Ms. Hen reviews The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel

First Vintage Books

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she had read STATION ELEVEN many years ago, long before Covid, when everyone was reading it, and she was curious about other books this author had written. This novel is not speculative fiction, it's about people surrounded by a Ponzi scheme. Ms. Hen didn't know until she read the acknowledgments that this is based on Bernie Madoff's story. 

This novel is about people who surround a man named Jonathan Alkaitis, who created the scheme. Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a glass hotel on the shores on Vancouver Island, and her brother, Paul, works there as a maintenance worker. Someone scrawls on the wall "Why don't you eat broken glass," which shakes up the staff. Vincent starts an affair with Alkaitis, posing as his wife, and quickly gets bored with her life in the country of money. 

Vincent discovers her brother had stolen her films, and wrote soundtracks for them. An older artist, Olivia, comes into some money, and invests it all with Jonathan, and ghosts haunt Jonathan from the other side when he is away, including Olivia. He creates his counter life, or dream life. Paul becomes successful, but sees Vincent in a doorway in Scotland when she is not there.

This book is told through different characters in alternating chapters. This is a novel like a puzzle, the reader has to put the pieces together to sit how all the characters and storylines fit together. Ms. Hen thinks it's disturbing that people would scam innocent investors out of their life savings, but she knows the world is full of monsters, even when they don't look the part.

Ms. Hen likes the ghosts in this novel. She thinks it's fantastic that the evil people kept seeing ghosts of the ones the hurt, which is the way ghosts should be. Ms. Hen likes to think that ghosts are real, but she has never seen one. She might have felt one close to her.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is upsetting, but important. It's about greed and lies and guilt, with some love and art thrown in for seasoning. Ms. Hen thinks that people should look out for situations that seem too good to be true, and we should realize that things aren't always what they seem.

Ms. Hen reviews Shadow and Bone

 

Shadow and Bone

Leigh Bardugo

Henry Holt and Company

2012

Ms. Hen came to read this because she enjoyed the Netflix series so much, she was curious about the books. She bought the first trilogy, but she learned there are other books in this universe, and she might read those too, someday.

This novel is about Alina Starkov, an orphan who works as a cartographer in the First Army. Mal has been her best friend since they were at the orphanage together, and she is secretly in love with him, but he doesn't know. They go with their group into the Shadow Fold, which is a rift that separates East and West Ravka, and it is treacherous to pass through because it is full of volcra, which are monsters that kill people. They get attacked, and Alina shines light from her hands to save Mal. The Darkling believes that Alina is the Sun Summoner, the one who brings light, a prophecy that tells that she will vanquish the Shadow Fold with the power of her light.

The Darkling is the leader of the Second Army, which is made of Grisha, a type of witch that has a special power. Healers can heal, and Inferni can bring fire, and Squallers can make wind. The Darkling brings Alina to the Little Palace to develop her talents as the Sun Summoner. Alina does not want to go, and she misses Mal. She writes to him, but he never writes back, and she worries that he has forgotten her, or does not care. The Darkling tell her about a magical stag from Mordova's herd that will increase her powers. She trains and waits.

Ms. Hen learned that this book is very different from the Netflix series. This is just about Alina Starkov, and there are no peripheral characters like in the show. It's a first person narrative, which Ms. Hen thinks is an interesting choice. When Ms. Hen read this novel, it reminder her more of the Harry Potter series, because it is about a girl that is a savior, and it is predicted that she will save their civilization. 

Ms. Hen thinks this book is charming, and she loved learning about the different types of Grisha. She decided she would like to be a Heartrender, a type of Grisha that can stop people's hearts, and also listen to their heartbeat to tell if they're lying. She is looking forward to reading the other books. 

Ms. Hen reviews The Canary

 

The Canary

Michael Loyd Gray

Bottom Dog Press

2013

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she is interested in both Amelia Earhart and Ernest Hemingway. She knew they were contemporaries, and wondered if they had ever met. She did some research, and did not find out if they met, but she found this novel that is about their fictional friendship in Chicago when they were in high school in 1915.

This novel takes place when Amelia Earhart crashes her plane, and lands on a small island in the South Pacific. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash the plane, and survive for a while, but nobody finds them. Fred dies soon after they land. Amelia struggles to find food and water, and is at war with the crabs on the island, which she believes are an army against her.

While she's on the island, she remembers her life when she was young, the time she was friends with Ernest Hemingway in Chicago. She was about to graduate high school, and he had two years to go. They went to different schools, but met in a diner. They would meet on the weekends, and go out to eat, or go to a baseball game, or a museum. Amelia remembers the growing boy with the big smile.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is quirky. There is no big romance between Ernest and Amelia, but she thinks there might have been in real life. They go out to eat and talk about the future. Ms. Hen thinks the best part of this novel is when Ernest convinces Amelia she should try flying, and flaps his arms, and tries to fly. Ms. Hen thinks that this is something completely in character for Ernest Hemingway.

When Amelia is on the island fighting the crabs, the writing is very dreamlike. The text is in italics, which Ms. Hen thinks works for this section. Ms. Hen likes to imagine that Amelia Earhart did live for a little while, that she didn't crash into the ocean and die. Ms. Hen thinks the part about the crabs is well written, and vivid.

Ms. Hen liked this novel. She thought the parts where Ernest and Amelia were hanging out together were a little boring, but life can be boring sometimes. Both characters went on to live amazing and fascinating lives, and this novel puts them together at the beginning of their lives, when their dreams have not been formed quite yet, and they did not know what the wide world had in store for them. Ms. Hen and other readers know what will become of them; their talents would dazzle the public and they would become stars.

Ms. Hen reviews Wonderland

 

Wonderland

Joyce Carol Oates

Vanguard Press

1971

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she found it at a Little Free Library near where she lives. Sometimes books found there are not the best, but she has read one other book by this author, and knows she is well respected. She was initially intrigued by the title.

This novel is a mass market paperback, and it was printed in 1973. The price on the book says $1.50. Ms. Hen took a long time to read this novel, because the print is so small! But she thinks it was worth it.

This book is about a man named Jesse Vogel, and the different chapters in his life. When he is young, his father murders his entire family, but Jesse survives. He goes to live with his grandfather, but is unhappy, then lives with his aunt and uncle. He is sent to an orphanage, but is adopted by a man named Dr. Pedersen. He moves in with the doctor's family.

Dr. Pedersen is fascinated with stories of strange people who have done amazing things, or have had outlandish things happen to them. He wants Jesse to be a doctor like him. Their family is wealthy, and they eat a lot, and are all obese. Jesse becomes estranged from the Pedersen family, and goes to college in Michigan. He gets married, has children and becomes a well known surgeon. He daughter runs away, and he tries to find her.

This novel is different from other novels Ms. Hen has read. It's about one man's life, but the different chapters in his life, and how he transforms from one version of himself to another. The novel is told mostly through close third person, from Jesse's point of view, but chapters are intertwined from the point of views of the women in his life: his adopted sister, his wife, and his daughter. This novel is a great example of character development, through Jesse's transformations, he sheds his old skins, and becomes someone else, but the old Jesse is always underneath somewhere.

When Jesse goes to live with his grandfather on his farm, he thinks this, "There were two things on the farm that Jesse hated, though: the chicken coop, and one of the barns." Jesse rants about how much he despises the chickens, because they are dumb and disgusting, and they leave their pellets everywhere. Ms. Hen does not appreciate that he hates the chickens so much, but she might agree with him about real chickens. Being a purse, she does not spend much time on farms, she is a city chicken, and she might not get along with her genuine counterparts. She knows that until she does spend time on a farm, she should not judge people who have.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is a lot of work to read, but it's like living through a person's entire life. She would read, and dive under the surface, and not come up for air for a while. She didn't always like Jesse, but she got to know him, which is the point.

Ms. Hen reviews Our Little World

 

Our Little World

Karen Winn

Dutton

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read the novel because she won it as a prize! She went to a Zoom meeting that was the annual book party for the National Writers Union of Boston, and she won the trivia contest. She got to pick one book that an author read, and she picked this because it was the only novel. Ms. Hen prefers novels most of the time.

This book is about two sisters, Borka and Audrina, growing up in 1985 suburban New Jersey. Borka, or Bee, as she prefers to be called, is the narrator, and she is jealous of her younger sister, because she is beautiful and popular. A family moves in across the street, with a boy Bee's age, Max Baker, and a four year old girl, Sally. They become friends.

The children and Mrs. Baker go to the lake, and Sally disappears. They police scour the lake and the woods, and she isn't found. Both Bee and Audrina are devastated, they don't know how to handle it. They both adored Sally. Max and his family are crushed. When Bee goes back to school she becomes popular because she is associated with Sally. Bee enjoys her life for a short time, albiet for a price. The next school year, things are different for Bee.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is a wonderful example of writing through the eyes of children, which is something as a writer she does not do often. In order to write like a child, an author has to get into their mind, and think like one, with their fears and anxieties and childlike obsessions. Bee is a great character because she is realistic, she has a small view of the world, like a child should. She thinks mostly of herself and her problems, and doesn't understand life yet.

Even though Ms. Hen was interested in the story and the relationship between the sisters, she found some inconsistencies in the research. Ms. Hen was the exact age that Bee was in 1985, so she remembers that era. The term "playdate" was not used in the Eighties, but it is used in this novel. Two boys meeting Bee were both wearing North Face jackets, and nobody wore those in the Eighties. Also, Mrs. Baker smokes cigarettes, and the girls think that is strange, but most women smoked in the Eighties, so it wouldn't have been unusual. Ms. Hen thinks the author might not have been old enough to remember these facts, but Ms. Hen does, because she is a hen who remembers.

Ms. Hen liked this novel. It is not the kind of book she has been reading lately, but it's nice, a heartwarming story, one that's about family, and the complexities of love within a family. Life happens, and we have to keep going on.

Ms. Hen reviews A Book of Days

 

A Book of Days 

Patti Smith

Random House 

2022

Ms. Hen bought this book as a Christmas present for herself, but did not get around to reading it until her birthday, which was yesterday. She read the entire book in one day: it's a photography book, with a picture for every day of the year, including leap day, for people whose birthdays are on that day. Every picture is something that Patti Smith loves or is interested in, birthdays of artists/ activists/ intellectuals she admires, some are random pictures from things around her house, or travel photos. Ms. Hen thinks this books is like walking through someone else's dreams, or subconscious, it's lovely, some pictures are in color, and some are in black and white, but all are ones that Smith cares deeply about. She used to travel the world with a Polaroid camera, but the company stopped making the film, so now she uses her phone or another camera. Ms. Hen has read a few of Ms. Smith's books, and they always leave her feeling better about the world. On Ms. Hen's birthday in A BOOK OF DAYS, Patti Smith is with Werner Herzog working on German and English interpretations PEYOTE DANCE by Antonin Artaud. Ms. Hen admires Herzog, and has seen some of his films. Ms. Hen is another year older today.

Ms. Hen became a person with glasses for her birthday

Ms. Hen reviews Chance

 

Chance

Matthew Fitzsimmons

Thomas & Mercer

2023

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she read the first one in this series, CONSTANCE, and she loved it. She does not usually read a lot of books that are series, but she decided to read the second book, since the first one was so fabulous.

Ms. Hen came to the conclusion that a reader would not have to read the first book to understand this one. In CHANCE, the protagonist is Chance Harker, a young man who has been cloned several times. In the opening scene, he is about to jump out of an airplane without a parachute, and possibly die, because he can be cloned as many times as possible. He has been cloned four times up to that point.

In this world, only the very wealthy can afford to have clones. Chance's father worked for Palingenesis, the company that clones people, and Chance has options to become a clone, so he takes advantage of it to the full extent.

Chance and his brother, Marley, were kidnapped and murdered five years before, but came back as clones. Chance never found out who the kidnappers were, and it still haunts him. He awakens, and discovered he has murdered someone named Lee Conway, but he doesn't remember, because he had died, and came back a clone before he could have his memory refreshed. 

This phenomenon is called "lag," when a clone has no memory of what happened right before they die. People who have clones go into a lab to have their memories downloaded, called a "refresh," so their clone can be the same person up to a point. Chance has to solve the mystery of why he murdered Lee Conway.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is a lot of fun, but the writing style takes acclimation. The metaphors and similes are high camp, some were lost on Ms. Hen, but they were charming. This book is full of celebrity references.

This novel takes place in Los Angeles, and it's a very L.A. book. The talk of climate change and how it devastated California will probably be accurate in the future. Celebrities still dominate, even though California is a wasteland.

Ms. Hen thinks she might have like CONSTANCE better, because she thinks Chance is an unlikeable character, a cool jerk. Constance appears in this book, but her future is not bright. Clones fascinate Ms. Hen, so much, that she would read the next book to find out what happens. Ms. Hen doesn't think she would like to be cloned, but it she were given the chance, she would consider it.