Kate's Point of View

My Weeks in Books

I’ve been reading some heavy stuff lately. First there was lynching, then wartime naval attacks and finally family feuds resulting in murders, suicides and rapes.

And yet… the books were pretty good.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper

I am acutely aware that a lot of people in the United States have giant hole in their knowledge of our country. I hear it when they talk aghast of atrocities happening in other countries but seem confused when you relate foreign events or more local current events to our own recent past. The history of race relations in the U.S. is an important story to tell and one often told badly.

In Stella by Starlight, Sharon M. Draper does a good job of presenting the segregated South in a way children can understand. Targeting kids ages 9 to 13 (and adults in their mid-30s…), she talks about the challenges black communities faced in general and the very real dangers they faced because of racism and the Ku Klux Klan. What’s amazing about Stella by Starlight is that Draper tells a story that gives so much, without going into any gory details. She gives the main character, Stella, a great voice by showing her both as the narrator but also as an author of some sections, helping to bring forth important parts of our history.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

I’m not typically drawn to non-fiction books. I read a handful a year and am usually happy that I have, but my preferences always lean to fiction. Erik Larson, who also wrote Devil in the White City, which I loved, has a special talent of making something I think is pretty darn boring fascinating. At book club I was trying to describe Dead Wake and kept saying, “I mean, nothing is really happening. But it’s so good.” And it was. I was reading it at the gym, where normally an exciting plot pushes me through a workout, and I was enthralled by the minutia Larson compiled about the Lusitania. I’ve found myself referencing the book in conversation.

This book is good. Read it.

Juliet by Anne Fortier

I’m not actually done with Juliet by Anne Fortier just yet, but I will be by the end of today. The book is a sort of retelling of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet. Or, rather, many retellings of that classic story. Jumping back and forth between a present-day Romeo and Guiletta and the original classics, Fortier explains the history of the love story and how the rivalry between families (the Montagues and Capuletsin Shakespear’s version and the Tolomeis and the Salembenis in this book).

The first two thirds of the book had enough mystery and intrigue that I was really hooked. The latter part of the book appears to be turning into a straight-up romance novel and I’m losing steam. (Right as it gets steamy!) But I do enjoy hearing how classic stories have different versions told throughout history.

It only took about ten seconds to pick this month’s book club selection. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is being hailed as the new Gone Girl. That attribution comes with some downsides.

Although I fully admit to being potentially the only person around who didn’t like Gone Girl, I understand why other people enjoyed it. I was distracted by the ending. I felt cheated of my time investment into the characters and the plot. I like to identify with a character and be rooting for them. When everyone is equal parts  despicable and redeemable, it’s harder for me to cope. But ultimately, it’s the end of that book that gets to me. I do my best not to share spoilers, but suffice it to say the book has a plot twist.

See: The Girl on the Train. When I’m told “It’s the new Gone Girl,” I’m reading the book waiting. I’m waiting to find out that each character I start to like is horrible. I’m waiting to find myself forgiving the characters I identify initially as horrible. But most importantly, I’m waiting for the plot twist that must be coming. None of this is bad, but I’m not sure it does Paula Hawkins and the authors sure to follow in this genre any favors.

When I watch the television shows featuring the “person who knows everything” (see: Gregory House, MD, on House;  Detective Zack Nichols on Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Sherlock Holmes on Sherlock), I’m watching the show trying to figure out the mystery before the character does. That is, until I’ve watched enough episodes to catch on to the fact that I won’t figure it out. Then I just assume the position I think I am supposed to fill: person who watches in awe as the “person who knows everything” solves the case. (Exception being the episodes of Sherlock based on books I’ve already read.) Up until that point when I just give up and start watching, the show is exciting. Once I understand that I needn’t bother, the show is still entertaining but it’s not as fun.

It reminds me of when I was younger and watching television shows on Nick at Nite and my dad could predict how every episode of The Donna Reed Show, Mr. Ed, The Patty Duke Show and My Three Sons would end. I was amazed. How could he do it? If I catch an episode of any of those shows now, it seems predictable. I know how the story arc is supposed to go.

Books are similar. I have many authors I hook onto because I enjoy their writing and it makes book selection so much easier. But once they start to follow a pattern in each story, and if I identify that pattern, my interest wanes.

I enjoyed The Girl on the Train so much more than Gone Girl. Maybe this is explicitly because of the Gone Girl comparison. I read it wary. But once you know the plot twist is coming… Once you know to be on guard… It changes the experience and I’m not sure it’s for the better. Instead of surprise (and frustration and anger), my reaction is, “Ah, there it is! I knew it!” It’s still entertaining, but somehow not as clever.