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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Terrace Story

Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Terrace Story was recommended to me by the scintillating reviewer, John Warner https://biblioracle.substack.com/, after I sent him a list of five books I had enjoyed
1. Three
2. The Vulnerables
3. Heroines
4. The Body in Question
5. The Door
I am afraid his algorithm did not work for me although I had never heard of the book which heightened expectations. Alas, the book was not to my taste. The convoluted chronology of the family confused me, made me double back to figure out relationships, and prevented me from relating to any particular character. The author's ventures into fantasy and surrealistic worlds would be a draw to a reader who is attracted to such genres, but I resisted. Yet, if you like an imaginative structure venturing toward post-modernism, here is a well written, slim novel with original contemporary ideas.

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The Library Book *****

>The Library Book by Susan Orlean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Library Book is a fascinating and detailed history of the Los Angeles Central City Library, its devastating fire in 1986 and loss of 700,000 items, and comments on the career of librarianship. Chapters are interspersed with the biography of the arson suspect and the culture of the city. But the book, chockablock with facts and book titles from the card catalogue, is not the least bit dull. It's Susan Orlean after all, and she can tell a tale. I had bought the book when it came out in 2018;I was tickled to read it now.

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