A Girl Named Tommi

THE BANDIT QUEENS – Parini Shroff

“She’d first eaten her father’s salt, then her husband’s; it was time to eat her own.”

“If she was this lonely, Geeta berated herself, she should get a damn dog.”

Take “Goodbye Earl” (or, more recently, Taylor Swift’s take on the same theme with “No Body, No Crime”), set it in India and change Mary Ann and Wanda to Geeta and Saloni and you’ve got Parini Shroff’s debut The Bandit Queens (Ballantine Books 2022). This novel was on my radar before making the Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist, and it’s hilarious.

Geeta’s no-good husband disappeared a few years ago, and rumors flew she killed him. She removed her nose ring, lived alone as a widow, making jewelry and saving her money for a refrigerator. His leaving was the greatest gift he’d ever given her. Before he’d left, he’d alienated her from her family and her closest friend, Saloni. Now, she has no husband and despite being in Saloni’s loan group, she has no friends. But she’s “eating her own salt” and free.

All is just fine until a woman within the same loan group, one whose face bears the same marks Geeta’s once did, approaches and asks her to “remove my nose ring.” Farah thinks Geeta has already killed one man, so what’s another? When Farah’s husband puts Geeta’s livelihood at risk, she agrees to help. And then another woman asks for similar help.

Housewives whose criminal knowledge comes from street smarts and crime shows make for interesting criminals. Geeta, who just wanted to be left alone and buy a fridge, suddenly finds herself with a group of friends who aren’t exactly the demur housewives and mothers the village thinks they are. Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen, was a real person and she’s fictional Geeta’s hero – so much so that Geeta names her dog after her. The Bandit Queen Geeta is not – of the whole bunch, she’s the least likely criminal.

The novel has such a dry wit to it, and you will love Geeta and Saloni’s powder keg of a history and how their second chance at rediscovering each other as the soulmates their friendship has always marked them as. The women, especially their dialogue, is the true victory of the novel – even though Geeta is, at times, extremely frustrating and inconsistent.

Humor drives this novel of women seeking to be widows and escaping the men who would rape, beat, or maim them. Beneath it all, flows the caste system they’d love to shatter. And oh, how you’ll cheer them while you’re laughing out loud.

Read this book.

*P.S. The dog doesn’t die in this one.

THE NEW LIFE – Tom Crewe

Aardvark Book Club sent me a few of their recent selections along with a promo code. That promo code has expired, but if you’re looking for a monthly book subscription that rivals BOTM, Aardvark is it. The selections are fantastic, customer service is top notch, and it’s a fun community. (The monthly hints are a lot of fun.) There’s now a skip feature and shipping is getting better all the time. They’re still running promos, and you can get your first book for $4. So, check it out. Today’s review is from their January selections, and you can see the aardvark logo in the corner. (It’s printed on the dustjacket and cover – it’s not a sticker.) Now to the book review.

Tom Crewe’s debut novel, The New Life (Scribner 2023), is historical fiction based on actual events. Crewe plays a little bit with the timeline and reimagines documented relationships as well as creates new ones. In the Afterword, he writes “Truths needn’t always depend on facts for their expression.” Crewe is a novelist; he’s not a historian, and this novel, while based on actual events, is fiction. And while it may not be historically accurate, it is extremely impactful.

The novel opens in 1894, when homosexuality between men was illegal in the UK. (It wasn’t decriminalized in England until the 1960s.) John Addington, a renowned essayist and poet, collaborates with Henry Ellis, a doctor, on a book arguing that “sexual inversion” should be decriminalized because it is as natural “as a fish swimming.” John is married with adult children. His wife is aware that he is an “invert,” but he has done a very buttoned up job of locking up his attractions and keeping his sexual relationships private – that is, until Frank, a gorgeous working-class man who makes John not want to hide or restrict his feelings anymore. Henry, while not a homosexual, has his own “sexual perversion” that has made relationships rather difficult for him. He’s married, but it’s truly a marriage of friendship and mutual respect; his wife prefers the company of women.

As Henry and John gather case studies to be included in the book, John becomes more open with his relationship with Frank. Henry struggles with his relationship with Edith and his own sexual desires. Amid writing the book and personal struggles and victories, Oscar Wilde is put on trial. Suddenly, the magnitude of what this book means and the impact it could have hits a bit differently.

The novel is sexy and passionate, but that’s cloaked in fear and shame and anger. John just wants to be free, but his journey to freedom comes at what cost? Who would suffer should he defend his book and his lifestyle? What and who will he lose if he is open about his relationship with Frank? The impacts would ripple out in unforeseeable ways, hurting those he cares most about. How Crewe handles John’s relationship with his wife and with his adult children is both tender and brutal, but absolutely exquisite.

The New Life will make some people uncomfortable, and not always for the same reason. From the subject matter to the historical inaccuracies to the spicy scenes to the writing style itself, this book isn’t going to float everyone’s boat. My issues are more with the execution – the slow burn of getting to the collaboration was a bit off-putting.

All that to say, read this book.

*And if there was any doubt, this reviewer knows that love is love.*

AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor

“Our dreams let people die.”

Billed as India’s response to The Godfather, Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice (Riverhead Books 2023) is a gangster novel meets political commentary kissed with a romance wrapped in a family saga. In short, it’s a muddled, confusing thrill ride of extreme violence and unlikeable characters. Even though a bit sloppy at times and in serious need of more focus and cleaner character development, it was still a fun ride.

In many respects, Age of Vice is a story of sons. When Ajay was eight, he forgot to tether a goat. His father is killed over this transgression, and Ajay’s world changes forever. Ajay is sold into servitude, but it’s not a bad life. He likes serving. He likes pleasing people. He is an agreeable chameleon, molding himself to the situation and the needs of those around him; he’ll never leave another goat untethered.

Sunny Wadia, heir to his father’s far-reaching gangster empire, has spent much of his life seeking his father’s approval and drowning his failed attempts in bottles and in the lines he snorts. He throws money around freely, paying for friends and the attention he craves, and dreaming of an idealistic India.

Sunny meets Ajay while traveling, and Ajay quickly becomes devoted to Sunny, earning him the nickname “puppy.” When Sunny leaves, he offers Ajay a job. Ajay, having been untethered from his servitude by the death of the man who bought him, has no other options. He goes to Sunny, and he becomes a Wadia man – a career choice that pays nicely and is met with fear and respect. His eagerness to please and devotion to Sunny makes him a ready favorite. Much like failing to tether the goat forever changed the trajectory of his life, Ajay’s decision to become a Wadia man will prove unwise; the Wadia men have no problems kicking a puppy.

Reminding me a bit of The Stranger, the first section of the novel, and the most compelling, is Ajay’s. The second section belongs to journalist-turned-Sunny’s-love-interest Neda. Despite having potential, especially as it related to the social commentary aspects of the novel, her character was the most tangled and the most unlikeable. The third section is booze-soaked & drug addled Sunny’s stream of consciousness. What follows his section is a rapid-fire series of alternating POVs leading to a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

While all that glitters is certainly not gold in this crime drama, it’s still worth the read.

TREACLE WALKER – Alan Garner

“There was a whispering, silence; and on the floor the snow melted to tears.”

Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker (4^th Estate, HarperCollins 2021) was my final read of the 2022 Booker Prize longlist. Having read it, I’m a bit surprised this slim, little oddity of a novel made the shortlist; but it did, and Garner is the oldest author to make that list as he was 87 when shortlisted.

The novel is a fable, but it is not intended for children. Despite following a child, it is certainly intended for adults. But I think many adults would find it simply bizarre and unapproachable. I found it nonsensical and magical; in another life, I’d be mapping the literary and folklore allusions. Despite its brevity, which is part of what makes it palatable for me, I could read it twenty times and find hidden gems I missed the first 19.

I feel a bit disadvantaged having never read Garner before, as it appears this is a love letter to the fans who grew up on his words. Full of magic and peculiarity, Treacle Walker seems to kiss concepts of mortality and the afterlife square on the lips while reminding us we’re never too old.

Read this book.

Booker count: 13 of 13

THE BONE SHARD WAR – Andrea Stewart

Orbit Books recently sent Andrea Stewart’s The Drowning Empire trilogy in anticipation of the release of book three. (A huge thanks for the gifted books.) Reviews for the first two of the trilogy, The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor, have already been posted. The riveting conclusion to the trilogy, The Bone Shard War, will be released April 18, 2023.

If you haven’t read the first two in the series and don’t want to see spoilers, stop reading now.

Last chance.

The Bone Shard War begins two years after the intense face-off between Lin and Nisong. Jovis, who’d left Lin at the close of the novel to save Mephi from his captors, is believed to be dead. The rumors aren’t true, but they may as well be; Jovis is under the complete control of Kaphra, and he and Mephi are held captive, tormented, and frequently forced to do things he’d rather not. Lin continues to struggle for control and respect as Emperor – the ban on witstone mining to allow studies into the connection between mining and the sinking islands has not won her any friends. Phalue, however, has become a friend – despite refusing to support Lin as Emperor. While Phalue is in Imperial with Lin, Ranami is left in control of their island and the Alanga orphan they’ve adopted, Ayesh, and her ossalen, Shark. And Nisong, broken and beaten but still in her villain arc, has joined forces with Ragan.

War is coming.

While I found the first part of the second installment a bit sluggish, the third comes out swinging and carries you screaming to the gory, heartbreaking end. It’s blood-soaked and brutal, it’s loud and unyielding, it’s card games and the smell of fish.

I don’t want to spoil the conclusion to The Drowning Empire trilogy, but I will say it was one of the more perfect endings for a cast of characters that I never stopped feeling big feelings for. (Except for Ramani – I was pretty meh about her from the start.) The ossalen will always hold my heart. Long live and long love Mephi, Thrana, and Lozhi.

Read this trilogy.

WANDERING SOULS – Cecile Pin

“I am trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairy tale, so that a glimmer of truth can appear.”

“There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation.”

Following the end of the Vietnam War, over 1,000,000 refugees fled Vietnam seeking refuge in other countries. Called the “boat people,” hundreds of thousands did not survive the journey. Those who did were eventually resettled primarily in the US, the UK, Italy, France, Germany, and Australia. Cecile Pin’s debut, Wandering Souls (Henry Holt 2023) follows a family of the so-called “boat people” of Vietnam.

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Wandering Souls is cobbled from news stories, military records, government records, ghost stories, and the story of a trio of siblings’s resettlement following leaving Vietnam – this is the heart of the novel, because family and home are the beats that keep the siblings alive and the story moving.

As the oldest three, Anh, Minh, and Thanh are sent ahead of the rest of their family. Anh, the eldest, is 16 at the time and the weight of the journey and their story sits squarely on her shoulders. The rest of their family is supposed to join them, but they are lost at sea. Their parents, two sisters, brother Dao, and the baby all drown. The bodies are recovered and identified by Anh while they are in Hong Kong.

Forever seven, Dao’s wandering ghost claims several sections of the slim novel as he watches his siblings on their journey. These sections are sweetly rendered, but they drip with an ache of longing to be among the living. Dao’s grief is no less than that of his living siblings.

As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that it is being fashioned together by Anh’s daughter, Jane. Pulling bits and pieces from online resources and independent research and blending that with the snippets her mother and uncles have provided, the story is born. Generational trauma and prolonged grief follow the family, the marks on their lives and the lives of their children are undeniable – the dead in this novel aren’t the only wandering souls.

It’s a grief stricken yet beautiful debut about family and home and belonging.

Read this book.

STONE BLIND – Natalie Haynes

“I see you. I see all those who men call monsters. And I see the men who call them that. Call themselves heroes, of course.”

The story of Medusa isn’t about just Medusa. It could never be just about Medusa because mythology weaves in and out. The gods and goddesses, the Fates and Greys and sea nymphs, the mortals and the snakes – their stories weep and bleed into each other with each rape, each prophecy, each punishment, each sacrifice. And so, it’s fitting that Natalie Haynes’ Stone Blind (Harper Collins 2022) casts a wide net in telling the story of the woman who could turn you to stone with just one look.

And it’s fitting that the novel begins with “I see you.”

As I was reading, I kept finding myself being reminded of Beowulf’s Grendel and the similar sympathies that character evoked in the reader, but you will fall far more in love with Medusa. Our Gorgoneion narrator wouldn’t allow otherwise. In addition to the Gorgoneion, who addresses the reader directly, there are sections about Medusa, Hera, Danae, Cassiope, Medusa’s sisters, Perseus, Andromeda, the snakes that grow from Medusa’s head, etc. There are also sections for those turned to stone. Those are perhaps my favorite. But this is Athene’s story as much as Medusa’s, and her sections are plentiful.

Drawing from mythology, the pages unflinchingly depict rape, destruction, jealousy, and pettiness. From a child born from the semen spent on Athene during an unwelcomed assault to the rape of a 16-year-old in Athene’s temple, women are repeatedly used, abused, and discarded – with “heroes” being “born” from their assaults.

And then there’s Medusa, who reminds us that sometimes it’s the hero who is the monster, and the “monster” is “what happens when someone cannot be saved.”

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Stone Blind is funny, bittersweet, and full of rage.

Read this book.

TRESPASSES – Louise Kennedy

“They were like a tag team, taking turns to fall apart.”

Set in Ireland during “The Troubles,” Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses (Riverhead 2022) is a weeping wound of a novel about womanhood, love, and family with a violent backdrop of the politics that defined Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. Admittedly, it wasn’t on my radar until I decided to read the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist. That’s unfortunate because Trespasses is extremely impactful and well-done historical fiction.

Cushla, a young schoolteacher, tends her family’s bar on weekends. Her brother manages the drunkards at the bar, but he leaves Cushla to manage their mother’s drinking problem on her own. She regularly cleans up the vomit, soothes the cuts and bruises, and helps her mother to bed. Her relationship with her mother is frayed with anger, guilt, resentment, and love.

Cushla is Catholic, but the violence hasn’t much touched their bar. It has, however, touched her classroom. Every morning, she starts her classes with “the news,” and her students speak of the latest bombs and beatings. When one student, the son of a Catholic and a Protestant, doesn’t come to school one day, Cushla is horrified to learn that his father had been beaten nearly to death. The student, frequently picked on and bullied by his classmates, is her favorite, and Cushla develops a relationship with his family, including his older brother, Tommy, that will mark her all the days of her life.

While leaning heavily into the relationship between mothers and daughters and showing the struggles of a young teacher, Trespasses thrums with Cushla’s affair with a much older and quite married man. Michael Agnew is an attorney and a Protestant, a womanizing activist that Cushla readily becomes obsessed with. Their relationship is fiery and passionate, a burning flame that Cushla knows will never end with her getting the man. He belongs to someone else, but she loves him with the kind of love that hurts.

A bildungsroman shows the growth from childhood to adulthood, but what describes that sweet tragedy of early womanhood? The first love. The first loss. The first sips of adulthood. The missteps and the retries. Whatever that may be, Trespasses is that.

Read this book.

THE FAIRY BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL – Rowenna Miller

Rowena Miller’s The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill (Redhook/Orbit, publication date 3/28/2023) is a bit The Once and Future Witches meets Practical Magic, but with fae instead of witches. It’s a cozy fantasy of sisters, mothers, and womanhood woven with brilliant bits of family, society, and legends. (A huge thanks to the publisher for this gifted advanced copy!)

The old families on Prospect Hill know a little bit about fairy bargains, and what the city folk seem as cooky superstition and insanity has kept Alaine and Delphine’s family orchard afloat. The sisters grew up learning of the bargains at their grandmother’s side, and they know and respect the power of the fae magic.

But the orchard needs more help than the well-settled bargains that have kept the family afloat for generations. Alaine starts to dabble into the magic, venturing into a type of fairy-magic her grandmother had warned her against. After each new bargain, she tells her husband that is it. But she calls on them time and time again. And when marriage to the affluent son of a prominent city family is not what Delphine imagined, and Delphine finds herself in an abusive relationship, the sisters find themselves back at the tree, making frantic bargains and forgetting to heed their grandmother’s advice about paying careful attention to the words of the bargain.

The novel starts off at a dull and sluggish pace, finally picking up speed almost halfway through. Once you get to that part, you won’t be able to put it down. Slog through – it’s worth it. The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill is a comforting and familiar type of magic that drapes around you like the arms of a friend or a soft blanket. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find yourself dropping a shiny bauble or a brilliant scrap of cloth for the magical folk to find and bring you favor.

Read this book.

LEMON – Kwon Yeo-Sun

“Lemon, I muttered. Like a chant of revenge, I muttered: Lemon, lemon, lemon.” Da-on

“Her beauty was urgent, precarious, like the piercing wail of a speeding ambulance. I could not look away.” – Sanghui’s description of Taerim

Lemon (Other Press 2021, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong) is Kwon Yeo-sun’s first novel to be translated into English. The blurb calls it “Parasite meets The Good Son,” and it’s such a hard novel to pin down. It’s a psychological thriller about the murder of a beautiful girl, and while it is framed as a whodunnit, it’s not. The reader is not going to see the murderer accused and brought to justice. Despite how it looks, the novel isn’t about who killed Kim Hae-on. The novel is about how the “High School Beauty Murder” impacted the lives of three young women.

Lemon is a short novel and quick read. It is divided into 8 sections that span from 2002 to 2019. The novel centers on grief, guilt, and revenge. Hae-on is a beautiful girl who is tragically murdered in the summer of 2002, when Korea is hosting the World Cup. Her younger sister, Da-on, who has lived in her sister’s shadow while also being her caretaker, becomes cloaked in despair, only worsened by the depression of their mother. Da-on begins to change herself, losing weight and getting plastic surgery after plastic surgery to look like her sister. She becomes determined to find her sister’s killer and get revenge – not necessarily justice, but revenge.

Sanghui is a classmate of Hae-on, but she was much closer to Da-on as the two were in a poetry class together. Through her sections, the reader is afforded a better view of Da-on and the drastic change following Hae-on’s murder. We also learn more about Hae-on and the rivalry with Taerim, the other high school beauty.

Taerim’s sections, marked in madness and depression, are the most telling. It is through her that the reader learns what happened to Hae-on, and how affluence can make any problem disappear.

All three women are forever scarred by Hae-on’s murder, and all three have guilt surrounding it and the events that unfolded following it. Lemon is a piercing look at grief, guilt, and the bitter and sweet lemon that is revenge.

Read this book.