BOOK REVIEW: Frankenstein

My one book group regularly picks a book from the “Should Have Read, But Haven’t” list. Last month we decided to read Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN. And, no, I had never actually read it because after all of the movies, comic books, and Broadway musicals. I felt that I knew what it was all about.

We do know the basic story: Doctor Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with creating life. His creation becomes a revenge seeking monster. It seems like a very simple plot to have captured the public since it was written in 1797.

I have always been fascinated in how it was written. Mary Shelley was raised in a freethinking household. With little formal education - remember this was London in the seventeen hundreds when girls were not considered to be “educatable”- Mary was influenced by her parents, Mary Wollestoneraft and William Godwin and developed a love of reading. She eloped at age sixteen with the poet Percy Shelley.

One night at a house party that included Lord Byron, the men challenged each other to a contest of who could write the best horror story. Mary won the bet for her short tale. She later expanded it to a full length novel and in spite of trouble finding a publisher and poor reviews, her story of Doctor Frankenstein and his monster became very popular and has remained so today.

The book FRANKENSTEIN is written in a frame device style. We first meet Robert Walton on a ship in the far North through letters that he is writing to his sister back in England. His ship rescues a man, Doctor Frankenstein, from a large piece of ice and Frankenstein, like the Ancient Mariner, has a story that he has to tell. Within his tale we hear the Monster tell of his lonely life. It was a convenient tool for the author to use for the jump from character to character.

Most of the movies that I have seen of Frankenstein’s story start with the creation of the creature. The book takes us into the earlier mind of Victor and how he became so obsessed with the ability to create life. I wish somebody would do a movie or play that ends with the creation. The emphasis of the book is more on the obsessions of the characters: Walton’s to explore where no man had gone, Victor’s to create life and the Monster’s to be accepted.

Mary Shelley’s style of writing may be a little dated for young, modern readers, but her characters, her physical descriptions, and her insights into the human condition were remarkable for such a young person. There were passages that I felt went too deeply into the background story of secondary characters and were an additional, not needed narrative.

FRANKENSTEIN is a true “classic” novel. It has stood all of these years as the example of what a horror novel should be. And, of course, if imitation is the ultimate form of flattery, I can not think of too many stories that have had as many take-offs, from Boris Karloff, to Abbott and Costello, to Mel Brooks.

I am glad that I read the novel that started the monster craze, but will pass on any of Mary Shelley’s other books. I needed a dictionary to help with the loquacious wordage and my taste runs to a more succinct style.

BOOK REVIEW: The Little Friends

Confession: I did not finish THE LITTLE FRIEND by Donna Tartt which was a sad surprise to me. Donna Tartt was high on my list of Want to Try Authors; she is popular and the recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer. The notes on the cover of the book made the story sound intriguing. Also, I was hooked by the first chapter. So, I wondered, what went wrong.

We first meet the extended Cleves family while everyone is gathered to celebrate Mother’s Day. The women are busy preparing the meal, four-year-old Allison and her infant sister, Harriet, are sitting on the front porch and the favorite of the family, their brother Robin, is running around the yard and playing with his cat. Moments later, Robin’s body is found hanging from a tree in the back yard.

Twelve years later the family remains devastated. Robin’s mother has withdrawn emotionally, his father has withdrawn to live with his mistress in another city and Allison has become a vague teenager. Only Harriet, now thirteen, seems to be alive. Harriet is bright, fearless, and loves books by Robert Louis Stevenson and Kipling. Much of her play time is spent making the neighborhood boys act out scenes, particularly the more sentimental parts.

Although no one in the family will talk about Robin’s murder, it is still a subject of speculation in town. Harriet becomes determined to solve the murder that she had been too young to remember. In doing so, she opens old wounds and crosses the town’s strict racial and social lines.

I have to admit that the story had me hooked. There were so many questions that I was intrigued by. The problem is that the author took so many detours into characters and situations that seemed to just fill the pages. Admittedly, Tartt is very good at describing scenes and getting into her characters, but she reminded me of the hostess who is an excellent cook, but puts all of her best dishes out for a party. The results can be overwhelming and does not make for a well rounded, balanced meal. (Or like the seamstress who adds one too many ruffles).  I wish the story had moved toward the ending a little more economically.

This does not mean that I will not read another book by Donna Tartt, but I plan to ask a fellow reader who read

Confession: I did not finish The Little Friend by Donna Tartt which was a sad surprise to me. Donna Tartt was high on my list of Want to Try Authors; she is popular and the recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer. The notes on the cover of the book made the story sound intriguing. Also, I was hooked by the first chapter. So, I wondered, what went wrong.

We first meet the extended Cleves family while everyone is gathered to celebrate Mother’s Day. The women are busy preparing the meal, four-year-old Allison and her infant sister, Harriet, are sitting on the front porch and the favorite of the family, their brother Robin, is running around the yard and playing with his cat. Moments later, Robin’s body is found hanging from a tree in the back yard.

Twelve years later the family remains devastated. Robin’s mother has withdrawn emotionally, his father has withdrawn to live with his mistress in another city and Allison has become a vague teenager. Only Harriet, now thirteen, seems to be alive. Harriet is bright, fearless, and loves books by Robert Louis Stevenson and Kipling. Much of her play time is spent making the neighborhood boys act out scenes, particularly the more sentimental parts.

Although no one in the family will talk about Robin’s murder, it is still a subject of speculation in town. Harriet becomes determined to solve the murder that she had been too young to remember. In doing so, she opens old wounds and crosses the town’s strict  racial and social lines.

I have to admit that the story had me hooked. There were so many questions that I was intrigued by. The problem is that the author took so many detours into characters and situations that seemed to just fill the pages. Admittedly, Tartt is very good at describing scenes and getting into her characters, but she reminded me of the hostess who is an excellent cook, but puts all of her best dishes out for a party. The results can be overwhelming and does not make for a well rounded, balanced meal. (Or like the seamstress who adds one too many ruffles).  I wish the story had moved toward the ending a little more economically.

This does not mean that I will not read another book by Donna Tartt, but I plan to ask a fellow reader who read THE LITTLE FRIEND -- and liked it-- how it all worked out. Tartt is a very prolific author so there are many choices for me to try.

P.S. Just came from a discussion of THE LITTLE FRIEND. I am glad that I did not finish. Enough said.

BOOK REVIEW: In Silence

How far should a small town go to maintain its quiet life, a life that believes in good, solid, family values? That is the question that Erica Spindler addresses in her novel IN SILENCE.

Avery Chauvin has left her hometown of Cypress Springs, Louisiana to become an award winning journalist in Washington. Her father’s death finds her back in her family home, devastated and full of questions. The official cause of death has been deemed suicide, but Avery’s father had been a respected, dedicated physician and not someone who would take his own life. Public opinion feels that his grief over his wife’s death was more than he could bear.

As she starts to clean out her parents’ home, she finds a box of newspaper clippings that covered a fifteen-year-old murder. Questioning old friends brings only more questions and she becomes aware of an unusual amount of recent suicides and odd accidents. Then a woman who has come to town hunting her missing brother vanishes and another is found brutally murdered. It seems as if the past and the present are colliding in the perfect little town.

IN SILENCE is my second Erica Spindler book and there were enough similarities to the first one that I thought that I was ahead of the plot. I was and I wasn’t. There were enough secrets in Cypress Springs to surprise me and keep me reading.

There are also some fairly graphic scenes that caused me to wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the grotesque of women authors vs. male authors. Erica Spindler should be included in such a study. Her murders can be exceptionally brutal, but there seems to be a softer touch in the telling of them.

This is an author that I will continue to read.

BOOK REVIEW: The Island

Belonging to a book club that includes two RN’s, a veterinarian, and a retired biology teacher is hard for an English/theatre major. Usually our book choices are of interest to the whole group, but when the rest of the group picked a book on leprosy, I was hesitant, to say the least.

THE ISLAND by Victoria Hislop is a book that I never would have chosen on my own and I am not too sure how I felt about it. The fictional story is told in narrative, third person style so that it reads almost like a documentary. This was not sounding like your basic light summer read.

Alexis grew up in England with a mother and father who loved her. She always knew that her mother’s past held secrets. Her mother’s family had lived in Greece, but that is all that Alexis knew. Before leaving on a trip through the Mediterranean area with her boyfriend, Alexis is given the name of a woman who still lives in the small town of Plaka on the island of Crete. Fotini would be the best person to explain the past.

Plaka’s main reason to exist was to provide supplies to the island of Spinalonga, a leper colony, and Alexis decides to visit the now deserted island before going to meet Fotini. She had no idea how intimately her ancestors had known the island.

Fotini’s story told of four generations of the Petrakis family, going back to Eleni, Alexis’s great grandmother. Eleni was sent to Spinalonga when her daughters, Anna and Maria, were very young.  This was a time when leprosy was very contagious and carried great social stigma.

The story switches from the leper colony to the family left behind.We get to know the people who live on the two islands and the feeling of isolation of both. The emotions of the mother cut off from her children and the young girls who, missing their mother, had to take over caring for the household, made this a very real story.

Although the style of writing seemed impersonal for such a human story, I did feel that I got to know the characters and care about them. Using the frame of having Alexis being told about her ancestors still brought them to life.  

Most of all this is a story of leprosy told through the lives of four generations of women. Although a cure was developed shortly after the Second World War, it exists in parts of the world where fear and misunderstanding keep people from getting early treatment.

THEATER REVIEW: Church Basement Ladies

It is always sad when the Millbrook Playhouse season comes to a close, but CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES was a good closer. (You may want to think Nunsense for Lutherans).

Directed by Marc de la Concha, CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES introduced us to  Vivian, Mavis and Karin, three women who have been the heart of every meal served at the small Lutheran church where the traditional foods are bland and covered with butter. Joined by Karin’s college age daughter, Signe, the ladies take us through a year in the basement kitchen.

Jennifer Amber carried the role of Vivian, the oldest and most traditional of the ladies, convincingly. Jennifer does “disapproving” very well. Mavis was played by Shannon Agnew with great enthusiasm. Shannon was more than capable of the physical comedy required. Meghan McCormick showed us a different side of her talent as Karin, the mother and peacemaker of the trio. After her sophisticated wife in Don’t Dress for Dinner, we were not expecting “niceness”.

I was glad that Kate Keating had a chance to do more than be sweet as the young Signe. Her attempts at teaching the ladies to sing “A New Song” were polite, but her bridal fears gave the actress a chance to show a depth beyond young and sweet. Patrick Bolger as Pastor Gunderson held the group together well, in spite of his new wife trying to introduce the traditional ladies to new fangled dishes like lasagne.

The best part of the evening was the harmony provided by the cast. The music was new to me, but as a long time Lutheran I felt familiar with it. It was as if the Andrew Sisters decided to sing from our old blue hymnal. Each actor had a good voice and had a chance to prove it, but they were at their best in close harmony.

I also loved the little bits of business especially as provided by Shannon Agnew. Her heat flash was just plain funny and I loved the recurring bit of her opening the cellar door.

CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES has been a sell out so the board at Millbrook has been kind enough to add several encore performances. It is a fun evening. There is also a reliable rumor that Miss Abigail with her advice on dating, mating and marriage (and other good stuff) will be returning in September. THAT you do not want to miss. ( I already have my tickets to see it again!). 

Call 570 748 8083 or check their website, www.MillbrookPlayhouse.org for more information. Maybe you will get lucky. This has been the best, most full-of-talent season that I have seen in the fifty years that I have been going to Millbrook Playhouse. And, believe me, there has been a lot of talent grace the boards at Millbrook.