Books Set in North America: Canada and United States, Boston, Massachusetts

The Arctic Fury, by Greer Macallister (2020)

 

In 1853, Lady Jane Franklin sought out Virginia Reeve, a young adventurer, to lead an expedition into the Arctic to find her husband’s missing ship, which was lost somewhere in the Arctic.  Virginia had earned a reputation leading expeditions across the United States as settlers began making the trek across the country.

 

Although she had never travel that far north, Virginia was experienced in traveling across the Rockies in winter weather.  Lady Franklin insisted that a team of resourceful women could accomplish what the teams of men had failed to do.  Virginia was to take 11 women with her, most of whom were preselected for her.  One woman, Caprice Collins, was a spoiled young woman from a wealthy Boston family.  Although Caprice had experience in hiking in the Alps, she had an attitude, and from the beginning, she clashed with Virginia.  She also insisted bringing her maid with her, so instead of the original twelve women, the party consisted of 13 women.

 

Not all of the women who set off on the adventure returned.  A year after the team set off on their travels, Virginia found herself on trial for the murder of Caprice.  Five of the survivors attend the trial to lend support to Virginia.  Virginia has insufficient counsel and the prosecutor seemingly has damning evidence.

 

The novel goes back and forth between the trial and the Arctic trek.  We do not learn a lot about many of the women on this trek, but their background stories are slowly revealed as the novel proceeds.  Lady Franklin made it clear to Virginia, that if the expedition was a success, Virginia would be handsomely rewarded.  If, however, it was unsuccessful, Lady Franklin would deny all knowledge of Virginia.  [Spoiler Alert:  Throughout the novel the author drops hints that Virginia was a part of the Donner Party.  We learn at the end of the novel that Lady Franklin feared that her husband and his crew met the same fate, and that her motive for the expedition was to hide any evidence of cannibalism.]

 

This novel is very loosely based on historical events.  Lady Jane Franklin really did pay for several excursions into the Arctic to search for her husband’s lost expedition, although she did not hire a team of women to make the trek.

 

I loved this book.  There were several twists and turns throughout and the novel held up to the very last page.  I think I have found a new favorite author!

 

Read:  April 27, 2021

 

5 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York and Connecticut

You Should Have Known, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2014)

 

This is a pretty generic psychological thriller about a marriage gone south.  The protagonist, Grace Sachs, is a couples’ therapist on the verge of having her first book published.  In her therapy practice, she reminds couples that the red flags in their relationship were present from the beginning.  She seemingly has the perfect life ~ a loving husband, who is a pediatric oncologist, a thriving practice, an apartment in the right section of New York, and a beautiful pre-teen son, who is attending the “right” prep school.

 

One of the students in her son class is a scholarship student.  When this boy’s mother is found murdered, Grace is forced to re-examine the relationships in her life.  No one she has loved is who they seem.

 

We soon learn that her husband, Jonathan, had been fired from his job several months earlier, but he failed to inform Grace.  He then becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation.  He vanishes with all of the jewelry that once belonged to Grace’s mother.  Only then does Grace begin to question her life with her husband.  Why didn’t Jonathan’s parents attend their wedding?  Was Jonathan’s home life as a child really as cruel and as cold as Grace has been led to believe?

 

One thing I found annoying about this book is the author’s brand-name dropping.  While Grace isn’t in the same wealth class as most of the parents in her son’s school, she clearly is not lacking for money.  She laments about only having one Birkin handbag, when other mothers have several.  Really?  Maybe being that shallow is why she missed the red-flags in her life.

 

The book was interesting enough to keep my attention, but not great literature, and I will probably not read other books by this author.

This book was made into a mini-series entitled The Undoing, starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman.

 

Read:  April 22, 2021

 

3 Stars

Books Set in North America; United States, Massachusetts: Boston, Marblehead

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe (2009)

This novel takes place in Massachusetts primarily in 1991 and with interludes in the late 1692 during the infamous Salem witch trials.

 

The main character is Constance “Connie” Goodwin, a 20-something graduate student in colonial American history.  When the novel starts, Connie has just passed her oral exams and is in search of a solid research project.  Before settling on a dissertation topic, she is called to assist in the sale of her grandmother’s long-abandoned house in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

 

She must first clean up the house, and so decides to stay there for the summer.  The house has running water, but no electricity or telephone.  Remember, 1991 is before the age of cell-phones; so Connie is often in a phone booth calling on a pay phone!

 

One of the first things Connie comes across, is an old family Bible.  When she picks it up, she feels a strange electric charge and a key with the name Deliverance Dane.  Suddenly, Connie thinks that she has found her research topic.  She spends much of the summer tracking down this Deliverance Dane person, who, Connie discovers, had a “physick book”, which contained recipes for folk remedies, but might also have labeled its owner as a witch.

 

The book was a fun read, but fell apart near the end.  I did find the author’s spelling attempt at the Boston accent to be annoying and unnecessary.

 

Read:  April 13, 2021

 

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany and Poland: Auschwitz

Auschwitz Lullaby, by Mario Escoabar (2018)

 

This novel is based on the true life of Helene Hannemann, a German housewife who married a Roma and had five children.  One morning in early 1943, the German police arrived at her door to take her husband and children away.  Although, because she was German and was eligible to stay safe, she couldn’t leave her husband and family.  They were told they were being sent to a relocation camp for Gypsies.  Instead, they were loaded onto cattle cars and shipped to Auschwitz.

 

Helene and her husband (called Johann in the book, although his name was actually Max) were separated.  The children, all under the age of 12, were allowed to stay with Helene in the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz.  They were separated from the Jewish population and received marginally better treatment.

 

Because she was a trained nurse, Helene was soon recruited into the camp hospital.  There she encountered Josef Mengele.  Partially to impress his higher-ups, Mengele appointed Helene to create a nursery school for the Romani children.  She is given paint, toys, school supplies and food for the nursery school.  She was also allowed to select some assistants to help with the children to give them as care-free a childhood as possible.  As the War continues, food for the nursery becomes scarcer and Helene encounters Mengele’s wrath when she asks for more.

 

This novel takes place in the span of about a year.  It gives a glimpse of the horrors of living in the concentration camp from the point of the Romani.  The book, however, was bookended, by reflections by Dr. Mengele.  Perhaps it was an attempt to “humanize” him, but I found it very disturbing.

 

Read:  April 6, 2021

 

3.5 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe: Hamburg, Germany and Africa: Liberia

Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi (1999)

After a whirlwind romance with the black Liberian son of a diplomat, the Bertha Baetz found herself pregnant, and in January 1926, gave birth to the author, Hans Massaquoi (Jan. 19, 1926 ~ Jan. 19, 2013).  Although the diplomat’s son promised to marry Bertha, the wedding never took place.  Instead, he went off to England to pursue his studies.  Meanwhile, Bertha and Hans, were welcomed into the diplomat’s home.  For the first 5 years of his life, Hans lived a life of wealth and privilege.

When the diplomat was called home, Bertha decided to remain in Hamburg, Germany with her son.  Their standard of living dropped dramatically, as Bertha was forced to look for jobs.  Around this time, the political climate was changing in Germany.  Like so many German children, he was indoctrinated into Nazi propaganda and dreamed of joining the Hitler Youth, like many of his comrades.

Although his was often called names by neighborhood bullies, he was generally accepted by his peers.  His teachers, however, were another story.  Many of his teachers would single him out for his black skin.  When his was denied entry into the Hitler Youth, he begged his mother to plead his case for him, arguing that he was “German just like everyone else.”  His mother fiercely protected her young son.  Throughout this memoir, the love he has for his mother is evident on nearly every page.

Through his teachers, he learns that his is “non-Aryan”, thus there is no place for him in Nazi Germany.  As Nazi Germany begins its conquest of Austria, and the war begins, Hans and his mother experience the trauma of the war and their beloved city of Hamburg being bombed.  Although Hans has been informed that after the Nazi are “done” with the Jews, he will be next.  Despite this, the author makes only an off-handed reference to Jewish extermination or the concentration camps.  I found this to be troubling.  Perhaps, at the beginning of the war, he was too young to fully understand what was happening, and by the end of the war, he and his mother were simply trying to survive.

After the War, Hans hangs out among the docks of Hamburg and often passes himself of as an American GI.  He has dreams of one day immigrating to the United States, where some of his mother’s relatives moved before the War broke out.

While still in his early 20’s, he made contact with his father, now an important businessman in Liberia.  He felt that staying in Germany would be a dead-end for him, thought that moving to Liberia would lead him to a better life.  His relationship with his father, however, quickly turned sour.  After a few years in Liberia, his mother’s relatives eventually arranged for him to immigrate to the United States.  In 1950, at age 26, he entered the United States.  After being erroneously drafted into and serving in the Army, he earned a degree in journalism.  

His mother was finally able to immigrate to the United States, where the two were reunited.  Hans ultimately became a managing editor of Ebony magazine.  As a post-script, Hans died in 2013 on his 87th birthday.

Read:  April 3, 2021

4 Stars