Moloka'i
By Alan Brennert
Completed June 22, 2008

Having just finished Moloka’i by Alan Brennert, I am left with a mixed bag of emotions. Here is a book that mostly everyone loved. Other reviewers described the main character, Rachel, as one that lingers with you. Others praised the rich Hawaiian history that filled this book. Others were engrossed by the sense of community created by these characters – all who were diagnosed with leprosy and isolated to prevent the spread of this disease.

I agree with all of these points. Rachel was fully drawn and life-like. I enjoyed reading about Hawaiian history at the turn of the century – a new topic for me. And I appreciate the community and family (“ohana”) that bound these people together.

But I am left with a nagging sense too. Specifically, there are two aspects of the book that bothered me:

1 The acceptance of Leilani, a transvestite, into Moloka’i without so much as a sneer, prejudice or a bad word. This is the early 1900’s in a traditional Catholic society. I highly doubt this would happen. Heck, it doesn’t happen now in 2008. Perhaps the author felt these people who were shunned by society could be welcoming to Leilani. It’s a stretch for me, considering the historical nature of homophobia.

2) The Forrest Gump syndrome, as I like to call it, when the main character witnesses historical events first-hand. We learn about the first airplanes, vehicles and “moving pictures” through Rachel’s eyes. Also, the usurpation of Hawaiian royalty and the attack on Pearl Harbor both find their places in this novel. I don’t mind reading about history through a character, but in this book, I found some of it to be distracting and non-essential to the story.

I realize that I am in the minority with my objections, and that’s okay. Each book holds something different for its readers. If you enjoy good character-driven historical fiction, then I think you will find Moloka’i to be a smart, heart-warming book. Despite my objections, I am glad to have read this novel and learn more about leprosy and historic Hawaii. ( ) 

The Crimson Portrait
By Jody Shields
Completed June 1, 2008

The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields was a novel about the importance of faces, reflections and appearances. If your face became disfigured, how would it change you as a person? How would others perceive you?

Catherine was a lonely widow living on her husband’s estate during World War I. Her husband, Charles, offered up the estate prior to his death so it could be used as a hospital. Catherine had no choice but to watch a medical team convert her home into a hospital for men suffering from severe facial disfigurements. Their first order of business was to remove all mirrors – making the estate a place of no reflections.

At the estate, the physicians performed surgeries on these men in an attempt to restore their faces. For the unrestorable, the doctors turned to thin prosthetic masks, created by artist Anna Coleman. Their first subject was a young soldier named Julian, who was having an affair with the emotionally fragile Catherine. Anna needed to create a mask in the likeness of Julian prior to his injuries, and Catherine made a dangerous decision: to provide a picture of Charles as the pre-injured Julian so that Julian’s face would resemble her dead husband. Catherine, in effect, missed her husband so much that only his face would do on her lover’s body. But did it work to erase her demons?

The characters in this book were elegantly drawn. Catherine was depicted as severely depressed and delusional. The doctors battled between emotional attachments and treating their scarred patients. And the men battled their own demons, left with able bodies and faces that scared people.

Throughout this story, I often contemplated that it would translate well into the big screen. I think the medicinal and surgical aspect of The Crimson Portrait would draw audiences right in. And the unforgettable, flawed characters would seem human and familiar, especially considering our current state of military affairs.

Until the movie is made (if it’s ever made), I would recommend The Crimson Portrait to readers of World War I fiction or to those who are interested in stories that have medical theme. For certain, The Crimson Portrait is a medical book and one should find medicine interesting to enjoy this story. All in all, Jody Shields told a compelling and thought-provoking story about the love and loss of the human face – and human life. ( )

I will be the first to tell you that I am not a science head. Warmly smuggled in my English and U.S. history degrees, I shy away from anything scientific and mathematical - and that includes running away from books of scientific tendencies.

Or do I? When my blog buddy 3M announced her Science in Fiction project, I shook my head: "Not for me!" I declared to myself. The Science in Fiction project focuses on books with scientific themes written in a realistic setting (as opposed to science fiction). After thinking about some of my recent reads, I realized that I am not that science shy - in fact, books that used the scientific method to explore historical truths are enjoyable to me. Also, working in a health care setting, I enjoy books that discuss health conditions and their effects on loved ones.

Admittedly, science intimidates me, and that's reason enough to participate in the Science in Fiction project. There is no beginning or end date, no number of books to committ to - just an opportunity to mix science and literature. If you are interested in learning more, please check out 3M's project blog for the details.

As for my list of science books, I am starting with 2008 reads and will update my list on this post:

1) The Sister by Poppy Adams (review) - The study of moths is a central theme to this Hitchcock-like tale.
2) People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (review) - A book conservationist uses scientific methods to uncover clues of the history of an ancient Hebrew codex.
3) The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block (review) - This book explores the devastating effects and genetic coding of Alzheimer's. 
4) The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields (review) - An exploration of World War I plastic surgery techniques on facially disfigured veterans 
5) Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (review) - Discusses the historical and medical treatment of leprosy

The Story of Forgetting
By Stefan Merrill Block
Completed April 20, 2008

Stefan Merrill Block made a strong debut with The Story of Forgetting– a tale of families, memories and how secrets can destroy relationships. Indeed, The Story of Forgetting is really a story of remembering – your family, your memories, your way of life. Central to this book is Alzheimer’s, the disease that not only robs people of their memories but how to live, regressing them from adults to children within years. It’s this pain that buttressed this compelling story.

The story intertwined the tales of Seth Waller – a sensitive, smart 15-year old who was dealing with his mother’s diagnosis of familial early-onset Alzheimer’s – and Abel Haggard – an elderly hermit who roamed his decrepit home, remorseful of a life of secrets that bound Abel to his home and land. Block switched back and forth between Seth and Abel’s stories – plus added in the mythological story of Isidora, a place where people’s memories are blissfully erased – and a scientist’s notes of the genetic history of familial early-onset Alzheimer’s. These chapters moved the story nicely, layering each story to the moment when it all came together.

Seth’s chapters mostly dealt with his “empirical research” into this particular type of Alzheimer’s. A novice scientist, Seth discovered a list of early-onset Alzheimer’s sufferers near his home and visited each one, trying to reconstruct his mother’s secret childhood and hoping to find a relative who can shed some light on his mother’s past. Abel’s chapters retold his life, his love for his brother’s wife, his brother’s suffering from early on-set Alzheimer’s and Abel’s love for his daughter who no longer was a part of his life. These characters were developed masterfully – sometimes you snickered at their actions, sometimes you frowned – but always caring about what happened to them.

Inspired by his grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s, Block’s The Story of Forgetting was everything but forgettable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories about family relationships. I look forward to reading more books from this promising young author. ( ) 

People of the Book
By Geraldine Brooks
Completed March 16, 2008

People of the Book is a fitting title for Geraldine Brooks’s latest novel. This book explored the many people who touched an ancient Hebrew codex that traveled through Europe for 500 years. Though a work of fiction, the book is based on a true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish manuscript that was rescued by Muslim librarians twice – once during World War II and most recently during the nationalist wars in Yugoslavia. The irony that Muslim men rescued a Hebrew text during times of cultural strife provided Brooks with her framework. But it’s Brooks’s fictional illumination of what else happened to the haggadah during its long life that further advanced the message of People of the Book - how people can do the right thing, despite religious differences and political rules of the time.

In this book, Dr. Hanna Heath, an Australian expert in book conservation, was called to Sarajevo at the beginning of the cease-fire to inspect the haggadah and unravel its mysterious origins. As she inspected the book, Hanna extracted several clues to its past: an insect’s wing, sliver clasps, red stains on the page, a morsel of salt and a white hair. As she investigated each clue, Brooks took the reader back in time to how each item found its place in the haggadah. The “flashbacks” are all fictional, but they provided a narrative on the treatment of Jews through the years, from the Spanish Inquisition to World War II – and how one book survived it, thanks to the love and care of the people who were entrusted to protect it.

Admittedly, I found some of the historical narratives a little drawn out, but each fact had its place in the large context of the story. Hanna’s personal life also entered into the story, which in my opinion did not add to the story of the haggadah but explained why she became so interested in the conservation of books.

All in all, I enjoyed People of the Book because of what it represents: “It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox.” The real Sarajevo Haggadah is testament to this feeling, and thank God there are people out there who remember that humanity should transcend everything else.

If you like religious historical fiction, I highly recommend People of the Book to you. ( ) 

The Sister
By Poppy Adams
Completed March 8, 2008

In her debut novel, The Sister, former BBC producer Poppy Adams used her photographer’s eye and mind to conjure up a unique tale of two sisters, Ginny and Viv, and their lifetime of secrets that tore their family apart. The story opened with Ginny, in her seventies, waiting for the arrival of her sister, Vivien, who she has not seen in almost fifty years. Once Vivien arrived, the reader must decipher between a past and present story line that unravels the disastrous family secrets – and keeps the reader wondering which sister is in the right until the last few chapters.

The Hitchcock-weird feeling of the characters can be downright bone chilling. Ginny narrated the story, and throughout her tale, little idiosyncrasies cropped up about Ginny, like her wearing of two wristwatches – one standard and one digital – that she meticulously checked for accuracy against her bedroom alarm clock. Or the drawer full of cannabis tea bags that she maintained to help her with arthritic pain but never liked to use because it caused a lack of symmetry in the drawer. Adams “spoon fed” Ginny’s personality quarks to the reader throughout The Sister, resulting in the nagging hunch that Ginny may not be a reliable narrator.

Then Adams, through Ginny’s narration, drew a picture of Vivien that was equally unsettling. Vivien was selfish and attention seeking, often manipulating her relationship with Ginny for her own gains. Ginny had a major inferiority complex with her sister, and the way Vivien was depicted, one could see why: smart, beautiful and full of creative ideas. You never get the sense though that Viv was a good person (through Ginny’s eyes), but the reader cannot doubt the love between them.

The Sister has the making of a great novel, especially for readers of Gothic literature: an old house, eccentric characters and a secret to be discovered. However, it has an obvious flaw – The Moths. The sisters’ father, Clive, was an expert in moths and taught his craft to Ginny when she was a teenager. Throughout the first half of the novel, The Moths are major characters. The reader learned about different types of moths, their importance to scientific research, how one caught them, how to kill them, how they transform from a caterpillar into a moth and what’s inside the cocoon during the transformation process.

All of this scientific knowledge took up pages of the story. While it was well written, it bogged the story down. When the reader finished, you can see how and why moths were important to The Sister’s plot, but perhaps Adams could have arrived at this point in different way. I almost abandoned The Sister because of the darned moths – and though I am glad I did not, I still have to shake my head about why they took up such a prominent place during the first half of the novel.

Once you get past The Moths, the suspense and mystery built masterfully into a real page-turner. I would recommend The Sister to readers with that disclaimer: have patience during the first half of the book and then prepare to be awed during the second. Adams made a promising debut, and I look forward to her future stories. ( )