Six Degrees of Separation – from Tom Lake to Some Writer!

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, which I reviewed in September and liked so much it made my Best of 2023 list.

My December 2023 Reads

Holiday shopping and planning prevented me from as many December reviews as I had planned but I read some good books, although none that made my top ten for the year.  The two best were The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and Babbacombe's by Noel Streatfeild, writing as Susan Scarlett:

Favorite Reads of 2023

Although I have not yet summarized my December reading, it is the time of year when it is fun to contemplate the entire year and my top ten. Unusually for me, many were recent pubs and four were audiobooks. I think the latter is just a coincidence – sometimes I put both the hardcover and audiobook on reserve at the same time so read whichever is available first and sometimes I will opt for an available audiobook that I expect to enjoy. Seven of these ten were historical fiction, which is definitely one of my preferred genres but my favorites are generally more evenly distributed. I read a lot of books in 2023 but a number of these were rereads or children’s books, which obviously take less time to read.

WWW Wednesday – November 29

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

WWW Wednesday – November 1

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

During my commute, I am listening to Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (2023). Jackson is an editor at Knopf who wrote a contemporary novel set in Brooklyn about affluent New Yorkers and the middle-class woman from Providence who marries into a rich and very snooty family.

My September 2023 Reads

I covered a lot of genres in September and my favorite books this month were Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear, memoirs by Drew Faust and Mabel Esther Allan, and a contemporary romance with a mature heroine and a theater background called Flirting with Fire by Jane Porter. Have you read any of these? What’s on your October horizon?

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Title: Tom Lake
Author: Ann Patchett
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Michigan

Description: During the pandemic, Lara’s adult children came home, as many did, and as her daughters help out with the family business, they ask her to tell them about her long-ago relationship with famous actor Peter Duke.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (dysfunction is us)

Title: The Dutch House
Author:  Ann Patchett

Publication:  HarperCollins Hardcover, 2019

Genre: Fiction

Plot: After World War II, when he was trying to establish his career Cyril Conway became obsessed with the Dutch House, an unusual residential house in the Philadelphia suburbs.  He purchased it to live in with his wife and daughter, Maeve, and soon they had added a son, Danny.  However, his wife was never happy in the house and abandons it (as well as her husband and children).  This results in a close bond between Danny and Maeve, which intensifies when their father marries someone unsuitable who resents his children.  When Cyril dies without a will, the stepmother inherits everything except an educational trust, which fortunately pays for Danny to go to Choate, Columbia, and medical school.  Over several decades, the story is told by Danny, who is only really comfortable when he is with his beloved sister.  All her ambitions are wrapped up in him but the fact that, when together, they seem constantly to be looking backward prevents them from completely moving forward.

State of Wonder (review)

Title: State of Wonder
Author: Ann Patchett
Publication Information: HarperCollins 2011
Genre: Fiction
Plot: Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist for Vogel, a pharmaceutical company in Minnesota, is sent to Brazil following the mysterious death there of her research partner and friend, Dr. Anders Eckman. Anders had gone to investigate the fertility work Dr. Annick Swenson has been conducting in the Amazon for their employer, as her failure to report back regularly concerned Vogel management.

Marina has several secrets, not simply an affair with Mr. Fox, the CEO of Vogel, but also a mistake she made during her long ago residency in obstetrics (when she was Dr. Swenson’s Chief Resident) that injured a child, and drove her to the comparative safety of a research lab (on Grey’s Anatomy her angst would have lasted only a few episodes). She has no desire to go to the Amazon and childhood trips to India left her with nightmarish reactions to the malaria medication required for either destination, but she is unable to resist the entreaties of Anders’ widow.

What I liked: The book was extremely readable and the characters fairly memorable, particularly Easter, a small deaf boy who becomes close to Marina. The Bovenders, a feckless couple, living at Vogel’s expense in Dr. Swenson’s apartment in Manaus while she is in the jungle are vivid and convincing. Patchett does a great job of conveying the nightmarish quality of the jungle; the reader experiences the oppresiveness and it doesn't matter how much is real and how much due to Marina's fevers. Dr. Swenson is single-minded in her pursuit of science (regarding Anders’ death as an inconvenience) and pushes Marina to discard her research-lab passivity and practice medicine after 13 years. By saving a life or two, she is able to come to terms with the long ago tragedy. Although Marina’s instinctive reaction when confronted by her old professor is to revert into a passive role, she displays strength and determination (but rarely wins an argument with Dr. Swenson). Their relationship is central to the story.

What I disliked: I found the plot somewhat tedious, the setting unappealing, and was so grossed out by the non-stop description of insects I wanted to stop reading. I understood why Marina was driven to find Dr. Swenson and investigate Anders’ death and recognize she felt impelled to stay so she could rehabilitate herself in the eyes of her former professor. However, she had very little personality and after a while I did not really care what happened to her. I never understood what she saw in Mr. Fox either (her trip cures her of that attachment). In Bel Canto, the author’s best known work, there was a lyrical sense of music throughout the novel that united several appealing characters. Here, there is no lyricism other than the (alleged) hypnotic appeal of the jungle. Marina goes to the opera in Manaus (Orfeo ed Euridice – themes of loss and death and of Marina following Anders blindly), perhaps a tease to readers expecting more, but she is too unnerved by Dr. Swenson’s unexpected appearance to appreciate or enjoy the music.

Perhaps the jungle setting was just too real for me – I did not see the beauty, only the misery. Eva Ibbotson makes the Amazon seem appealing and I recommend Journey to the River Sea and A Company of Swans to those who like a romanticized image of the Amazon. Sadly, I suspect Patchett’s version is closer to the truth. I gather the book is in part a tribute to or inspired by Heart of Darkness which I never read.

Source: There were over 500 people ahead of me on the reserve list in the Minuteman System; luckily, the Waltham Library had a copy in its “Speed Read” section. I did consider buying the book to support the author’s recent plan to buy/operate a bookstore in Nashville but shelf space is at a premium in my new home.