"One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants—some of whom have barely spoken to each other—become real neighbors. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editors Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn’t escape when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming, and ultimately surprising narrative, FOURTEEN DAYS reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger." [harpercollins.com]
I loved the opening and premise of this novel. The subtle humour and precarious nature of the early days of Covid, including the new concept of a 'lockdown', the frightening inability to make contact with family members in different places of the world, the news items listing the rising numbers each day, the need for handmade masks, the idea of social distancing, the banging of pots and pans to demonstrate support for the emergency and healthcare responders, is all brought back to life in this collaborative writing project. It's fun since the frame narrative gives us insight to the residents of the apartment block, as well as the stories which they tell in exchange for being welcomed to share the rooftop space of their building. Readers won't know who has written which story but it's interesting to check the authors at the back once you finish!
INCLUDES WRITING FROM:
• Charlie Jane Anders • Margaret Atwood
• Jennine Capó Crucet • Joseph Cassara
• Angie Cruz • Pat Cummings • Sylvia Day
• Emma Donoghue • Dave Eggers
• Diana Gabaldon • Tess Gerritsen
• John Grisham • Maria Hinojosa
• Mira Jacob • Erica Jong • CJ Lyons
• Celeste Ng • Tommy Orange
• Mary Pope Osborne • Douglas Preston
• Alice Randall • Ishmael Reed• Roxana Robinson • Nelly Rosario
• James Shapiro • Hampton Sides
• R.L. Stine • Nafissa Thompson-Spires
• Monique Truong • Scott Turow
• Luis Alberto Urrea • Rachel Vail
• Weike Wang • Caroline Randall Williams
• De’Shawn Charles Winslow • Meg Wolitzer
• Charlie Jane Anders • Margaret Atwood
• Jennine Capó Crucet • Joseph Cassara
• Angie Cruz • Pat Cummings • Sylvia Day
• Emma Donoghue • Dave Eggers
• Diana Gabaldon • Tess Gerritsen
• John Grisham • Maria Hinojosa
• Mira Jacob • Erica Jong • CJ Lyons
• Celeste Ng • Tommy Orange
• Mary Pope Osborne • Douglas Preston
• Alice Randall • Ishmael Reed• Roxana Robinson • Nelly Rosario
• James Shapiro • Hampton Sides
• R.L. Stine • Nafissa Thompson-Spires
• Monique Truong • Scott Turow
• Luis Alberto Urrea • Rachel Vail
• Weike Wang • Caroline Randall Williams
• De’Shawn Charles Winslow • Meg Wolitzer
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Set in a Norwegian town in 1879
A 3-Act Play with all the themes: appearances, marriage, money, power, greed, family choices, reputation, motherhood, the place of women in society, secrecy. I’ve enjoyed re-reading this drama text with interest in re-assessing the actions and behaviour of protagonist Nora. Incredible play. Themes make the debating strong.
However, this is also a nod to Cece Lyra, literary agent (P.S. Literary Agency) and her thoughts on where themes thrive and where they don’t (in your query letters!). Accepting wonderful @cece_lyra_agent ‘s advice about holding back on including your manuscript’s themes into a Query letter to agents, here’s to reading and enjoying the themes at the other end of the publishing process! (Writers, check Cece’s latest post. It’s a great one for advice)
I do love a good theme though and seeking out the thematic connections in published works is one of my favourite things 😅! [Love from Literature teacher in disguise 😜📚]
#adollshouse #themesinliterature #drama #henrikibsen #cecelyra #queryletteradvice
A 3-Act Play with all the themes: appearances, marriage, money, power, greed, family choices, reputation, motherhood, the place of women in society, secrecy. I’ve enjoyed re-reading this drama text with interest in re-assessing the actions and behaviour of protagonist Nora. Incredible play. Themes make the debating strong.
However, this is also a nod to Cece Lyra, literary agent (P.S. Literary Agency) and her thoughts on where themes thrive and where they don’t (in your query letters!). Accepting wonderful @cece_lyra_agent ‘s advice about holding back on including your manuscript’s themes into a Query letter to agents, here’s to reading and enjoying the themes at the other end of the publishing process! (Writers, check Cece’s latest post. It’s a great one for advice)
I do love a good theme though and seeking out the thematic connections in published works is one of my favourite things 😅! [Love from Literature teacher in disguise 😜📚]
#adollshouse #themesinliterature #drama #henrikibsen #cecelyra #queryletteradvice
The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
Whoah! What a read. Love the front cover. Love the title. I am torn as to how to review the novel though and for me, that's what makes this a 5* read. It's emotional, gripping, perhaps a little too graphic in places and packed with themes that I am drawn to: motherhood, grief, medical dilemmas and hospital ethics, marital challenges though also adultery and miscarriages which ought to be noted as trigger warnings for this novel.
As a mother of a ten year old boy (and twins), I found the novel sensitive and a tough, self-reflective read. Xavier is the son who suffers a tragic injury, falling from his window and ending up in a coma with possible brain traumas. Audrain makes it so easy for readers (who are mothers) to identify with introspective thoughts of the characters, the downright evil and nasty as well as the good, which is hard to stomach in places and may make some self-doubt themselves. The women are presented excellently with their internal thoughts of how they are doing in their mother and wife roles, what they think of the other women in their immediate neighbourhood and to what extent they are guilty for the way events play out. There's a lot of comment about responsibility and I've heard another reviewer call it 'suburban sadness' which makes sense to me.
I don't want to give too much away since Audrain's style is so effective because of its suspenseful introspective tension that builds and escalates in the domestic drama. The short chapters, each delivered in sequence from the points of view of the four female protagonists Whitney, Blair, Rebecca and Mara are absorbing. Each one of those females has her own set of flaws and nasty introspective thinking, which we are allowed to witness as the reader. Oh so interesting that none of the male voices are presented but the dialogue is exactly what you need to start to understand the dynamics of each of the four family relationships and the overlap of narratives is exceptional.
The last lines are brilliant. It's not necessarily a happy ending but it's a saddeningly appropriate one packed to the brim with emotion that will knock you backwards. Don't you dare go and only read the ending though, you have to be in with the characters from the start to experience the unfolding of such pinpointed details that tie together the plot and its characters' involvement in the tragedy of a young boy in a coma following a fall from his 3rd floor bedroom window.
I'm off to seek out a copy of The Push!
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
This is a novel of personal reflection, focusing on the unexpected connections you might have with both humans and animals when placed in unfamiliar circumstances. This is set during the Covid-19 pandemic and thus it speaks of lockdown scenarios and all the additional factors of life we needed to consider during this time. For example, an older female narrator tells of a pregnant friend who is stranded in California leaving her pet parrot in her penthouse apartment in New York, needing supervision. The narrator proceeds to go to her apartment and takes care of the bird Eureka. In doing so, she also meets with a male friend who is similarly sheltering in this apartment, away from parents during these difficult times. The companionship and connections that help each of these characters, including the bird, to survive are delivered to the reader in simple 1st person chapters, each offering wonderful intertextual references and commenting on the process of writing itself.
I have found this novel at just the right time and feel that now the pandemic has passed and memories of the time are starting to fade, I can read these experiences with knowledge and understanding but also interest. Sigrid Nunez, an author who I have not come across before now, gives us a pandemic mood and reflective insight into what it was like during those covide years and I have found myself reading this novel as having a function in the future. This is one of those classic novels which will be read years from now as a way of understanding how many ordinary people existed, felt, thought, adapted, developed and survived from 2020 onwards for some years.
Of course, the novel title is an interesting one too, since 'to be vulnerable' was a term coined and used often during the Covid years and in this case refers to the unnamed narrator and her group of friends who in the the opening chapters lament about how they will be labelled as 'the vulnerables' due to their age.
I did enjoy this literary novel and will seek out more of Sigrid Nunez's writing.
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
