The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What I thought was a novel turned out to be a short story and only an hour long on audio. But I am glad it wasn't longer; the more I heard the more questions I had to which there were no answers.

Benjamin is born as an elderly man, fully grown, talking, and walking. I have many, many questions about how that birth and the nine months preceding it happened and what condition Benjamin's mother was in following that joyous event.

As Benjamin grows up his body gets younger. He becomes stronger and more capable, confusing everyone but having far less trouble than you'd expect in the circumstances. When he reaches old age he is physically a child, with the thoughts and behaviour of a child, and then a baby. At that point he seems to fade into non-existence. I haven't seen the movie but I might watch it just to see how they did that. In the book it's gently worded and peaceful but I can't quite visualize it.  

It's an odd story, but beautiful at the same time. It's imaginative and lets you look at life and aging in a way you probably never have. And the writing - I'd forgotten how much I love Fitzgerald's writing. I'd like to get into one of his novels soon.

The Personal Librarian

 The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

This is a fictional account of the remarkable true story of Bella da Costa Greene, who served as personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan for many years and was instrumental in the creation of the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Bella rose to a position of prominence in society and among the elite of art dealers and collectors worldwide, all while having to hide her true identity. She was a black woman who in that day would not have held such a prestigious job or been admitted to those circles, but she, her mother, and siblings were all fair-skinned enough to pass as white, and so she was welcomed among them. 

Bella's father was a well-known, outspoken advocate for equal rights, but Bella's mother wanted her children to have the opportunities and acceptance denied her own people, and once she separated from her husband, she chose for them to live as a white family. Bella had a brilliant career, but had to be constantly on her guard in what she said and who she was seen with to avoid anyone finding out who she really was. 

I've been looking forward to reading about Bella and her career since I first heard of her several years ago but, sadly, this was not the book I expected it to be. The writing felt contrived and self-conscious, like it was trying too hard to be good. 

"Show, don't tell" was lacking here. Bella would tell us how she felt about something or someone, instead of letting us get close enough to her to see it in her behavior. I wanted to know her better as a human being, get into her head a bit, but she remained distant, just a character on a page, and not very likeable at that. She was a bit full of herself, referring often to how high she'd risen, her fame as librarian extraordinaire, her skill, her prowess, etc. It got tedious; it would have been much more effective to let the reader discern those things from the story instead.

It's clear that the author has done her research, but it was presented awkwardly. Rather than weave it into the story, it came in little info dumps like this one: 

"I explain to Mama that in the late 1400s, an English merchant and diplomat named William Caxton used a new printing technology invented by Johannes Gutenberg 20 years prior to make the first English language books. After all, I point out, Caxton not only made available a larger range of texts to English speakers, but unified the English language. His books are important for not only historic and literary significance, but also linguistic."  It sounds more like a page from a textbook than a talk with Mama.

Much of the dialogue felt stilted, said for effect but not adding to the story or allowing us to know the characters better. 

What I did like was learning about J.P. Morgan's incredible library and the art/manuscript collecting world, the auctions and wheeling and dealing that occurs behind the scenes. But most eye-opening for me was Bella's family life and what it was like for them having to hide who they were all those years. That's something I'd like to learn more about.   

Fascinating woman and situation, but I didn't like the writing. 

Seven Days of Us

 Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

The Birch family - father, Andrew; mother, Emma; elder daughter, Olivia; younger daughter, Phoebe - gather for Christmas. Olivia, a doctor, has just returned from Africa where she was treating victims of a viral epidemic and is now required, along with anyone she stays with, to quarantine for seven days. Emma sees it as a wonderful opportunity for the family to spend some quality time together over the holidays, though no one else is quite so sure.

Phoebe, who can be a little self-centered, is pre-occupied with planning the perfect wedding to a man she's trying to believe she loves. Olivia, coming across as distant and critical after years of being away, is hiding the fact that she has put herself and her family at far more risk than she's admitting. Emma, trying desperately to be what everyone needs her to be, has devastating news she's keeping until after quarantine so it won't put a damper on what she hopes will be a happy time. And then there's Andrew, who has a whopper of a secret that is about to change everything.

From health problems to secret lovers to long lost family members, this book has everything...maybe a little more everything than is reasonably credible. Each character seemed just a bit too much, but my preference for subtlety is not everyone's and most reviews I've read were very positive. I enjoyed reading it, in fact was eager to see how it could all possibly be resolved. It does all resolve but it's not your typical everything-turns-out-great-for-everybody Christmas story. 

Entertaining, if slightly over the top.

December Reading Part - 2

 Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg

A book of essays on writing with a number of "Try this" exercises. The first half of the book had the most practical information for me and the exercises in that section were, and are, fun. I'll be working at them for a few weeks.   

The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay

A few pages into this I didn't think I'd like it, but the author, who was a Doctor in England at the time, is such a compassionate human being, and so funny, it's hard not to like him and his writing. These are stories from his five years of working through the Christmas holidays, the interesting cases and crazy situations he found himself in. He worked mostly in genecology so the stories get...let's say colourful... but he has a heart for those truly suffering and that is beautiful to see. He's also an entertaining writer, good with unexpected metaphors and similes that made me laugh out loud. There is some vulgar language to get past, but if that's not a deal breaker for you - it almost was for me but his humour appealed to me and kept me reading - you'll probably enjoy this.

Old Tyme Christmas in New Brunswick by David Goss

I found this one at the library, but it wasn't quite what I expected. I was hoping for stories, instead it was largely photographs from nineteenth and early twentieth century Christmas celebrations, mostly in the Saint John area. The captions were interesting though.

Hat Girl by Wanda Campbell

A girl inherits a small home on an island in the Bay of Fundy, on the condition that she wear the previous owner's hats which will be delivered to her at the beginning of each month. Some of the hats are quite dramatic making her stand out in the crowd and earning her the name "Hat Girl". 

I liked this one particularly because it's set in my corner of the world so I recognized the island she lived on and lots of other place names. I love islands and stories set on them, and feel the same way about the sea as the girl in the book: "The sea gave you a sense of what eternity might look like, a thing that glistened with light and went on and on. The largeness of it seemed able to fill up the smallness in a person. Hemingway's old man said the sea is kind and very beautiful, but that she could also be cruel. I knew this blue sea in summer was only one side, but for now I was content with this gorgeous generosity." Those lines reached a place in me that longs for the sea and filled it up, for a while anyway.   

It's a charming story with an unusual premise, though I guess when you get right down to it you'd have to call it a romance. I have nothing against romance, as long as there's more to the story than that, and this one had enough in it to make it a pleasant escape.   

Zanna's Gift by Orson Scott Card

A brief audio book - 2 hours or so - about a little girl, Zanna, whose older brother, Ernie, is the only one in the family who can tell what her drawings are about. Everyone else sees only the simplistic scribbling of a four year old child. When Ernie dies suddenly the family tells Zanna he has gone far away, but Zanna creates another drawing for him anyway. Zanna later becomes a well-known artist, but it's that childhood picture that becomes a touchstone for the family through the years as Zanna grows up, gets married and has children and grandchildren of her own. A story of family ties and memories that is touching but not very Christmassy.

The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin 

A 1916 story about a Pastor's wife who creates and mails out her own Christmas cards, her efforts resulting in the homecoming of two young men and their reconciliation with their families. It's all a bit too perfect; still it's a nice, cozy, Christmas story for seasonal reading.

December Reading - Part 1

 The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin

A lovely holiday story about a little boy whose guardian, his grandmother, has Alzheimer's and must find someone else to care for him. The other characters are a married couple who have grown apart after decades of marriage, and another couple who dated and split up when they were very young and are just meeting again now. It's a Christmas story, so you can guess how it will all turn out and you'll be right. A light seasonal read, sweet, just not very memorable.

The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans

A hard-nosed business man reads his own obituary in the paper. His picture and information were mistakenly published when another man by the same name died. As startling as that was to see, what really got to him were the online comments in reaction to it. Most of them told of horrible things he'd done to people and how glad they were that he was dead. This brings about a change of heart and he sets out to right some of the wrongs he'd done, though he won't find it as easy as he might have hoped. This is my second time reading this one, with my original review here.

Christmas in Prose and Verse - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance ed. by Allison C. Putala

This is a compilation of old stories and poems by the likes of Ben Jonson, Charles Wesley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Hans Christian Anderson, Washington Irving, and many others. I've been reading bits of it each Christmas for years but this year wanted to start at the beginning and read through in case I'd missed anything. I read to page 442 of 758 and have bookmarked it so I can pick up next year where I left off. This is a treasure filled with beautifully written thoughts on the season. It's a true joy to read.