She Who Must Be Obeyed (sort of) says we’re doin’ a ‘two-fer’ today! I’m thinkin’ bacon and more bacon! Or peanut butter! But nooooo! Her Momness says we’re doin’ two books by two different female authors. One fiction. One non. Both have strong female characters or POVs.
They are She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Me by Emma Brockes (non-fiction). The other is On Mystic Lake. By Kristin Hannah.
She Left Me the Gun
My Mother’s Life Before Me (Penguin Press, 2013)
By Emma Brockes
Via: Library
Genre: Non-fiction/Forensic Memoir
Pages: 295 (Including Afterword and Epilogue)
Probing, painful and pointed, She Left Me the Gun is the true story of one woman’s attempt to understand the life her mother never revealed. It includes family secrets that remained veiled and hidden for decades. The reason why her mother left her native South Africa as a 28 y.o., emigrated to England, and pretty much never looked back. Never really kept in touch with any of her seven siblings.
Secrets
As author Emma Brockes tries to figure out what happened in her mother’s shadowy, secret past and why, Brockes discovers that her grandfather “Jimmy” (her mother’s dad) was a convicted murderer, among other things. Deploying her considerable sleuthing/investigative journalist skills, Brockes also discovers that grandfather Jimmy was not only a murderer, he was also tried on some pretty heinous charge in a law suit brought by his own daughter, Pauline (later Paula). Pauline is the author’s mum. Jimmy was acquitted. Paula left the country shortly thereafter.
“If she had lived, she said, she had to be sure she could meet two conditions: one, that she would never be intimidated again; and two, that she would be happy.”
What Happened?
What happened leading up to Paula’s abrupt departure from South Africa, her life in England afterwards, and how the author unravels a veritable labyrinth of clues about her family past make up the balance of the book.
Looking for Answers
After Paula dies at an early age from cancer, Brockes returns to South Africa looking for answers. Her mother hinted at “dark secrets” in her past. But she never explained. Brockes flies to South Africa to find out more. Whenever she gingerly alludes to “domestic trouble” involving her enigmatic mother while interviewing family members, Brockes finds that the interviewee inevitably shuts down. “I sense a subtle but distinct closing of generational ranks,” writes Brockes.
What are they hiding? Why?
“It’s not that I want to find out what happened so much as to have found out, in the same way, I think that my mother didn’t want to tell me so much as to have already told.” (Emphasis in original.)
Emerges
What emerges is a heart-breaking and disturbing look at a severely dysfunctional family riven by guilt, betrayal, alcohol, violence, and dark secrets. Reflective and introspective, She Left Me the Gun is also a picture of the author’s gritty determination to rise above a murky family history, look fear and shame in the face and refuse to give either any space in her head.
Both haunting and disturbing, this true story sometimes crackles and snaps with emotional electricity. Other parts are as flat and dry as singed toast. There’s also booze by the boatload. Yea, verily. The amount of booze downed by this author and her compatriots could float a battleship.
Style
The writing style rubs shoulders with stuffy and smug at times and shakes hands with patronizing and supercilious at others. Present and past tenses are mixed like a cocktail at Happy Hour, sometimes in the same paragraph. Told in elegiac prose, the narrative is intense and provocative. But it too often wanders off course like a rental car without GPS. Destination Snoozeville. Also, we did not appreciate the gratuitous profanity.
The Afterword is galactically irrelevant, as is the Epilogue. Kimmi: Some hoomans just don’t know when to shut up. Sheesh.
Would we recommend She Left Me the Gun? Not really. Unless you’re kitty-sitting your neighbor’s feline. Or are fresh out of Meow Mix.
Our Rating: 2.0
***
On Mystic Lake (Crown Publishers, 1999)
By Kristin Hannah
Via: Library Book Sale!
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 322
Picked up this puppy at a library book sale the other day. For a quarter. A. Quarter! Yeah. It’s older than dirt. But so is Mom. (She’s just now getting’ around to readin’ this here puppy. So don’t tell her I said that, okay?)
Mixed Bag
Now, Kristin Hannah is one of those authors with which we have a love/hate relationship. Some of her stuff we Totally Love. Other stuff we’re like, Gag me with arugula! On Mystic Lake was a bit of a mixed bag. Here’s why:
The Basics
After totally immersing herself in her dual roles of wife and mother, Annie Colwater suddenly finds her life unravelling. On the same day her only child leaves home for school in England, her husband of 20 years announces he’s in love with another woman. And bails.
Alone in the house that’s no longer a home, Annie realizes she’s been slowly disappearing for years. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, a small Washington town where she grew up. She re-connects with her widower father and hopes that she can reclaim the woman she once was. The woman she’s now desperate to become again.
In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix. Also a recent widower, Nick is unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal. Annie slowly learns she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, … Oh, wait. you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens next.
Pluses
First, Hannah’s writing is top-notch. Almost luminous. A master storyteller, she’s an expert at developing a compelling plot and seeing it through to the very end. We absolutely loved the descriptions of western Washington. Hood Canal and vicinity. Having visited the area many times, we can verify that the descriptions are spot-on. Hannah nails not only the region’s terrain, history, and geography, she also understands the culture. So kudos.
Minuses
The adultery in this book? No thanks. Ditto the gratuitous profanity. Although the story makes a fast break out of the gate and picks up steam toward the end, it slows and sags in the middle. There are a couple unexpected plot twists, but the ending is predictable. So good potential, but under-whelming on the whole.
Our Rating: 3.0
Pages & Paws 