Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester

Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester
Published by New Harvest ISBN 978-0-544-26217-1
Hardcover, $24, 304 pages

Years ago I read Ann Patchett's haunting novel, Bel Canto, about a group of people kidnapped by terrorists at a party at the home of the vice-president in a South American country. I can vividly recall sitting on my porch mesmerized by the characters and the story.

When I heard about Natalia Sylvester's debut novel, Chasing the Sun, which tells the story of an industrialist's wife's kidnapping in Peru, I was curious to read it. Sylvester lived in Lima, Peru and her novel is inspired by a family member who was kidnapped.

In Peru, kidnappings are an almost common occurrence. Wealthy people live behind walls and gates, and many have security. Andres owns a label factory, and his family, wife Marabela, teenage son Ignacio and young daughter Cynthia live a good life. The children go to private school, and Marabela volunteers for many charities and is close to the women who cook and clean for them.

Things between Marabela and Andres are not good. Four months ago Marabela disappeared, unhappy with her marriage. She returned because she couldn't leave her children. When Marabela doesn't return home after an errand, Andres fears she run away again.

But this time Andres gets a call from a man; they have kidnapped Marabela and want one million dollars in ransom. Andres doesn't have that kind of money, and his wealthy mother sends over a man who helps people deal with kidnappers.

As the story unfolds and Andres deals with the kidnappers and the facilitator, he tries to hide the situation from his children, his employees and their friends. He discovers that his childhood friend Elena is in a hospital after a suicide attempt following her own kidnapping. From her, he learns something shocking and saddening.

Part two deals with the aftermath of the kidnapping. We don't have first hand knowledge of what happened to Marabela, we only get bits of the torment she suffered. Andres hopes that they can pick up the pieces of their life together and move forward, but Marabela isn't so sure she can or even if she wants to.

I enjoy reading about places and cultures I don't have much knowledge of, and with Sylvester's growing up in Lima, we get an insider's view. I can't imagine living with the constant fear that you could be grabbed off the street.

I also like reading about the Peruvian dishes, like tallarines verdes, a pesto-like sauce served with steak. It makes me want to read more about it, and maybe even make it for dinner.

Chasing the Sun drops the reader into the lives of this upper middle class Peruvian family during a crisis. Although the kidnapping propels the story, this is a more personal story about a marriage unraveling. Andres loves Marabela and desperately wants to love the life they have build together, but things and people from their past come bubbling up to the surface and try to pull them apart. Fans of Bel Canto will find much to appreciate in this debut novel.

rating 4 of 5

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on this tour. The rest of Natalia Sylvester's tour is here.

Natalia Sylvester’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, June 2nd: Book-alicous Mama

Tuesday, June 3rd: Book Lust

Tuesday, June 3rd: A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, June 4th: Bookchickdi

Wednesday, June 4th: The Lost Entwife

Thursday, June 5th: Sidewalk Shoes

Friday, June 6th: Bibliotica

Monday, June 9th: Sarah’s Book Shelves

Tuesday, June 10th: 5 Minutes for Books

Wednesday, June 11th: Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Thursday, June 12th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Friday, June 13th: Book Hooked Blog

Monday, June 16th: Books a la Mode – Guest post

Monday, June 16th: Lit and Life

Tuesday, June 17th: My Bookshelf

Wednesday, June 18th: Between the Covers

Thursday, June 19th: Read. Write. Repeat.

Friday, June 20th: Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Monday, June 23rd: Love at First Book

Tuesday, June 24th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Wednesday, June 25th: A Bookish Affair

Thursday, June 26th: Kritter’s Ramblings

Buying In by Laura Hemphill

Buying In by Laura Hemphill
Published by New Harvest, ISBN 978-05444114579
Hardcover, 304 pages, $24

Last year I read a dynamite book about a woman working at one of Wall Street's big banks, Erin Duffy's Bond Girl. I loved it, putting it on my Best Of The Year list. Recently I had the opportunity to read another debut novel in the same setting by a woman who also worked in the industry, like Duffy. My return to that world was rewarded with another terrific read, Laura Hemphill's Buying In.

Sophie Landgraf grew up in a small town to parents who owned a sheep farm. They were hippies, and none too happy when their  child decided to get a degree in finance and pursue a job with Sterling, one of the big New York City banks.

One of the first things we see Sophie doing is going through the desk drawers of the people whom she works for, trying to understand something about them. I liked this quirk of Sophie, and it gave us a look at the secret side of these single-minded people. She goes through her boss Ethan's desk.

"One peek inside his top drawer had been enough for Sophie. Swimming goggles, nail clippers, a Ferragamo tie wound into a tight coil, and packets of Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard. None of that compared to Ira Blumenstein's gold tooth, Kenneth Yang's Darth Vader lollipop, or Rich Angstrom's Magic 8 Ball."

Sophie is a first year hire, so she does all of the grunt work: research and plugging numbers into Excel formulas, then analyzing the data. This world is so foreign to me, and I was fascinated by my immersion into it, thanks to Hemphill's skilled storytelling.

Ethan's team consists of Vasu, an Indian man with a wife and two children he loves but rarely sees, and Sophie. They work in the Industrials division, and their big project is convincing their client AlumiCorp that they should merge with another aluminum manufacturer, whether or not it is in the best interest of their client. This would bring Sterling huge fees, along with a gig as a consultant to the newly formed company.

If you had told me that I would find a novel about a big bank and the aluminum industry so intriguing, I would have said "I don't think so." And yet that is exactly what happened. As the merger goes through ups and downs, at times looking like it was all going to go down in flames, the tension builds and Hemphill has the reader on the edge of her seat, like a great spy thriller.

The story is told through four different points of view- Sophie, Vasu, Ethan and the CEO of AlumiCorp. Sophie's story is more prevalent, but Vasu's is the one that is heartbreaking, and I would have liked to have heard more from him.

There is one vignette that I also read in Duffy's Bond Girl. Two men compete to eat one of each of the items in the vending machine. Sophie was a referee for this contest (as was Duff's female protagonist), so I'm going to guess that this is something that goes on at all big banks. It epitomizes the testosterone driven mentality that exists. Vasu compares Sterling and all of the other banks who caused the subprime economic crisis to the Vending Machine Challenge guy, who "swallow(s) too much too fast, (then) throw(s) up."

The novel takes place just prior to the Lehman collapse, and like many of the other banks, Sterling is in trouble for their reckless ways, affecting all of the major characters. We see that for all of their sacrifices- having no social life, missing holidays with family, working insane hours- their loyalty and hard work means nothing to a corporation.

I bought into Buying In. I was swept into this crazy world of high finance along with Sophie, and taken on a fast-paced ride learning more about aluminum factories that I thought possible, and liking it. This is a smart novel, and one that will have you turning the pages to see how it all comes crashing down, and if Sophie is a survivor.

rating 4 of 5

Laura Hemphill's website is here.
My review of Erin Duffy's Bond Girl is here.

Thanks to TLC Tours for inviting me to participate. The rest of Laura Hemphill's tour is here:

Laura Hemphill’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, November 4th:  Kritter’s Ramblings

Tuesday, November 5th:  Entomology of a Bookworm

Wednesday, November 6th:  Peppermint Ph.D.

Thursday, November 7th:  BookChickDi

Friday, November 8th:  Bibliotica

Monday, November 11th:  The Well Read Redhead

Tuesday, November 12th:  Tiny Library

Wednesday, November 13th:  Staircase Wit

Thursday, November 14th:  Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Monday, November 18th:  Luxury Reading

Tuesday, November 19th:  Sarah’s Book Shelves

Wednesday, November 20th:  A Bookish Affair

Thursday, November 21st:  Walking with Nora

Friday, November 22nd:  Classy Cat Books

Monday, November 25th:  Reading Reality

Tuesday, November 26th:  Books and Movies

Penny Marshall's My Mother Was Nuts

My Mother Was Nuts  by Penny Marshall
Published by New Harvest ISBN 9780547892627
Hardcover $26, 352 pages

Penny Marshall is best known as Laverne from TV's popular 70's sitcom "Laverne & Shirley", and she shares some of her memories of that wild time in her memoir. But for my money, the last section of the book is the best. She describes how she became the first female director to have a movie make $100 million. That movie was "Big" with Tom Hanks, and she describes how Robert DeNiro was originally considered for the role. What a different movie it would have been!

Marshall directed one of my favorite movies, "A League of Their Own" about the All-American Women's Baseball League, formed during WWII when most of the men were at war. Hanks also starred in that movie and we get a lot of details about the actors, the auditions, shooting the film on location, and Jon Lovitz's hilarious ad-libs. She takes us through "Awakenings" with DeNiro and Robin Williams, working with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington on "The Preacher's Wife" and her first gig, directing a difficult Whoopi Goldberg in "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

She also shares her upbringing in the Bronx, with her mother whom she calls "nuts" in the book title, a dance instructor who instilled a love of entertaining in her children, Garry, Ronny and Penny (actual name- Carole), all of whom grew up to be successful in Hollywood. Penny danced on the Jackie Gleason Show as a child, but hated taking lessons with her mother. It was a battle that lasted a lifetime for them.

Her first marriage in college after becoming pregnant produced a daughter Tracy. She later married Rob Reiner, and her memories of their love story were very sweet, and even though the marriage didn't work out, they still remained friends. Speaking of friends, Marshall names many, many of her friends- from the Bronx to Hollywood to New York- at times it seemed a little overwhelming. Carrie Fisher became a very good friend, introducing her to boyfriend Art Garfunkel, and Marshall's description of the classic Simon & Garfunkel reunion concert in Central Park was fascinating.

She covers a lot of ground moving quickly through the book, mostly glossing over Laverne & Shirley days and her costars, although she does try to explain the rift that developed between her and Cindy Williams. Her serious illness of a few years ago is dealt with in detail, with a happy ending thanks to billionaire Ronald Perelman's assistance.

Not many people would have believed that Penny Marshall from the Bronx would have become the star of one of the most successful TV sitcoms of all-time, let alone become one of the most successful film directors of the 1990s, but she did it. Her life story reads like a movie she'd one day direct.

rating 4 of 5