Reprinted from auburnpub.com
End of Summer Reading Roundup
Many of us have heard about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland where young pregnant teens were sent by their families to give birth, and then forced to give their babies up for adoption. While there, the young girls worked long days in the laundry for no money, and were generally treated poorly as free labor.
In the United States, there were 38 of these facilities. In her novel Wayward Girls, Susan Wiggs sets her story in a fictionalized version of a real-life home for wayward girls in Buffalo in the 1960s. Young girls and teens who were pregnant or whose parents could not care for them or were orphaned or sent by the court system ended up at this home.
When Marin rebuffs the advances of her alcoholic stepfather, he sends her to Good Shepherd Home, labeled a “reform school". There she bonds with a group of other young girls, and while they try to survive the hardships they faced, they plot a way to escape. It’s a heartbreaking and yet eventually uplifting story.
Kathy Wang’s novel The Satisfaction Cafe opens with Joan, a Chinese immigrant stating she never thought life in America would lead her to stab her husband. How can you not want to read on after that?
Joan divorces the first husband (the one she stabbed) and ends up married to a much older wealthy American man, and lives what many would call the American dream, even if her husband’s adult children do not trust her.
It’s a moving story of Joan’s life in America, finding a family, and the clever way she overcame the loneliness that many people face, especially in today’s world. She’s an unforgettable character.
Jess Walter’s new novel, So Far Gone tackles a different kind of loneliness. After he punches his conspiracy theory-spouting son-in-law at Thanksgiving, Rhys Kinnick goes off the grid to a dilapidated family cabin the middle of nowhere in the Northwest.
Seven years later a woman shows up on his doorstep with his two young grandchildren and a note from his daughter asking him to care for them until she returns. He tries to bond with the grandchildren over his love of literature, and when his son-in-law shows up with members of an armed militia to take the children, he is forced into action.
Rhys rounds up his only friends to rescue his grandchildren and then find his missing daughter. It’s a road trip family story and has a lot to say about where we are as a country. I liked that the characters are not black-and-white (except for one really bad guy), but shades of gray. It’s got humor and heart.
Beck Dorey-Stein’s novel Spectacular Things tells the story of two sisters, Mia and Cricket, who are raised by their single mother. Mom was a high school soccer superstar and headed for big things in college when she became pregnant with Mia.
She gave her girls their love of soccer, and when Cricket shows amazing talent at the game and a tragedy befalls the family, it’s Mia who sacrifices everything to give Cricket a shot at making her Olympic dream come true.
Just as Cricket is on the verge of soccer stardom, it’s Mia who needs her little sister to help her. Cricket has to decide what is more important to her- her sister or her dream. It’s a wonderful story that would make a great book club pick as there is so much to discuss here.
The last book I really liked is an unusual one. Maria Reva’s Endling is about a Ukrainian scientist trying to keep a species of snail from going extinct. To fund this, she secretly works for an organization that matches Ukrainian women with Western men looking for brides.
Two sisters who also work for this organization have an ulterior motive- they plan to kidnap twelve of the men to protest the matchmaking company that they feel exploits these Ukrainian women.
The sisters recruit the scientist so they can use her research van, and when the Russians invade Ukraine, all the plans these women have go out the window, and now it’s just trying to avoid the war and keeping the men alive.
While it sounds crazy, the writing and the characters are impressive, and the tension ratchets up as they try to avoid becoming caught up in the war. It’s unique and brilliant and just nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize.
