been booked, and posts are not going to lose money.

Jim and Fran Posts should celebrate 35th marriage anniversary, their youngest daughter, Sylvia, just graduated from high school and is to college in the fall, and in Spain, Sylvia’s older brother Bobby and his girlfriend and Fran’s best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence will join the Posts.

Each of the guests are planning to spend time usefully. Sylvia wants to take Spanish lessons from a tutor, Jim to has a little workout, Fran to do research for her forthcoming book, Charles and Lawrence to have a break from the madness of the office, and Bobby intends to ask for money from their parents, and his girlfriend Carmen wants Bobby to finally mature.

The original idea of the book is not new: the remote location of the house, gathering of relatives, family secrets rushing out - we have already seen all that. But if in the literature repetition would be banned, we would expect a sad fate: over the centuries there have been written only two dozen books - tops.

Emma Straub plays on semitones, helps the trivial with the sense of humor, though, of course, walks a thin line. This line lies between the commercial literature and literature big and serious, that chasing not the profits, but meaning and recognition. Selection of characters here is entirely of moderately smart novel for women: husband and wife are necessarily writers, kids are cute, but dependent, and the presence of gay couple is required, the landscape is European on top of things, to have material for jokes and sights to see.

This collection of characters could drown any, the most solid, novel, Straub, however, makes these absurd characters to play to her advantage. Moreover, it makes all the characters sympathetic. Each of them individually is either a snob, or a bore, or a coward, or cad, but together these combinations of emotions, human types and qualities makes the whole company surprisingly lively. Straub brings us to the idea that people are not perfect, and that makes them human.

Vacationers in the first place is a book about the complexity of human relationships. Even within one family, the minimum unit of society, there are so many compromises, laws, rules, tacit agreements, I’m not even saying about entire nations.

Straub makes us realize the seriousness of our emotions and feelings, but does not do it with the stern face. Her characters are comic, though they hardly realize it. The novel’s humour is aiming, such that the book does not sink to the level of family romantic comedy.

You can call Vacationers beach reading, the book won’t loose its distinctive qualities.

Black Lake

Johanna Lane
Black Lake

Tinder Press, 2014

The novel begins in fact with the end: the peak of events is right here, in the initial chapter, and everything that happens on the following pages is the background, the characters study, attempt to understand the causes of the incident.

Dulough, estate with house-castle, located in the north of Ireland, near the ocean, was inherited by John Campbell, one of the main characters of the book, the father of the family which is at the center of the novel. Besides John here live his wife Marianne and their two children - the eldest daughter Kate and son Philip. Due to excessive cost of maintaining of the estate, John is forced to pass the estate over to the government. The family for the season has to move to a small cottage where their servants lived. Philip will drown in the sea, Kate will be sent to the boarding school (previously she studied at home), and Marianne will be stressed, she will become strange, without her husband's consent will pick her daughter up from school and will close herself with Kate in a large ballroom on the third floor of the castle and will refuse to leave. John and Mrs. Connelly, the servant, will bring the food to mother and daughter every day, John will allow to his family stay in self-imposed captivity. Only a few weeks later, John will call the police and his wife's parents, to move Marianne from the room with force. Police breaks down the door, and John will give his wife to her parents.

After this disarming beginning the novel brings us back to the time when John still only signs documents with the municipal authorities. The middle part of the novel is written from the perspective of John and Philip. John's father died long ago, and his mother died shortly before John had married. John and his brother inherited from his mother some funds, as well as Dulough. Brother has takes a portion of the money, and John receives the rest, with the agreement that John will keep the estate, and he also will live in the family castle, and his brother would go to Dublin.

Black Lake unravels in the opposite direction, from the tragic finale to the melancholy beginning. Lane as on purpose throws intrigue on the very first page, as if to say, do not wait a thriller from me, I have more important things to do than tickle nerves. The plot is really very simple and can squeeze into dozen sentences.

The novel works as a location study. Each character of the Campbell family separately is flat character, fabric, which lacks the contour. It is not so important because each character is projected onto the Dulough. Outside the castle, none of these characters would have existed. Novel’s characters are only thinking about the castle, the whole point of their existence is to be tied to it. In the text of the novel there aren’t clues that Dulough is a cursed place, nevertheless the book's characters’ thoughts clearly hint to the bad luck of the castle. Dulough dominates Campbells. Especially adults understand it. John and Marianne become hostages of the estate. John because of his volition gives the catle to possess him (not vice versa), although Dulough is obviously a burden to him.

Marianne is oppressed by empty space. The castle is sucking out her life force, making her miserable.

The most tragic events of the book is ouside of the pages, and yet the book turned out pretty grim. Despite the fact that the ending is already known, there is still a kind of feeling, as if something else happens, even more tragic. Lane knows how to convey despair, anxiety, loneliness. I suppose that so dark prose will not be to everybody's taste.

The novel leaves hope, although it is very illusive hope: heroes remain in Dulough, and it is unlikely that they ever get out of this place. Black Lake is a deep and very dark novel, as the title promises.

The Ruby Slippers

Keir Alexander
The Ruby Slippers

Corsair, 2014

The old woman Rosa, accompanied by her dog, trudges through the streets of New York City on St. Patrick's Day. After taking grocery products from her only relative - her nephew Michael Marcinkus, the owner of a grocery store - Rosa drags on until an accident happens. Miraculously surviving it, Ross is brought to the hospital, where she stays in a coma. The nephew who thinks that his aunt can die at any moment is notified, and with his wife he goes to inspect Rosa’s apartment.

Rosa in recent years almost lost her mind, did not talk, just wrote her name on the paper asking for products, and suffered from that she did not throw anything away. That is, in general, from fish tails to worn stockings. Michael and his wife at first are horrified, seeing the situation inside the apartment. Mostly sickening smell of putrefaction and decomposition discourages them from entering. And when he comes for the second time to sort through things, he finds among the heaps of garbage stored in a box ruby slippers. These shoes are not just another junk but iconic relic. In these shoes Judy Garland played a role in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.

Michael is dumbfounded by his find ( which has a letter attached). Shoes certainly are worth millions, but Rosa is not dead yet, and for her this pair of shoes is probably the most precious thing, the memory of Hollywood past.

Alexander in her novel weaves intrigue around a pair of shoes, but the storyline is clogged with cliches and coincidences. Secondary plotline - about the relationship of father and daughter, James and Siobhan - is of greater interest, but remains in the undeveloped state.

Leaving a family because of an opened homosexuality is a vast topic, giving an opportunity to understand the motives and hidden sexuality and to see the reaction of society, and suggest that a victim of the effects of a broken home can become not only a child but also the parents. Alexander approaches the topic with uncertainity. Position of the families of lovers Paolo and James is too banal (James’ father is angry at the sight of his son, calls him faggot and we don’t see Paolo’s at all), the history of relations between Paolo and James is also unknown to us. James, for all his goodness, thinks more about the deceased lover, but not about a living daughter, who sorely misses not only the father but also the truth about him. The seven-year separation is not easy to restore to their former relationship, but here the conflict has strikingly been simple solved already after a couple of meetings between James and Siobhan.

So vast theme with inexhaustible resource has shrunk in size to a happy ending, the author is more interested in a game of cat and mouse with the slippers. Suppose Rosa was really a dresser of a famous actress. And she really left the shoes as a memory. But why has Rosa become crazy? Why her nephew did not support her all this time? Gave her food, but could not come to visit and talk? Couldn’t hire someone from the social services? Why Rosa lost her speech, but did not lose her ability to write? Rosa’a story, her move to the States, life in the Baltic States, is not that is banal, but something like that we have read many times. But too much does not fit with Rosa, to be able to understand her and Michael.

The other characters are drawn to the slippers by chance. For James Garland is a gay icon, and he wants to have something that belonged to her. Not too convincing. Or James is gay only because in this case he could be interested in the auction? The black boy also just accidentally overhears Michael and his wife. Harrison is still not a member of a youth gang to blackmail Michael and even commit robbery in broad daylight. And the reason for blackmail is frankly labored.

Thus, a large part of the plot rests on coincidences. Motives for almost all the characters are too far from reality. It is not enough to weave fates, it is necessary that these fates were supported by at least some credibility.

Shorecliff

Ursula DeYoung
Shorecliff

Little, Brown, 2013

Events of the summer spent with numerous relatives in a big house on the Maine shore in 1928 are recalled by lawyer Richard Killing, who on that summer was only 13.

Together with his mother Caroline Richard travels from New York to Shorecliff, where for the first time all the relatives of the mother of the boy should be gathered. Richard's father, a successful lawyer, stays in the city, and boy is glad. Hatfield Sr. is a hard man, loving discipline and order, and he never punished his son by beatings, but everyone is afraid of him.

In Shorecliff first time in a long time the whole family are in full: a few Caroline’s sisters and their husbands, her brother Kurt, as well as numerous Richard’s cousins. He is the youngest in the company, the oldest among children is the mysterious Francesca, 21. Of all the brothers and sisters, Richard is most familiar with Pamela, who is older than the boy by only six months. He rarely had seen the rest of the extended family and knows them not well enough.

Large family is good, but when a large family gathers together, it is not very good. Shorecliff successfully convinces us of this. This novel plays with semitones, and the author's voice never rises louder than a whisper. The subtlety of style makes this book quite successful - a satisfying reading of familiar ingredients.

Ursula DeYoung does not offer us anything new, but she makes the old shine. Did not we read books with young boys as narrators? We did. Did not we read books where the characters eavesdroping and spying on each other? We did, of course. Are we not familiar with atmosphere of tension in a big house full of people, at home on the edge of the earth? And this all has happened before. Or is it unfamiliar to us, a book about human weaknesses, of betrayal and jealousy? Books are changing, but the people remain the same, and thus also their weaknesses remain unchanged.

Shorecliff for all its cliches successfully accomplishes several tasks. First, the author managed to describe many characters so they do not get confused in one’s head while reading. Due to the small details, we can easily distinguish Francesca and Pamela or Fischer and Tom. Of course, not all the cousins play an equally important role in the novel’s events, it’s hard to confuse the characters. Not all of them are colorful characters, everyone is clear and compelling.

Secondly, DeYoung does not use cheap tricks, trying to surprise us on every page. In the end, the action takes place in a family house in Maine away from the city and not in Disneyland. The book still surprises but when it’s realy needed. The author prepares us for surprises, carefully revealing the relationship between relatives. Learning the characters closer, we can better understand their motives.

Third, the book is written very smoothly. Voice of the narrator is measured, such, that is immediately obvious – it is the memoirs of a mature man, not a boy. The author knows how to build a composition, how to suck the reader in, how to prepare us for the surprises.

The novel is far from the original, but I have not found a reason not to love it.

The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri
The Lowland

Knopf, 2013

Two brothers, Subhash and Udayan, were born and raised in one of the districts of Calcutta near the lowland (the same one from the novel’s title). With the age difference in one year, the brothers were inseparable and very similar to each other. Both brothers were savvy and smart, but their characters eventually became different. Protest, disobedience, and challenge started growing in Udayan, but Subhash remained calm, considerate, obedient to his parents. In the early '60s, in the period of world revolutions and uprisings, Udayan joined the Naxalite movement, a terrorist organization operating illegally in India and advocating for equality and justice for all. While one brother rebels, the second one goes to the United States, Rhode Island in particular, where he studies the marine chemistry at the university. Studying is going steady, as is introduction to American life, even an affair with a married American woman and the first sex happen. After the break-up with an American woman Subhash suddenly receives a telegram about his brother's death.

Subhash rushes off to India, attends funeral and finds his brother's widow, eating food from the floor in the kitchen. It turns out that Udayan married secretly an intellectual without consent of parents, and now brother’ parents barely tolerate the presence in the house Gauri, a pregnant widow. Subhash can not find out anything about the death of his brother, and only Gauri tells how Udayan has been shot in the lowlands by the police in front of the family. His body was never given to the family.

Seeing that Gauri can not stay at parents’ home, Subhash asks her to marry him and be the father of the unborn child. Gauri obediently agrees, and the couple fly to the U.S. (of course, this marriage was also made without the approval of the parents).

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri in fact is low: there are only a few high points here, but plenty of low points. The beginning of the book promises much, though melodrama already is noticeable. The two brothers, who had gone separate ways and are split by the ocean, is not really original premise. The book is written in the third person, and the point of view changes from chapter to chapter. But the brother-revolutionary dies quickly, Lahiri does not have time to tell about his motives, and Udayan will remain a mystery to the reader until the very end. But the chapters written about another brother from his point of view in the novel are plenty. And that feel kind of unfair: one brother was given enough space to speak out, but the other died in silence.

But the surviving brother has very little to tell. That is one of the failures of the novel. Subhash’s life is empty, uneventful, a continuous lane of contrived sadness. About his marriage with Gauri it is clear from the very beginning that it won’t work out. The couple does not even quarrel (both of spouses are remarkably inert), and continue to live side by side. Their way of life does not hurt them and does not change them. Lahiri is forced almost a third of the novel to devote to this joyless coexistence. But you can not build a whole novel on sadness and decline of marital relationship. The author does not know how to write properly about everyday life, and the result is something like this: chapter begins, as spouses are sad, the next chapter also tells the story how the wife are sad, as if it were the only business that they can take themselves to - being sad.

Characters do not change throughout the book. It takes forty years, but Subhash and Gauri are still the same sad people, seemed to have not learned from life any single thing. Both had their degrees, but in reality they are at 20-year-olds level, however, severely depressed. Even Bela, their daughter, already adult, becomes something like her father: she lives like a ghost in the eventless world, and we do not really wonder what will happen to her.

But the final returns the tension of beginning of the book. Confrontation between the characters get even much tougher than expected. The Lowland reminds us that mercy is not only the good, but also to the detriment. Even the scene of the confrontation is written more furiously in style than most of the book.

Lahiri, apparently, wanted to broaden her audience and make her novel more accessible. Otherwise how do you explain the fact that the novel is written stylistically too straight. Lahiri "chews" everything here, so that the reader only is left to swallow, no secrets between the lines here. Those readers who love to think on the book will be disappointed.

As to the historical material which the book is based on, in particular, the Naxalite movement, there Lahiri failed. Into her lyrical prose Lahiri unceremoniously shoved pieces of historical material, not even bothering to edit them. Copy-paste does yet decorate no novel.

The author has the potential, but somehow it smeared – on the lowland.