A Girl Named Tommi

THE FRAUD – Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was barely in paperback when it showed up on a syllabus for one of my classes at UNC in 2002. Smith’s debut had a lasting impact, and, for over twenty years, I have read her novels as they were released. Unpopular opinion, but The Autograph Man (2002) is my favorite. Smith’s writing is always full of sharp wit and cutting observations. While NW and especially Swingtime were misses for me, her talent is evident throughout her entire catalogue. The Fraud (Penguin Press 2023), her first foray into historical fiction, puts that talent on full display. This novel seems to be a love letter and an accusation to the writers that came before and that canon that stands today, and I loved every bit of it. Can we get more Dickens slander, please?

Set in 1873, the novel primarily follows Eliza Touchet, a housekeeper of sorts who runs in literary circles with her cousin (by marriage) William Ainsworth. She is a sexually explorative widow whose great love was Ainsworth’s first wife. While the three were never together together, Touchet hints that was her desire. She enjoys a roughness in sex with Ainsworth and a softness with his wife. With Ainsworth, she falls in with literary circles, making contacts and relationships, and trying to keep Ainsworth’s fragile masculinity intact. With Franny, his first wife, she becomes interested and involved in abolitionism. After Franny dies, Eliza becomes inactive in those interests – until 1873, when London is rocked by a scandal that has captivated Ainsworth’s new wife, Sarah. The Tichborne Trial consumes both Sarah and Eliza, but for different reasons. The Tichborne Trial is actually real – the most bizarre parts of this novel are actually real. (A lower-class butcher from Australia claimed to be the rightful heir of a sizeable estate in England. Is he Sir Roger Tichborne, as he claims. Or is he Arthur Orton, the butcher?) The star witness is a former slave from the Hope Plantation in Jamica. Andrew Bogle and his story is what Eliza becomes fixated on. His section of the novel is fantastic.

The Fraud needs to be read slowly and savored; Smith has packed so much into its pages and a lot of the fun and cheek is easily missed if you’re not paying attention. If you don’t like Victorian novels, you’re unlikely to like The Fraud. If you love “the empire writes back” works, you will love The Fraud.

Read this book.

THE BLIGHTED STARS – Megan E. O’Keefe

I didn’t have crying over a spaceship on my 2023 reader’s bingo card, but Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Blighted Stars (Orbit 2023) was a pleasant surprise. This space opera is nonstop action, pulling the reader along before you can even catch your breath or gather your thoughts. And it’ll make you cry over a spaceship.

Tarquin Mercator is the privileged heir of an empire. He’s a geologist, more at home with his books than being involved in his father’s dealings. When his father is accused of being the reason the worlds are being destroyed, he testifies in his defense. His testimony puts a former Exemplar turn revolutionary “on ice” – Naira is a prisoner under complete Mercator control, being kept in a sleeping state until she is “reprinted.” And reprinted she is, as Tarquin’s Exemplar Lockhart on an expedition to prove the Mercators are not destroying the world. She intends to destroy the expedition ship before it lands at the Sixth Cradle. But nothing is quite as it seems. When the Amaranth is attacked by her sister ship, Naira ends up stranded on the dying planet with Tarquin and some other survivors, and she’s still disguised as his protector. The secrets they uncover can save the worlds or destroy everything.

I found myself thinking of Firefly quite often while reading, likely because of the personal relationships, banter, and wit. I really enjoyed this story, and I’m glad it’s not the end of Naira and Tarquin. (As a brief note, Tarquin was born in a female body and later reprinted into his preferred body. He also heads a trans initiative. If you blink when reading, you might miss it.)

The Blighted Stars is the first of The Devoured Worlds series. The second of the series, The Fractured Dark will be released on 9/26/2023. A huge thanks to the publisher for sending me both books of the series.

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CALIFORNIA GOLDEN – Melanie Benjamin

“Now you’re nothing but tinsel. Flimsy tinsel, here one day, in the garbage can the next.”

Set primarily under the Californian sun and spanning 1955-1980, Melanie Benjamin’s historical California Golden (Delacorte Press 2023) is an easy read full of sunshine, salt water and grit. While I wish it had gone a bit deeper, it was still a very enjoyable read.

Mindy and Ginger have spent their entire lives trying to hold fast to their mother, Carol, and she’s spent much of their lives trying to pry their fingers from her’s. When their mother is forced to return from surfing in Hawaii because their dad left, she barely acknowledges them. Mindy quickly realizes they need a plan or the State will put them in foster care. Mindy becomes determined that they will both become surfers because that will guarantee their mother’s attention. Mindy is older, harder, and more talented on the board. Ginger, with stars in her eyes, is more tentative and just wants someone to want her. In sport where women competitors are still a novelty, the three beautiful blonds are certainly memorable. Things are going great until Mindy bests her mother at a competition.

Carol stops competing and then stops surfing all together. Mindy joins the Hollywood crowd, making a name for herself in the surfing movies as the Girl in the Curl. After being photographed hugging a man who photographs “too dark,” she has to reinvent herself and ultimately ends up going to Vietnam on an USO tour. Ginger falls in with a formerly talented surfer who grooms her, abuses her, and keeps her drugged. He becomes a follower of Timothy Leary, and Ginger will follow him wherever he goes because he makes her feel wanted.

The second part of the novel gives us Carol’s story; the story of a woman who never wanted to be married and never wanted to be a mother. A woman whose dreams of playing in the All-American League were crushed by an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. A woman whose dreams of winning Makaha were crushed when she had to return to California because her husband had left the children she’d never wanted. Her pages are laced with resentment and shattered dreams.

Instead of finding the wave and riding it out, Benjamin barely scratches the surface. While this leaves the novel shiny and palatable, it left me hungry; I wanted a deeper dive into the racism, the USO tour, Leary, and the drug deals. Shoot. I wanted more surfing – the spills and bruises. I’d have loved it to have more grit and be more scuffed up. (Think Great Circle.)

But it is pretty and shiny in the sun. Like tinsel. (And it’ll be GREAT on screen. Not sure if it’s been optioned or not, but it needs to be.)

Read this book.

SHARK HEART: A LOVE STORY – Emily Habeck

“There is never a right time to say goodbye.”

I didn’t have being absolutely destroyed by a book about a man turning into a shark on my bingo card, but here we are. Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart: A Love Story (Marysue Rucci Books 2023) positively shattered me. It was very nearly a 5-star read, but the last quarter took a shift that made the novel as a whole lose some of its sheen.

The first section of the novel follows Wren and Lewis – a beautiful love story of opposites attract. Wren is very much a color within the lines, don’t make a scene, type of rule follower. Lewis is a loud and boisterous actor turned drama teacher. Their love story is short lived; a few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. Animal mutations are a known ailment, but his is rare; Lewis is turning into a great white shark and, as far as the mutations go, this is one that happens quickly. As the mutation progresses, Lewis undergoes physical changes as well as personality changes. He becomes angry and unpredictable at times, and he’s becoming a danger to those around him, including Wren. It will reach a point where he will need to be released in the ocean. Their final days, how Wren treats him as Lewis, the man she loves and not as a terrifying man turning into a shark is a testament to the purity and strength of their love. Their story ends on a beach with a kiss.

The second section of the novel introduces us to Wren’s mother, a beautiful woman with an alcoholic mother and absentee father. She loses her virginity the same night she has her first kiss, and she is but a kid when she moves in with Marcos. Their love is toxic and leaves marks, but Angela and Wren survive him. The reader quickly learns why Wren slipped so easily into care of her husband; she’d lived through her mother’s mutation into a Komodo dragon.

We do revisit Lewis and learn that his life didn’t end on that beach. We also spend more time with Wren as she learns to maneuver life with Lewis.

The framework of the novel is a bit of a hodgepodge, with some parts written as a play and others as brief captions. While the novel appears chunky, it’s misleading because there aren’t that many words. Habeck really uses spacing and layout to carry the story – quite successfully, I’d say – and it is an extremely fast read.

In addition to a very beautiful love story and story of women and the choices they make as mothers, daughters, and wives, the novel boasts my favorite cover of the year. It’s gorgeous.

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A GIRL IN EXILE – Ismail Kadare

In my ever-constant desire to devour the world, I’ve decided to commit myself to reading a work from every country. I anticipate the journey to take several years as I intend to only read a couple from the list (which I’m slowly curating!) each month. I’m starting with the As.

Country: Albania
Title: A Girl in Exile: Requiem for Linda B.
Author: Ismail Kadare
Language: Albanian
Translator: John Hodgson
Publisher: Counterpoint (2018) Onufri (2009)

Set during Albania’s 1945-1991 dictatorship, A Girl in Exile: Requiem for Linda B. is a slim novel of paranoia, absurdity, and obsession. Rudian Stefa, a playwright, is waiting to see if the committee will approve his latest work for production when he’s called in for questioning regarding a young woman’s suicide. An autographed copy of his book was in her possession.

He learns that Linda and her family and been “interned” for suspected crimes against the Communist regime. Under the restrictions of her internment, Linda was not able to enter Tirana. A friend had gone on her behalf to meet Rudian and get his autograph for Linda. The government wants to ensure her suicide is not some political statement, and that the renowned playwright is not involved.

Prior to Linda’s suicide, Rudian developed a relationship with Migena. What transpires is an obsessive somersault into madness as he imagines himself in a relationship with Linda, who is already dead, and as he imagines how Migena serves as a vessel to carry his affections to Linda.

I didn’t much care for the novel because I really didn’t care for Rudian; he is very unlikeable and Kadare’s writing style highlights that unlikability. I wanted the story to be more about Linda, a young girl growing up in internment who takes her life after a situation involving a teacher. But it is a fascinating look at a repressive regime on both a young girl whose family is “suspicious” and on a writer, whose work and life are constantly under watch.

ELENA KNOWS – Claudia Piñeiro

Country: Argentina
Title: Elena Knows
Author: Claudia Piñeiro
Language: Spanish
Translator: Frances Riddle

Publisher: Charco Press (2021) Alfaguara (2007)

Claudia Piñeiro is the third most translated Argentinean author, and she is best known for her crime novels. Both a crime novel and a delicate but brutal depiction of motherhood, daughters and the power of choice, Elena Knows was shortlisted last year for the Booker International Prize. I found it fantastic.

Taking place over the course of a one day, the novel follows Elena; an older woman whose body is rebelling against her as her Parkinson’s worsens on a quest to find out who killed her daughter. The detectives ruled Rita’s death a suicide; she was found hanging in the church belfry. Elena does not believe her daughter took her own life because it was raining that day, and Rita avoided the church at all costs when it was raining.

Elena’s journey is structured by the pills she’s required to take in order to place one foot quite literally in front of the other. She’s seeking out a woman she believes owes Rita a debt. As she journeys, we see flashes of Elena’s tormented relationship with her daughter, a staunch supporter of the anti-choice movement, who’d become her rather bitter caregiver.

Elena Knows, framed as a murder mystery, swings from the shadows with a piercing commentary on motherhood and a woman’s right to choose.

Read this book.

MR. POTTER – Jamaica Kincaid

Country: Antigua and Barbuda
Title: Mr. Potter
Author: Jamaica Kincaid
Language: English
Translator: N/A
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2002)

Elaine Potter Richardson changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid after moving to the US; when she began to write, she didn’t want the people of Antigua to know. In 2002, she published Mr. Potter, a story that breathes life into the man she never knew; a man whose absence has always defined her.

“A line runs through Mr. Potter’s very own self; I hold in my hand a document that certifies the day of his birth, the name of his mother…, and there is an empty space with a line drawn through it where the name of his father, Nathaniel Potter, ought to have been. And I hold in my hand a document that certifies the day of my own birth… and there is an empty space with a line drawn through it where the name of my father, Roderick Nathaniel Potter, ought to be…”

I’m no stranger to Jamaica Kincaid’s lush and lyrical writing – there’s a repetitiveness that builds a cadence such that it can be heard as Kincaid confronts the ghost of her father and the ghost of the island she left.

Read this book.

MY PEN IS THE WING OF A BIRD: New Fiction by Afghan Women

Country: Afghanistan
Title: My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women
Author: Various
Language: Dari & Pashto
Translator: Various
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (2022)

My Pen is the Wing of a Bird is a collection of stories written by Afghan women and largely about Afghan women. From school bombings to a wedding soaked in blood following an attack, the stories are full of grit and heart ache. But they are also full of beauty, love, and resilience.

“My country was the same as I had left it: destroyed but beautiful, with helpless and poor people, but my own people.”

The collection opens with “Companion” – a brief look at a woman who lives alone, her children spread far and wide, but safe. In one of the more simple and heartbreaking scenes from the novel, she wishes her daughter would leave her video on and let her “sit” in the corner and listen to the sounds of life in her daughter’s kitchen. “D for Daud” is a kick in the teeth of a teacher who sacrifices everything for a young boy. “The Red Boots” is a sweet story of a girl’s father getting her the red boots she wanted, even though they don’t quite fit and she’ll quickly outgrow them. “I don’t have the Flying Wings” tells the story of a young man who doesn’t want to be a man. “The Most Beautiful Lips in the World” follows a young suicide bomber after the attack on the wedding – while a work of fiction, it draws on an August 18, 2019 attack at the Dubai City wedding hall in Kabul.

There’s a lot of heartache in this slim collection, but it is unlike any collection I’ve read before. These women, writing in Dari and Pashto, many of which have fled their homes, show the triumph and power of the pen. May the stories never stop.

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THE BEE STING – Paul Murray

Booker season continues with Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting Western Lane (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2023 – thanks for the advanced copy!) – a chunky tragicomic family saga set in post-crash Ireland that boosts a unique approach to storytelling. The first section of the novel is divided into four parts – one for each family member – and told in third person. The second section of the novel, still from the POV of the family members, shifts to second person. The third and final section is brief and jumps from multiple POVs, including those outside of the family. These are quick, jolting flashes of moments, like footsteps in the woods, the beat of a heart, or the pull of trigger. (I’ve thought for years that the book selections echo books from the prior year’s list – this makes me think of Trust.)

The Barnes family used to be filthy rich. Dickie took over the lucrative car business, married the beautiful Imelda, and fathered two children – Cass and PJ. Their lives were seemingly perfect. Then the crash happened, and the family-owned business is going under. Cass, in her final year of school before University, is being swallowed by her own teenage woes. PJ, 12, spends his days playing in the woods and helping his father build the Bunker. When his dad’s problems at work spill over to bruise PJ, he decides to run away to stay with an online friend – a dangerous relationship that the reader recognizes long before PJ. Breathless and beautiful Imelda takes the reader on an unpunctuated journey into the past, to a poor childhood in a violent home where her mother dies of cancer, to when she first meets the Barnes family and how she ends up with Dickie. And Dickie, the man who never wanted to take over the family business. When tragedy struck, he became riddled with guilt and left not only his greatest love behind, but his truth. He married Imelda, took over the business, and became a father. But the crash is killing the business and he’s being extorted by a beautiful stranger whose claws have touched the entire family. He spends his days building a bomb shelter to protect his family in the event it all goes to shit.

Dickie walks in a fog of guilt, madness, fear, desire and shame. Imelda walks in a fog of grit, guilt, loss, desire and shame. Cass walks in a fog of confusion, anger, desire and shame. PJ walks in a fog of loneliness, confusion, fear, and shame. And when the ghosts and the fog bring them all together in the woods that have marked them all, their lives will forever change.

While I found it a bit long-winded, and I don’t think the objective with the lack of punctuation in Imelda’s section was successful, this is a solid read from a list that has been rather lackluster.

Read this book.

Booker count: 6 of 13

**One of the 2023 judges is a Shakespeare scholar. I’ve decided to keep track of the novels that name drop Shakespeare or his works. Cass is studying Macbeth making this 4 of 6.

WESTERN LANE – Chetna Maroo

Booker season continues with Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2023). This slim novella packs both a powerful punch and a tender hug – all with a backdrop of squash.

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash for as long as she can remember, but when her mother dies, her father’s grief leads to an obsession with the sport. He never forces Gopi or her older sisters to practice, but their own grief and love for their father has them on the courts at Western Lane every day. Much like her father finds an escape in their training, Gopi finds an escape on the courts. Her sisters grieve differently, and they don’t pour their anger and grief into their swings the way she does. Gopi is talented, and her grief combined with her father’s new obsession of training her, has made her a formidable player. Plans are made for her to attend a tournament, and that tournament and the family’s preparations for it are what move the story forward. But this isn’t just a story about squash, despite all the squash being played; this is a story of a young girl who has lost her mother and who feels like she’s losing her father. This is the story of three sisters who miss their mother. This is the story of a man who lost his wife and doesn’t know how to raise his three daughters. This is a story of loneliness, family, and growing up. It’s never just about the game.

Surprisingly, this has been my favorite read from the longlist thus far. It’s simple and delicate, and just beautiful.

Read this book.

Booker Count: 5 of 13