The Covenant of Water

My performance with The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese should win me an award for “the longest time taken to read an interesting and compelling book”! Along with Cutting for Stone, his previous bestseller, this author was recommended to me by my physical therapist friend Sue. 

Fun fact: Sue actually found, not just a type-o, but a factual error, in this book, and contacted the author online about it! It had something to do with specific names of bones in the leg. Nerds of a feather ;)

Anyway, whenever I read long books like this one and especially when it takes me f o r e v e r to read them, my inner editor always emerges. I’m probably being too judgmental because this book is beloved, but for me the transitions between people and time periods felt awkward.

I loved that I learned a bit about India—its history and British colonization. I also loved being immersed in the feelings and perspectives of the iconic main characters, especially Big Ammachi. Finally, I loved dragging this book with me through the last months of my teaching career. It was like a warm embrace returning each night to this story after my grueling days at work. 

This is how long it took me to finish this epic novel. In the end, I just bought a digital copy so I could finish reading it in peace without CLAMS harassing me.

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid entertained me. There’s something about her writing style that I love AND hate. It’s easy, like comfort food. It has a certain appeal but isn’t nourishing. I liked this story  more than Malibu Rising, but I’m not inclined to indulge another selection from this author’s buffet again.

Little Monsters/Wild Game

Adrienne Brodeur is an author with a connection to Cape Cod. I started reading her memoir, Wild Game, which oddly enough documents her unorthodox relationship with her mother, while I was waiting for her novel Little Monsters to become available. I like her writing style which is unrestrained and descriptive but not overblown. 

Finally Little Monsters arrived on my kindle, and I took it to jury duty in December. (That’s a story for another day! Warning: it involves a transvestite lawyer, drunk driving, and an overcrowded, pre-holiday courthouse.) 

Fast forward to Saturday of the glorious MLK long weekend when I returned to Little Monsters. I finished reading about the hellishly dysfunctional Gardner family on a day that began with a blustery thunderstorm and then morphed into a balmy, windswept, blue-sky day.

Now I can get back to Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me and reawaken some “mama trauma” of my own.

What makes this book so disturbing is that it recounts a true story. The people are real, and their actions are appalling. Here is the author's mother’s obituary from the Cape Cod Times.

I’m glad I read both books. I liked the memoir better than the novel, and the references to Cape Cod were an added bonus. 

Two Women Walk Into A Bar

Two Women Walk Into A Bar is a very short book by Cheryl Strayed that memorializes her relationship with her mother-in-law. It was offered free to Prime members in Kindle, and I read it in less than an hour. Strayed’s is definitely the style of writing I aspire to, and this short memoir reminded me of the QuigleyWorld blog posts I wrote about my parents’ health care adventures at the end of their lives. 

The kids gave me and Stu each a StoryWorth subscription for Christmas this year. I’m excited, and a little intimidated, to get started. Maybe writing will sustain me after I retire next year. God I hope so!

Malibu Rising

 

What’s the hype about Taylor Jenkins Reid? Maybe I chose the wrong book to read first. Malibu Rising was just okay; it was a quick read, but I wasn’t wowed by the writing style, characters or plot. Meredith suggested Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Maybe I’ll try one of those next summer.