It’s been a while since I read the book (simply because my husband and I trying to do this joint review which seemed to take forever!) so I’m not sure I could do a plot summary justice.   At the heart of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is a story of two sisters.  One beautiful, petite sister, Serena Jane, whom everybody adores and then there’s Truly, who came into this world at the cost of the death of her mother.  She’s plain looking and abnormally large.  Their father does his best to raise them but ultimately fails and both sisters are split and live in different homes.

Truly narrates this beautiful story as they grow into adulthood and their lives take very different paths.  Also, at the heart of this story is Robert Morgan, the town doctor and Serena’s husband.  When Serena Jane abandons her family, Truly steps in to relieve the burden and take care of her nephew.

The story is so simple but yet so deep.  Although big on the outside, Truly has a heart to match and I found myself wishing and hoping that she’d gain everything she loved and desired.  Including true love and her long lost sister.

There is so much more to this story than that very, very basic story line.  You just have to read it.  It was nothing short of amazing.  I loved it.  It’s the type of book that I look at sitting on my bookshelf, and saying, oh yes, I enjoyed reading that book (the book on the bookshelf, not me sitting on the bookshelf!).

It’s very rare for my husband and I to read the same book but he finished reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County before I even started.  He was thoroughly engrossed with this book and quickly finished it.  In fact, with the exception of Twilight (that’s a whole other story) and Harry Potter, I’ve never really seen him so involved.  I’m taking advantage of the situation and bringing to you my very first joint review with my husband.

Our Conversation About The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

Natasha:  So you normally don’t read these type of books, why did you pick this book up?

Taylor: Because it was sitting on the floor.

Me:  Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that you have to read it.

Taylor: Because of the nice cover.  And this first line was really good, “The day I laid Robert Morgan to rest was remarkable for two reasons.  First, even though it was August, the sky overhead was as rough and cold as a January lake; and second, it was the day I started to shrink.”  I kept reading it and the rest of it was just as good as the first line.  And I just kept on reading until it was all done.  I liked the style of the writing, the way the words sounded together.

Natasha:  I really liked the cover too.  That’s the first thing that I was drawn to about this book.

Taylor: Her words are just so cool, I haven’t read anything like it before.  ” . . . his spindly fingers gnarled together in a knot over his heart, awaiting judgment.”  There was another sentence in here, I really liked, “Amelia and I ate together alone on the big rock shaped like a turtle, peeling the waxed paper off of our sandwiches silently and eating glumly, hunkered into our own separate miseries.”  Also,

The morning my sister left him, Bob Bob woke up and knew it without opening his eyes.  It was the absence of the usual odors in the house – the cottony scent of her breath captured in hollow of the pillow next to him, the slightly acrid aroma of coffee wafting up the stairs, followed by the grease of bacon frying.  He lay perfectly still in the bed, his nose twitching, but there was nothing.*

So, what did you like about this book?

Natasha:  That’s too general of a question.

Taylor: What did you find intriguing about the characters?

Natasha:  I really like how the author never told us exactly how big she was.

Taylor:  And you like that because it’s audience participation.  You fill in the blanks and you become part of the story.

[So we Googled the condition that Truly has (and if I can find the official name again, I'll edit it in) and apparently as a giant you can either grow vertically or laterally.  The images that we found were fascinating.]

[long, long silence from Taylor]

Natasha:  Do you have anything else to say about how big she is?

Taylor: No.  I can’t think of anything.

Natasha:  This is going to be the most boring review ever.  You’ve got to work with me here.

Taylor: How can we make it funny?

[nobody speaks for about five minutes . . . I'm waiting him out]

Taylor: I’m drawing a blank.  Wait!  Don’t put that in there.

Natasha:  Well, it has been a while since we read the book because it’s been hard to get us to sit down.

Taylor: It’s one of my favorite books I’ve read. And I was really surprised because there wasn’t time travel in this story . . . or werewolves.  It was a simple story but it was so well written, I enjoyed it.

Natasha:  What did you think of the doctor?  Do you think that by treating Truly he had good intentions?

Taylor: That’s giving to much away!

Natasha:  No, it’s not.

Taylor: It seemed like he didn’t, but I think it’s left up to the reader to decide.  I can imagine that guy as a cross between William Defoe and Crispin Glover.

Natasha:  William Defoe.  I don’t even know who that is.

Taylor: The green goblin in Spiderman.  And there’s this girl at Trax [our light rail system] that reminds me of Truly.

Natasha:  Why?  Is she really big?

Taylor: Yep.

Natasha:  Do you think this is more of a women’s book?

Taylor: Yes.  It’s about relationships.  And because the main character is a woman. 

Natasha: Would . .  [gets cut off]

Taylor: Unless the main character is Angelina Jolie then it’s probably a woman’s book.

Natasha:  Would you recommend it to your all male book club?

Taylor: I would.  Right now we are reading The Thirteenth Tale.

Natasha:  Have you started that one yet?

Taylor: Not yet.  Still trying to finish Mistborn 2. I definitely would like to read whatever book she writes next.  The story was so simple, I wonder if she wrote a fantasy book, or a more complex book, if it would work with her style.

Natasha:  I don’t think that a book needs to be fantasy to be complex.

Taylor: Take that line out.  Are you taking it out?

Natasha:  No.

Taylor: Hey!

Natasha:  We aren’t getting very deep.

Taylor: You’re not erasing stuff.  You’re typing everything I say.  Usually, when I ask you about a book you say that you liked it and that’s all you say.

Natasha:  Well, ask me a deep question.

Taylor: What’s a deep question?

Natasha:  You’re not giving me much to go on. This is really boring.

Taylor: Well, you’ve got to edit!  That’s all I had to say about the book.

Natasha:  Okay, then I think we’re done.

[argument takes place about how awful this whole thing went]

Go forth and read.  It was beautiful.

Links of interest:  Tiffany Baker website and blog.
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Published:  Grand Central Publishing, January 8, 2009.
Hardcover, 341 pages.  ISBN 978-0446194204
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.
*Quotes taken from an Advance Reading Copy and may not reflect bound copy.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

• Ali from Worducopia.  Ali is so much fun!  She’s hosting the Diversity Rocks Challenge which I’m really, really regretting not joining.  Ali seems to review a bit of everything.  Graphic novels, literary fiction, young adult and more.  Ali’s going to do the read-a-thon for the first year this time too.  I’m glad I won’t be the only newbie!

• Suey from It’s All About Books.  If you’re not friends with Suey, you are missing out.  I was bummed when she wasn’t able to come to the Laurie Halse Anderson signing.  I totally missed her.  Suey and I have met on more than one occasion and she’s just as nice in real life as she is on her blog.  Lately, Suey has been reading tons on young adult books.  But who can blame her?  They’re really good!  Suey and Raidergirl3 from An Adventure in Reading are also the brains behind the Bookword Game.  And if you’re a Josh Groban fan?  Say no more.  You have a new best friend.

• Chartoose from Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage! I remember the very first time I stumbled upon Chartoose’s blog because I turned to my husband and said check out the name of this blog!  I knew immediately how irreverent and fun she would be.  I must admit she probably doesn’t think that I read her blog that often because I’m terrible at commenting, but I do.  And you should too.

• Jackie from Farm Lane Books.  I somehow missed having Jackie’s blog in my reader.  I seriously do not know how that happened.  That situation is now rectified.  Sorry!  Jackie reviews mostly literary fiction and is trying to make it through a bunch of prize lists like the Orange, Booker, and Pulitzer.  Thinking about it just makes my head hurt.

• Marg from Reading Adventures.  I wish I could read as much as Marg.  She read 17 books this past month.  Marg reads a lot of historical fiction and also blogs at the Historical Tapestry blog, as well as romance, mysteries, and young adult fiction.  In addition to all the challenges that she does, Marg also finds the time to make beautiful cards as well.  Marg has been blogging since 2005.  That sure makes me feel like the new kid on the block!

• Em from Em’s Bookshelf.  Em reviews young adult books.  If you’re looking for a recommendation, head on over there.  She’ll have one.  I had to laugh.  Em is taking on Maureen Johnson’s challenge to blog every day in April.  And she’s going to buy herself peanut M&M’s if she does.  Made me realize that I need to slow down!  I think I’ll buy myself something if I DON’T blog every day in April.  I wonder what would happen if I skipped a day?  Wait.  Nothing.  Brilliant!   Why didn’t I think of this before?

Thanks everybody for stopping by!  I wish I could highlight you all.  I was going to try to go for ten spotlights this month but my boys who are supposedly “napping” just found a bottle of spray suntan lotion and sprayed it all over their walls.  Welcome to my life.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Even though I liked The Bright Side of Disaster I must admit that I was still a bit hesitant to read Everyone is Beautiful.  Hesitant but really looking forward to it at the same time.  Would she be able to pull it off a second time?  The reason I was hesitant is more personal, simply because I would classify Everyone is Beautiful as mommy lit, and being honest, it’s a genre that I normally don’t read.  Maybe because I have the preconceived notion that they are full of fluff and not written well.  Why I have that preconceived notion I don’t really know, so I couldn’t even tell you if that’s true or not, although I doubt it.  But let me tell you this:  I could not put Everyone is Beautiful down.  I read it in just one day.  I really enjoyed it.  When I told Katherine these thoughts, I had that “aha” moment of understanding when she responded by saying:

You know, all my writing training was more “literary,” so that might be part of what’s appealing to you.  I have a Master’s in Fiction and spent years writing in different voices and trying different styles.  So maybe you’re sensing that?  It’s certainly Mom-Lit, but it may have elements of other types of fiction, as well.  I certainly try to give the books moments of bitter sweetness and sorrow, even within the broader structure of the comedy.  Whatever it is, I’m glad you’re liking the books!!

It all makes sense!  In addition to its literary fiction appeal, Everyone is Beautiful is a great story.  Lanie Coates is the mother of three boys – all under the age of four – who has just moved away from her friends and family from Houston to Boston so her husband Peter can attend graduate school.  He’s a pianist who dreams to be accepted to a prestigious program that will take him across the country for a few weeks during the holidays.  Something that Lanie selfishly doesn’t want to happen.  Can she handle the boys for that long on her own in a new town with no friends?

Lanie looks in the mirror (actually, she’s stopped looking in the mirror) and wonders where her looks went, where the pounds came from and can’t imagine spending money on a wardrobe that isn’t slobber proof.  She has given so much of herself to everybody else that she’s lost sight of what she wants.  What she wants is a closer marriage, to be a better mother, not feel so homesick, make friends, get in shape, become ambitious, and find a hobby.

She simply wants to not only look more beautiful but feel more beautiful.  After being humiliated by another mommy during playtime at the park, she decides that it’s time to make those changes.  It’s time to find that beauty again.  And that’s what’s at the heart of this story.  What is beauty?  And how does one obtain it?  When Lanie tries to rediscover this she finds that she may actually lose everything else in the process, including her family.

I couldn’t help laughing out loud and sympathizing with Lanie.  Laughing (or maybe cringing) because I was so, so glad that my life isn’t as crazy as hers.  I’ve at least never scrapped spaghetti noodles off of the couch before but also empathetic because I know what it’s like to go to the bathroom with a child on your knee and reading a book at the same time.  And even if you don’t have a child on your knee then you are at least yelling from the bathroom for somebody to stop doing whatever it is their doing until you come back down (Case in point – while taking a break from writing this review to run upstairs, I could hear a chair scraping across the floor.  I came back down to find three bananas smashed on the floor.)  It was so much fun to read a book with the attitude of “yep, been there, done that.”

I also sympathized with Lanie’s move.  I moved from our college apartment, away from my friends and church community when I was eight months pregnant.  It was just two weeks later that I had my baby.  I came home to boxes everywhere and not a single friend.  To make matters worse, it was the beginning of winter.  I spent months inside ecstatic with our new new house and new baby but also very lonely without a single friend to call my own.  It’s not easy to be a mother on ones own and unfortunately our society has moved in the direction of mothering being a solitary occupation.  I also loved how Lanie turned to photography as one of her outlets.  I loved being in the darkroom (seems like I’m reading a lot of books like that recently) as she discovered a new creative process that was something she did just for her.

But all that said, Everyone is Beautiful is more than just a book for mom’s.  It’s a book for anybody who wants to step inside another shoes and immerse themselves in a beautifully written, humorous and  touching book. It’s a story of motherhood as Lanie  tries to do everything just right but also about the journey of rediscovering ones self and what’s important in life.

I’m already anxious for Katherine to come out with another book.  Everyone is Beautiful just came out yesterday, so I’ve got a while to wait. But in the meantime, Random House has sent me an extra ARC to give to you!  To enter, leave a comment responding to this review in some way or answer either of the following two questions:  Do you have a special mom in your life or if you are a mom – what does the word beautiful now mean to you?  I’ll pick a winner and announce it in the comments on this post on Wednesday, February 25th.

I’m thrilled that Katherine will be guest posting here tomorrow!  I’m really, really excited!  Don’t miss it!

Links of interest:  More blogger reviews. Katherine’s website, my book review of The Bright Side of Disaster, my interview with Katherine and let’s not forget that soup.
Genre:  Hmm . . . Literary Fiction/Mommy Lit
Publisher:  Random House.  February 17, 2009.
Hardcover, 256 pages.  ISBN:  1400066433
Everyone is Beautiful is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

As a  young college student and aspiring writer Julian Wainwright has high hopes for his life.  He begins what he assures himself is to be the beginning of his career by enrolling in Professor Chesterfield’s exclusive fiction writing class.  It’s there that he meets his best friend and also aspiring writer Carter Heinz, who hails from the west coast and is dubious of those from the wealthier class.  Together Julian and Carter meet Mia and Pilar and each gets married.   Carter and Pilar out of a mutual regard for each other and Julian and Mia spurred on by a family tragedy.

Matrimony is a look into their marriages, more particularly Julian and Mia’s, as they move through the next fifteen years and experience graduate school, writers block, career moves, life, love, happiness, contentment, envy, loss and betrayal.   I can’t help but quote the dust jacket which says,

Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith.  It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone – to do it when you’re young – and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age.

Although the main story is about Julian and Mia, Joshua Henkin offers us many other stories quietly told in the background.  Stories of both Julian’s and Mia’s parents, Professor Chesterfield, Carter and Pilar, Carter and Julian, and Mia and Derek – an old friend of Mia’s.

Matrimony is the type of book that could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  I suspect that it’s either the type of book that you could get bored with easily or the type of book that sweeps you away into the characters, depending upon the type of reader you are.  Me?  Well, I read the entire book in just a few sittings in under two days.  I became invested in Julian and Mia’s characters.  I really felt like they were real people across the country from me, living out their lives, and I got to look in and observe.  Joshua Henkin is a gifted writer.  The writing is quiet and introspective and the language beautiful and moving.  I look forward to his future publications.

If you’d like to learn more about Matrimony and Joshua Henkin check out the following two videos where Joshua discusses his book and does a reading as well:

Stay tuned!  Joshua Henkin has a wonderful author interview for us tomorrow.  And if you’ve been following Henkin at all, you know how giving he is with his interviews.  They truly are wonderful and insightful.  Plus, a recipe that sounds delicious!  In the meantime, visit Joshua Henkin’s website or invite him to your next book club meeting.

Last but not least, would you like to read this book?  Joshua Henkin is giving away a signed copy just for you!  No mailing restrictions.  Open to anyone.  Simply leave a comment below answering the simple question:  why would you like to read Matrimony?  I’ll announce the winner here in the comments on Monday, February 23rd.  Have you already read Matrimony?  Feel free to share your thoughts about it as well.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Claire is a commercial food photographer.  She is living out her dreams, doing spreads for Oprah and about to begin work on a Martha Stewart cookbook.  She has become successful enough to be comfortable with her work and the direction her career is heading.  But all that changes with the first line of the book which states, “My dad died at an incredibly inconvenient time and I have no doubt that he planned it that way on purpose.”

Her father, Paul, was a legendary landscape photographer.  He thrived off of shooting the landscape, so much so that he left his family to resettle out west.  Upon his death there is to be a large retrospective of his work and he’s charged his granddaughter, Bailey, Claire’s daughter, to be in charge of it.

Bailey is a natural born artist.  A painter.  She’s just finishing up her MFA with a gallery showing of her own and is about to make huge ripples in the art world.  Paul and Bailey were very close because of their artistic talents.  Much to Claire’s chagrin, Paul always stated that in their family, genius skipped a generation.  It was that feeling of inadequacy that Claire fought against her whole life.

Now at her father’s death and her daughter’s success, Claire loses faith in her own work and begins to feel jealous of her daugher.  So much so, that their relationship is threatened.  When she’s in the studio behind the camera, she can no longer “see.”  She feels as though she’s faking it.  Her confidence is gone and her career is in jeopardy.  It is when she’s going through her father’s photographs that she realizes that he wasn’t as perfect as he presented himself to be.  What she discovers changes the way she feels about him, her daughter, and herself.

I loved this passage of the book as Claire is observing her daughter’s confidence:

She was reckless, she was brilliant.  I felt, on one hand, that I shouldn’t watch, that what she was doing was private, intimate.  But on the other hand, I couldn’t tear myself away.  The air in the room was charged with something animal and alive.  Bailey behaved as if she knew she couldn’t make a wrong move.  She couldn’t pick the wrong color, couldn’t put her brush in the wrong spot – and I wanted to be near that kind of faith, that kind of genius, if for no other reason than I might figure out how it was done.

The characters in The Only True Genius in the Family were real to me and the sense of place was powerful.  The book asks the question: what is true genius?  Is it natural?  It is fought for?  Is talent in the genes?  And it dives deep into the relationships of fathers, mothers, and daughters.

What was it that I felt so drawn to about this book?  Well, for one, it takes place partially in Driggs, Idaho.  Although, a town I have never visited, it is my maiden name and indeed a town prominent in our family history as it was founded by early family members.  So that was fun.

Second, I’m a photographer.  I understood what it’s like to get underneath a black cloth of a large format camera, slide in the 4×5 negatives, measure the light, focus, and carefully take your photo.  This isn’t your snap and go type of photography.  It’s very methodical and contemplative.  Reading this book made me want to dust that camera off, compose some photographs, get in the darkroom, and study the results.  Having taken studio photography classes and doing my final project in the studio (with that large format camera) I also understood what it was like for Claire to set up her still life (of food), adjust the lights and compose commercial photographs.

But perhaps, what I related to the most was Claire’s sense of inadequacy.  I’ve talked about this before, but sometimes I feel like photography didn’t come naturally to me.  I fought hard for it.  I fought against the equipment, the math, the numbers, the light meter.  I always felt like I was the one in the class faking it while everybody else was a natural.  Now, I won’t lie.  I do think I have talent.  I have created some wonderful photographs.  But to see this fictional character in this book doubt herself while faced with the talent of her daughter was comforting to say the least.

Even if you don’t have these feelings, I’m pretty sure you’ll love The Only True Genius in the Family.  The questions that it raises about our doubts, our talents, our potentials, and our relationships is worth the read.  And it doesn’t hurt that it’s beautifully written either.  Jennie Nash has talent.

Jennie has agreed to giveaway a signed copy of The Only True Genius in the Family.  To enter leave a comment on this post that’s more than just a “enter me.”  Respond to the review, the book, the author, or answer the question: what do you think true genius is?  Open to U.S. mailing addresses (sorry, I forgot to ask Jennie where she could mail, so playing it safe here).  I’ll announce the winner in the comments on this post on February 17th.

Stop by tomorrow for an amazing interview with Jennie!  I must shamelessly admit that I love the questions I asked and I loved the answers Jennie gave!  In the meantime, check out my review for The Last Beach Bungalow as well as a guest post that Jennie wrote for the Maw Books Blog this past October about how surviving breast cancer has affected her writing.

Links of interest:  Jennie Nash website, blog, and follow on Twitter.  The Last Beach Bungalow book review, Jennie Nash guest post and (edited to add) my interview with Jennie talking about The Last True Genius in the Family.  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Publisher:  Berkley Trade.  February 3, 2009.
Paperback, 304 pages.  ISBN 0425225755
The Last True Genius in the Family is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

A while back, I gave a tour of the bookshelves around my house.  Fun post, if I say so myself.  But here’s a reminder of the bookshelves that are in my living room just as you walk through the front door.

And here is the photo of the books I pulled out from underneath my bed:

I have a lot of books to put away.  So here is my question.  How do you organize your bookshelves?    Do you like them to say something about you?  In other words, is there a certain way that you show them off?  Hmm . . . maybe something along the line of bragging?  That could be too strong a word.  But you know what I mean, right?   I want people who walk into my home to know something about the people who live there  and their interests just by looking at the books they own.  In the second photo above, we have shelves for fiction, non-fiction, gardening, photography, art, parenting, spiritual study, and my husband’s animation and filmmaking books.  The kids get one shelf so they know that’s what they can get into and hopefully leave the rest alone.  One glance and hopefully you would know what we enjoy.

But now it’s time to reorganize all of my books!  What goes in my bedroom and what goes into the living room?  This is actually a lot harder than it sounds.  The books that are in the living room are the ones that people will look at and see.  The books that will go into the bedroom will not.  So which books go where?  I feel like I’m hiding some of them and it breaks my heart.  Not like they’ll be neglected or anything but they won’t get the attention like the others.  And yes, I’m well aware that I’m talking about hurting the books feelings.

The gardening, photography, art, parenting, spritual study, animation, and filmmaking books all stay in the living room.  They all say a lot about who we are and what are interests are.  It’s the fiction books that I’m having trouble with.  Do I display all the classics and literary fiction to show off how cool of a reader I am?  Or do I display all of my juvenile fiction to show that I’m an adult who still loves reading children’s books?

I have a lot of space for fiction books but half will have to go into the bedroom and half will not.  Right now I’m thinking fiction books I’ve already read as well as classics will go in the living room.  I’d hate to recommend a book to a visitor that I haven’t read.  But I’m not going to split authors or series either.  I have tons of juvenile and young adult fiction that I would love to display as well, but it pains me to split up the genre.  So I think they’ll all go in the bedroom.  But then it gives me pains to know that most people who visit my home won’t see them.  Plus, I’ve crammed as many shelves as I can into the living room bookcases, so a lot has to do with how tall the book is and will if fit?

Okay seriously.  Am I just weird?  Am I the only one who thinks about such things?  How do you organize your books and are you trying to make any kind of statement when you do?  Or do you just not care?  And this is assuming that you are somebody like me who gets a huge kick out of owning books in the first place.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

I was intrigued with the mystery. The Thirteenth Tale is Setterfield’s first novel, which in my opinion, is quite the feat. It felt as though Setterfield herself could be Miss Winter, the prolific author in the story. I won’t give up the ending, but I was quite pleased to realize the major twist in the end a few pages before it happened. I would definitely recommend this book to those who would like to rediscover the art of storytelling.

This book also renewed my interest in rereading many classics, as the story featured many “stories within the story.” Now added to my to be read pile for 2008 are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Emma by Jane Austen

Book Description
When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.

All children mythologize their birth…So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter’s collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself — all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter’s story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida’s storytelling but remains suspicious of the author’s sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

Reviews (from Bookmarks Magazine)
San Diego Union-Tribune 4.5 of 5 Stars
“It has elements that recall the classics: the extraordinary governess; the mad mistress; the adoration of siblings; a well-meaning doctor; interfering townsfolk; unwanted pregnancies; elopements; disappearances and returns; orphan children and mistaken identities; tragedy and evil and suspense. … Like a childhood favorite, it is timeless, charming, pure pleasure to read.” Julie Brickman

Philadelphia Inquirer 4 of 5 Stars
“Fictional narrators tend to be ghostly figures, and Margaret is ghostlier than most, but that may be because Vida Winter remains so incandescently alive, even though she is old and her life is drawing to its close. … Those who buy and read this complex, compelling and, in the end, deeply moving novel are unlikely to feel they’ve been shortchanged.” Frank Wilson

Rocky Mountain News 4 of 5 Stars
“This is a book-lover’s novel, with rich characters, fascinating plot twists and plenty of secluded moments infused with the soothing smell of cracking leather and old paper. … The Thirteenth Tale is a smart, thoughtful look at truth and deception: While uncovering personal truth is often unsavory, it can ultimately help draw us closer to the essence of who we really are.” Jennie A. Camp

Boston Globe 3.5 of 5 Stars
“This debut novel gets a lot of that rich bookishness right, heavy on the gothic detail and romantic suspense. … A few more hints, a little more basis for the ending, wouldn’t have spoiled this mystery.” Clea Simon

Washington Post 3 of 5 Stars
“Setterfield’s erudite novel amounts to a sort of brainteaser, a literary riddle to occupy the mind rather than a new vision to inform it. … And yet, for all its successes—and perhaps because of them—on the whole the book feels unadventurous, content to rehash literary formulas rather than reimagine them.” Margaux Wexberg Sanchez

Los Angeles Times 1.5 of 5 Stars
“The Thirteenth Tale explicitly sets out to capitalize on our longing for a good old-fashioned read but fails to deliver on precisely that. … Although [it] is nothing like either of the Brontës’ masterworks (despite being set in Yorkshire), it’s odd that the one Setterfield keeps invoking is not Wuthering Heights, which at least also deals with fierce, quasi-incestuous passions, but Jane Eyre, with which her book has even less in common.” Merle Rubin

Reading Group Guide (from www.thethirteenthtale.com)
Watch out! Reading the following guide will allude to key plot details. Proceed with caution!

Much of the novel takes place in two grand estates — Angelfield and then Miss Winter’s. How are the houses reflections of their inhabitants?As the story unfolds, we learn that Margaret and Miss Winter are both twins. What else do they have in common?Margaret and her mother are bound by a singular loss — the death of Margaret’s twin sister. How has each woman dealt with this loss, and how has it affected her life? If her parents had told her the truth about her twin, would Margaret still be haunted?Books play a major role in this novel. Margaret, for example, sells books for a living. Miss Winter writes them. Most of the important action of the story takes place in libraries. There are stories within stories, all inextricably intertwined. Discuss the various roles of books, stories, and writing in this novel.Miss Winter asks Margaret if she’d like to hear a ghost story — in fact, there seem to be several ghost stories weaving their way through. In what ways is The Thirteenth Tale a classic, gothic novel?Miss Winter frequently changes points of view from third to first person, from “they” to “we” to “I,” in telling Margaret her story. The first time she uses “I” is in the recounting of Isabelle’s death and Charlie’s disappearance. What did you make of this shifting when Margaret points it out on page 204?

Compare and contrast Margaret, Miss Winter, and Aurelius — the three “ghosts” of the novel who are also each haunted by their pasts.

It is a classic writer’s axiom that a symbol must appear at least three times in a story so that the reader knows that you meant it as a symbol. In The Thirteenth Tale, the novel Jane Eyre appears several times. Discuss the appearances and allusions to Jane Eyre and how this novel echoes that one.

The story shifts significantly after the death of Mrs. Dunne and John Digence. Adeline steps forward as intelligent, well-spoken, and confident — the “girl in the mists” emerges. Did you believe this miraculous transformation? If not, what did you suspect was really going on?

Dr. Clifton tells Margaret that she is “suffering from an ailment that afflicts ladies of romantic imagination” when he learns that she is an avid reader of novels such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Sense and Sensibility. What do you think he means by drawing such a parallel?

What other parallels exist between The Thirteenth Tale and classic 19th century literature?

When did you first suspect Miss Winter’s true identity? Whether you knew or not, looking back, what clues did she give to Margaret (and what clues did the author give to you)?

Margaret tells Aurelius that her mother preferred telling “weightless” stories in place of heavy ones, and that sometimes it’s better “not to know.” Do you agree or disagree?

The title of this novel is taken from the title of Miss Winter’s first book, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, a collection of twelve stories with a mysterious thirteenth left out at the last minute before publication. How is this symbolic of the novel? What is the thirteenth tale?

When do you think The Thirteenth Tale takes place? The narrator gives some hints, but never tells the exact date. Which aspects of the book gave you a sense of time, and which seemed timeless? Did the question of time affect your experience with the novel?

Links of interest: More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction, Gothic Mystery
Publisher: Atria. September 12, 2006.
Hardcover, 416 pages. ISBN 0743298020
Source copy: Library
The Thirteenth Tale is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.