Miller's Valley - Anna Quindlen

Quindlen, Anna. Miller’s Valley. New York: Random House, 2016.

 

I wish I had done a better job of recording some of the insights in Anna Quindlen’s Miller’s Valley. . Reading the book was the smallest bit like coming home - kind of perfect as Quindlen explores the notion of what home means and asks the question if we can ever truly leave, even if our home is flooded and relegated to the bottom of a lake.

 

We learn about Miller’s Valley through Mimi Miller. We meet her first as a young girl and learn about her Vallely, her family, her own growth and change as she relates them...as a somewhat unreliable narrator.  While Mimi is close to her family and, perhaps, more observant about them, she remains appropriately innocent of some of the darkness that permeates it.  She loves her brothers, recognizing the distance of the oldest, and chronicling and mourning the the loss of the careless and charming Tommy who comes back from his time in the Vietnam War irrevocably damaged. She powerfully relates her mother’s faith in him, long beyond the time where that faith is warranted.  She explores the tension between her mother and her father, including that which is created by her Aunt Ruth who refuses to leave the house...for anything. The readers can sense long before she does the odd dynamic between the three.  She reports the struggle to succeed - her difficulty in dreaming dreams to begin with and then the challenge of achieving them in spite of family illness, tragedy, and the challenge of finances.  Certainly the teacher in me was drawn to the teacher who pushed her and worked for her, longing for Mimi’s success even when Mimi herself does not.

 

This book defies a simple summary. Quindlen explores family and roots in a powerful way.  As the product of rural America, many of Mimi’s experiences and struggles resonated with me. The push and pull with her mom was very real.  Her mom humbles her and is strict and demanding, but she is adamant that her daughter will realize her dreams.  She longs for a life for her that she was unable to achieve for herself. I sure didn’t love everything about these characters.  Sometimes I was a bit uncomfortable with the things they said and did.  I couple of times I didn’t like them at all. Ultimately, though, that’s what makes them real, fully developed people, like the people I grew up with or that I interact with every day or, in fact, like me.

At some levels this is a book about secrets.  Mimi knows long before many of the adults around her how the story of Miller’s Valley vs. the government is going to end.  This plot line exemplifies her intelligence, frames much of the story, and creates a pretty big metaphor, but it also marks a significant decision for Mimi when she opts to keep what she knows a secret.  Tommy can’t talk about Vietnam.  What he sees and does there are his secrets.   Keeping them profoundly alters his life and that of his family. Aunt Ruth’s life is clearly defined by a large secret.  Honestly, one that I’m not sure I needed, but, nonetheless, it is there.  The novel should inspire some thought into people and families and the secrets we keep, seems universal.

 

The universality is largely what appeals to me about the work of Anna Quindlen.  I love the kind of fiction where I am reading about people, people that I could know warts and all.  I love books that encourage me to think about life and decisions and what we choose to do and not do, to remember and forget. Life is complicated for most everyone, and sometimes I can forget that. Quindlen reminds, and also reminds that most of us forge ahead anyway, doing the best that we can. And always that, in the end, life goes on.  It just does.

 

Leave Me - Gayle Forman

Forman, Gayle. Leave Me. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2016.

Thank you, Gayle Forman for this adult novel.  I have read and loved all of her YA work; her skills transcend genre. Maribeth’s story is a haunting one.  After a heart attack that she doesn't even realize she is having, she finds her life turned upside down. She finds the the pressures of marriage, family, and work leave her unable to physically recover. So much so that she leaves her husband and her preschool twins and moves across the country, it seems to find herself.

I found myself having to suspend my disbelief at times. The idea of completely removing oneself from one's family so completely seems impossible. Her lack of overt concern about her health and her finances also seemed a stretch. The convenience of welcoming and helpful young neighbors and a doctor perfectly willing to take cash seem unlikely as well, but therein lies much of the novel's success, perhaps. Maribeth does what many women can only ponder. When she wonders how on earth she got where she is, she takes control and does her level best to figure things out.

It would be easy to brand her selfish and dislike Maribeth, but Forman somehow makes her work. Her time spent writing her children the letters that she will never mail is a help.  Her down to earth friendships with the young kids in her building helps.  And perhaps, it is that so many of her questions and doubts ring true to this “woman of a certain age.” In any case I found myself rooting for her in her quest even while wondering how things could possibly resolve.  And again, with no spoilers, I had to suspend my disbelief just a bit at the resolution, but I think most readers will be happy to do so.

I do love summer and the opportunity to read more adult type books.  And I surely love when an author I enjoy so much with my students writes a book that resonate so well with me. I don’t just love classifying books, and I appreciate Forman for resisting being settled in one place!

The Summer of Letting Go - Gae Polisner

Polisner, Gae. The Summer of Letting Go. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin, 2014.

Frankie Schnell’s burdens can seem overwhelming for a 15 almost 16 year old.  She blames herself for the death of her brother Simon 4 years ago.  She is certain that her mother blames her as well.  At 11, she wasn’t watching him closely enough at the beach where he drowned.  Her dad, who seems to hold the family together, might be having an affair with the neighbor.  And she is oddly and awkwardly attracted to her best friend Lisette’s boyfriend Bradley. Enter Frankie Skye. He is 4 and seems inexplicably attached to Frankie though he barely knows her.  His hurting mother hires Frankie to be a mother’s helper and a unique relationship is formed.

In spite of the burdens she bears, Frankie will be infinitely relatable to my readers as she experiences so much of what the typical teenager experiences.  She longs for a boyfriend and a first kiss.  She feels some distance from her best friends who is often occupied with her new boyfriend. Her parents don’t seem to get her.  She is at many levels just like my readers.

Frankie sure takes some wrong turns.  Easy answers don’t populate this book’s honest look at the struggles she faces. I appreciated very much the honest look at broken people. Some of my readers will also be fascinated with the look at reincarnation...is Frankie Skye drawn to her because he has Simon’s soul?  I can’t decide if I am frustrated with the lack of a definitive answer here or impressed with the author’s willingness to even entertain such an issue.  If you are looking for some solid consideration of reincarnation, though, you won’t find it here.

As much of the book centers around the pool and the beach, I could book talk it with other summer beachy reads - Sarah Dessen and the like.  I have lately been thinking about young protagonists who are dealing with broken parents in their lives, and at a more serious level, this book fits here as well.  It could work well with Linda Vigen Phillips’ Crazy and Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory. One certainty is that I will be talking about this title with my students very soon.

Con Academy - Joe Schreiber

Schreiber, Joe. Con Academy. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2015.
I don’t necessarily want to like Will Shea.  He is after all a con man - of the traditional kind, from a great big family of cons.  He has lied his way into the Connaughton Academy - a very elite private boarding school as a scholarship student.  His con doesn’t hold up for long, though.  Enter Andrea, a con artist herself, who recognizes the tell tale signs and, quite frankly, doesn’t welcome the competition. Who goes a who stays? They craft a bet to see who can con the most money out of the very self serving, very wealthy Brandt Rush. And so the games begin.  Along the way, Will has to deal with his rather unsavory father, figure out how to relate to the mysterious and attractive Gatsby, and of course, work his way into the Sigils...the necessary secret society.  What he finds out about himself, win or lose, makes his ride worth it.
I sure do love me a boarding school book.  This title has a nice spin or two.  I appreciate a male protagonist, my boarding school  canon is mostly populated by females.  I will enjoy having a boarding school boy to offer in my book talk. The con artist twist will be engaging for the students.  I’m not sure they have a true appreciation for the art of the con. Maybe some have seen the Oceans movies. A certain level of suspense exists, and students may be rooting for Will or for Andrea.  Engagement will certainly be encouraged because of these. Finally, I love a book that sends the message to our kids that it is never too late to reinvent themselves.  Crazy as it seems to we, the older and wiser, kids often feel trapped in the lives they’ve created or those that were created for them, at such young ages.  The ending here gently suggests that a way out certainly can still exist. I love that suggestion, unexpected and lovely, subtle yet impactful.

Death Coming Up The Hill - Chris Crowe

Crowe, Chris. Death Coming Up the Hill. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2014.
I’m not sure why it took me so long to get this book into my library or what led me to it just now, but I’m so very glad it is here! A novel written entirely in haiku.  I think that statement bears repeating - a novel written entirely in haiku-976 of them to be exact.  And exactness is crucial. 16, 592 syllables - one for each of the casualties in Vietnam in 1968, the year in which the novel is set.  Just. Wow.

 

Ashe’s story is one uncertainty and tragedy, but ultimately grace and sacrifice.  He is just trying to survive 1968.  He knows his parents’ marriage is on the verge of ending, and his mom’s unexpected pregnancy to another man is surely the catalyst.  His dad is angry and demanding.  He is determined to take care of his mom.  He falls in love with a “hippie.” And together they try to process the chaos of the Vietnam war and the chaos in their own lives.  Sometimes it feels like altogether too much. This glimpse into this volatile time in American history is a priceless one. One might think that much might be lost in the strictness of form, but the setting is fully fleshed out, the characters developed in lovely detail. In many respects students will be drawn to this books, because while the setting and the war are crucial, Ashe in many ways transcends time. Current students will relate well to his concerns and his triumphs - another strength to this story.

I love that after the story ends, the Crowe writes about the struggle he had in writing this book. Students who are aspiring writers can learn from his persistence.  Students often believe that the first thing they write is the best thing they can write.  He also talks about the process of revision with the complications of the form - such a lovely illustration!

I look forward to book talking this title, and will soon.  I am grateful, I have a couple of more opportunities this year to do so.  I can pair it with titles set in the sixties or titles about war or books in verse.  I love the versatility of this title.