The Offing

The Offing by Benjamin Myers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Offing reminded me a bit of another favorite, A Month in the Country, its emphasis on the English countryside and the arts discovered by young Robert Appleyard, the son of a coal miner, who has left school and is tramping through the byways of the seaside towns to the south, sleeping rough and picking up odd jobs after the war. He meets Dulcie Piper, an opinionated nature buff thrice his age, motherly and foul-mouthed, who lives in a shabby cottage surrounded by overgrown weeds. Many of those weeds she uses to concoct nettle tea and imaginative meals. The boy stays on in an abandoned shed at night watching the dipping shadow-shapes of bats chasing moths, (while) field mice carved the tiniest curving tunnelled run through the grass, and a barn owl watched on silently from its treetop promontory." He works to improve her land while she teaches him to read poetry, imparting her bohemian thoughts and independent philosophy, pointing out "the drab municipal buildings being constructed from cheap concrete. (By) Men, mainly. Where once we built towers to heaven, now we build frumpy sweatboxes for pen-pushers...The janitors of mediocrity. The custodians of drab and peddlers of dreck. We live in chaos and out of chaos comes war." Robert finds a mysterious poetry manuscript in the old shed which he learns was written by Dulcie's late lover, an esteemed poet. What happened to her? Myers has created a lyrical and lovely text about two disparate people forming a lasting friendship: "sitting here now by the open window, a glissando of birdsong on the very lightest of breezes that carries with it the scent of a final incoming summer. I cling to poetry as I cling to life." Me, too.

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Broken Open

Broken Open by Martha Gies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Martha Gies writes a spellbinding tale of experiences in her itinerant life plus stories of the equally fascinating souls she met along the way. Whether assisting Great Kramien the Magician in his act, studying with Raymond Carver, interviewing graveyard shift workers when driving cab (see her first book Up All Night), or talking to an ex-Black Panther father or a nuclear physicist, she speaks wisely and compassionately interviews her subjects with a bit of humor for herself. It is very much a Northwest book describing growing up on an asparagus farm worked by hundreds of braceros when the U. S. welcomed and documented foreign workers and the author's myriad jobs in different parts of Oregon and Washington and farther afield. The writing is polished, as one might expect from a writing teacher, but also hones exquisite recollections: "the thousands of stars above the Andes suggesting a white blaze just behind the perforated sky; the afternoon I bent among dense ferns to ladle clear, bubbling spring water into my pail and discovered the pink pearlescent shock of a large abalone shell left by a recent guest." She includes a passionate telling of her own spiritual journey preaching to county jail inmates, and her eventual conversion to Catholicism, work with the homeless and visits to pastoral ministries in Latin America. No humdrum moments in Gies' life tales--I highly recommend this collection.

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Ilium

Ilium by >Lea Carpenter
4 of 5 stars

I needed a breather from required reading and picked up Lea Carpenter's book as a perfect antidote. A young innocent falls in love with a CIA agent and during their honeymoon, he asks her to act as an art appraiser to gain access to a Cap Ferrat mansion on the sea where a prominent Russian agent resides. Innocence, suspense, location: Ilium fit the bill with allusions to the Odyssey, revenge and other aspects of Greek mythology while zipping along at spy novel pace. The ending brought together some vagueness earlier about "the hit" planned by CIA operatives. Three and one-half stars, ideally, but the book delivered on its promise.

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Hold Still ****

Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not only are the author's stunning photos and a collection of family history snapshots included in this memoir, the writing is exceptional. And an interesting story of growing up in the South coping with dramatic family events and race and politics. And always creativity and art.
Linking to current creative monster discussions, Sally Mann (Photographer) talks about the distinction between the images she produced and their creator (accused by some of immorality). "Do we deny the power of For Whom the Bell Tolls because the author was unspeakably cruel to his wives? Should we vilify Ezra Pound's The Cantos because of its author's nutty political views? Does Gauguin's abandoned family come to mind when you look at those Tahitian canvases? If we only revere works made by those with whom we'd happily have our granny share a train compartment, we will have a paucity of art."
Highly recommended.

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The Tortoise and the Hare ****

The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautifully written languid novel of 1950's England about Isobel, an accommodating young woman married to an older professional husband, Evelyn, who takes an interest in a sporty, wealthy neighbor, an unlikely threat to their twelve-year marriage. Well drawn is their irritating young son Gavin and his stolid friend Tim who sit in at teatimes at their country estate. The countryside and furnishings are artfully represented as are the characters which make up this tale of the slow disintegration of a marriage and a way of life.
Hilary Mantel wrote the introduction comparing Elizabeth Jenkins to Rebecca West and Sybille Bedford (a favorite of mine), and even compares her prose to Jane Austen: "formal, nuanced, acid. She surveys a room as if she were perched on the mantelpiece an unruffled owl of Minerva, a recording angel."

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Homesick

Homesick by Jennifer Croft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure how to classify this book--novel, autofiction, memoir--nor are publishers with British publisher calling it a novel while the Unnamed Press copy I have calls it memoir. Admired its lyricism, topics of sisterhood and language study illustrated by annotated photos taken by the author and her sister.

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The Tremor of Forgery

The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Tremor of Forgery is a gently suspenseful story rich in its sun-soaked Tunisian setting and its expat characters, each involved in moral uncertainty about one, possibly two murders, clandestine pro-USA broadcasts to the Soviet Union, a suicide, and a floundering love affair. The main character is an author and he provides details of his own protagonist which suggest comparison to the narrator, or do they? The last few chapters pick up in suspense and the story ends to this reader's satisfaction. "Don't trust her, don't trust her," I kept thinking, anxious for him to see the light. The gay friend upstairs was an important character and revealed the prejudices Highsmith must have been familiar with in 1969; it made me think of Giovanni's Room. The description of the Tunis air terminal delighted me: "The Tunis air terminal presented a confused picture. Vital direction signs vied with aspirin advertisements, the 'Information' desk had no one at it, and several transistors carried by people walking about, warred with louder music from the restaurant's radio on the balcony, absolutely defeating the occasional voice of a female announcer, presumably giving planes' arrival and departure times. Ingham could not even tell if the announcer was speaking in French, Arabic or English." Touted by The New Yorker as "her best novel," I recommend it.

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