The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

When I think of author’s craft, I think of novels by Kim Edwards.  Not only does she beautifully weave together the lives of two women (the two main characters) a hundred years apart, but she does it with amazingly poetic imagery.

            The novel begins when Lucy Jarrett returns to her childhood home called The Lake of Dreams, a place she has avoided since her father drowned there when she was a child.  She arrives to find much has changed – her mother, her brother, the town itself.  What Lucy doesn’t realize is that she is headed for change herself when she uncovers clue after clue regarding an unheard of ancestor, Rose.  Lucy becomes quite obsessed with Rose and her story, but the truth could potentially unveil some harsh family facts.  The family legacy, family business, and estate are all threatened by Lucy’s research. 

            The lake proves to be the center of the story, as Lucy goes there to clear her head, even as she learns the details of her father’s death in the very same lake.  But it is here where Edwards illustrates her literary magic.  For example, early on in the novel Edwards has Lucy describe the day: “The day was clear but windy, the water punctuated with whitecaps like commas, the buoys singing their hollow metal songs” (27).  And a couple of pages later, “…I asked, catching the envelope as it skidded across the table in a gust of wind that rattled the wind chimes and slammed waves against the shore” (31). 

            Edwards’ language, elegant imagery, and suspenseful tale of a family’s history make The Lake of Dreams a page-turner. 

            Perhaps you should also check out Edwards’ award-winning first novel, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I was intrigued by the title of this book.  It was catchy and mysterious.  What I didn't expect to find within its pages was a love story interwoven into a historical fiction genre; the narrator's story is one of adventure and adolescent love, but at the same time it is culturally informative.  Jamie Ford's debut novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, is written from the point-of-view of a boy experiencing the cultural stereotypes brought upon by World War II.  Henry longs for a relationship with his traditional Chinese father who clearly hates the Japanese.  Henry's mother watches silently as Henry is neglected.  But all along, Henry seeks comfort from his friend, Kieko and his jazz playing friend Sheldon.  The teens run around the San Francisco area enjoying art, music, and culture together, while avoiding the white bullies who antagonize them at school.  But as a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kieko and her family are sent away (even though they are technically more United States citizens than Henry and his family) and the relationship between the teens is put on hold.

As a writer myself, I admire Ford's style.  He writes from both the grown Henry and the teen Henry's perspective, giving the novel a time change often.  As readers, we know what happened after WWII, and we know that Henry grew up to marry another woman and have a family with her.  What Ford does brilliantly is tell the story from the end and from the beginning simultaneously, purposefully leaving out the middle until the end of the novel.  The build up of suspense was well-played.

Because of the great story and the unique writing style, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a book that I would like to read again and again.

Jane Eyre by Emily Bronte

One of the main reasons I wanted to read this novel is because I have always heard about this book. Some people really loved it, some people thought it was elementary, and some just felt they had to read it for school. Regardless, if this novel was a classic, I had to pick it up and read it. That I did.

At first, this book was relatively hard to get into. I found that the author seemed to focus on supernatural events like the ghost encounter in the red room, the haunting laughter from the attic in Thornfield, and the religious undertones that plague characters. But, I don't think the author really spent enough time on these events to truly make these scenes appear gothic in nature. They only skirted the surface and made me want more of being on the edge of my seat.

There were also times when I found myself being annoyed with the protagonist that I was supposed to be defending as the implied reader. Jane Eyre seemed to focus endlessly on her feelings and stuck rigidly to her morals when it was convenient for her. While I have never read Twilight, I'm sure this mirrors the "inner turmoil" of Bella when worrying about the loves of her life. The internal dialogue becomes redundant and predictable. This made me lose patience with Jane Eyre as she appeared to be overly dramatic and weak like I perceive Bella to be. Come to think about it, Jane Eyre is the 19th century version of Twilight. 

As a character, Jane Eyre was underdeveloped. I knew that as a reader, I was supposed to love her and her imagination. But I found that I didn't really connect to her. Is it author error? Is it my personality and reading of the text? Was this intentional? Regardless, I lacked an engaging connection to the protagonist which took away from the overall reception of the text.

Despite putting the book down multiple times and coming back to it, I managed to finish this text. I don't think this was a waste of my time as I will now understand cultural references about the ghost in the attic, etc. I can also say I read a classic novel that has stood the test of time, whether I enjoyed it or not.