The Lightning Bottles

 

The Lightning Bottles / Marisa Stapley 
TO: Simon & Schuster Canada, c2024.
294 p.

This has a little bit of mystery/suspense to it but it's really more about relationships, fame, trust and music. It's a Canadian novel but takes place mainly in the US and Germany - and a bit of the rest of Europe as well. 

Jane Pyre grows up stifled in small town Ontario. She wants to be a musician, a star, and finds a 'soulmate' on an online forum. Elijah Hart lives in Seattle and is there at the beginnings of the grunge movement. When Jane finally decides to leave home (still a teenager), she makes her way to Elijah. His bandmates see her as a bit of a Yoko Ono, but she and Elijah are magic together -- their songs (well, Jane's songs, really) shoot them into the stratosphere. But despite their soul connection, Jane can't keep fame from affecting Elijah in all the worst ways. He starts using, he's unreliable, and eventually he disappears. The fan base turns on Jane, blaming her, of course. 

Much later, Jane retreats to a tiny remote town in Germany. But next door lives Hen, a teenager and superfan of the Lightning Bottles, who recognizes Jane. Hen is convinced that Elijah has been leaving coded messages for Jane through street art across Europe, and somehow convinces Jane to check it out with her. And then the two of them go on a road trip across Germany, France and Iceland to find Elijah, if it is indeed him leaving obscure signs. 

This is a really entertaining read. There are some dark themes, and some sadness and exhaustion that permeates the pages, but it kept me reading. The look at 90s music, the cost of fame, misogyny in the music world, the world of street art, and the drive toward musical life especially in Jane -- it's all intriguing and slots together really smoothly. With this tough, hard world, I would have loved to see Jane more powerful and less forgiving overall. But it's a perfect rock n roll story if you're in the mood for something both nostalgic and edgy. There is a lot to think about, including the ending, and it made for a satisfying read. 

Endling by Maria Reva

 

Endling / Maria Reva
Toronto, ON : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, c2025.
338 p.

From old to new - I have moved on from reading older novels to picking a recent release. This one was on my list as soon as I heard about it, though - it's by Maria Reva, whose first book I enjoyed, and it's set in contemporary Ukraine. All reasons to read it. And now of course it is on the Booker Longlist - for once I've read a book on an awards list! 

The story starts out with Yeva, a single woman and scientist devoted to her mobile lab in which she chases down snail endlings - the last of their species - in an effort to find a mate and stave off extinction. When she finds that she really needs money, when a grant is refused, she crosses paths with sisters Nastia and Solomiya, who work with a 'Romance Tours' group bringing Western men to meet Ukrainian women. 

The plot thickens as Nastia comes up with a plan to kidnap some of these men, to draw attention to this industry (and really to get the attention of their activist mother, who had abandoned them). She sees Yeva's mobile lab as an opportunity. 

This story rolls along, until the author interrupts it. The full-scale Russian invasion began as Reva was writing this, and in her uncertainty about how to proceed with fiction in the light of reality, she begins including these thoughts and worries into a metafictional insert in this book. I found it clever, meaningful in light of events, and relatable. But I'm still not sure if I really liked it or not, as part of the novel. 

In any case, she does continue the novel, but the direction has shifted. Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya's plan to kidnap some Western bachelors goes awry as they have to drive through the night in unexpected directions and ways, as they face the night of February 24, 2022. And Yeva makes the fateful decision to drive into the warzone to rescue the one potential remaining snail that she's been looking for.  

This was a fantastic read, edgy, timely, with an unusual focus and narrative. I loved the scientific bits, and Yeva's world-weary voice. She has seen the stereotypes of Ukrainians through the eyes of her scientific compatriots in the west, and is over it. Nastia and Solomiya have seen the fetishization of Ukrainian women from another angle, and they are also over it. This brings in so many questions of identity, belonging, what home means, what decisions you might make under a crisis situation, what is worth living for, and so much more. 

This is worth reading for many reasons, but I feel it really does capture this moment in the world in a way I haven't seen often in contemporary American fiction. It really made me think. 

The Silence of Trees

The Silence of Trees / Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Chicago: Wolfsword Press, c2010.
334 p.

Another story of Ukrainians in America for today's post. This one is from 2010, and it is about the Ukrainian American experience, even though the older characters recall their WWII and post war experiences throughout, and the effects on them are still clear. 

But their children, born in America, and their grandchildren, now completely American, do not have the same connections to their Ukrainian past or the longstanding distrust of Germans and Russians that their grandparents do.

However, this story is centred around Nadya Lysenko, 70 and living in Chicago, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. And around her secrets, many dark ones that she has kept from her family, and even husband, for decades. 

At 16, Nadya snuck out of her house to visit a fortuneteller in the woods; when she returned home, her family was dead, and home destroyed, by soldiers. Overwhelmed with survivor guilt, she flees, and eventually ends up in a DP camp in Germany. These traumatic experiences are revisited throughout the book, along with her time at the DP camp, where she also met her husband. 

The story investigates family, history -- both personal and wartime history -- and the power of folklore and myth in retaining a culture as well. The narrative weaves between present-day Chicago and Nadya's past in Ukraine and Germany, and shows how the wounds she suffered leave her with strong reactions to present day events, like when her granddaughter brings a boyfriend to dinner, who is of German descent. This causes a family furor. 

This is a meditative and reflective story, though, looking at how the events in a life shape a person, how not all of these events can be chosen or avoided. And it looks at the presence of the past in the current day, a preoccupation that I am always drawn in by in my reading. I thought this book was a fascinating combination of the past - war, tradition, myth, superstition, family, and a woman's examination of her own life. And beautifully written. Really loved it. 

Voices of Freedom

 

Voices of Freedom: Contemporary Writing from Ukraine
ed. by Kateryna Kazimirova & Daryna Anastasieva
Winston-Salem, NC: 8th & Atlas Publishing, c2022.
314 p.

This is another collection of varied writing from Ukraine, published 6 months after the invasion of the country, raising money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. It was a joint effort between 8th & Atlas Publishing and Ukraine based Craft Magazine, and highlights some of the best Ukrainian writing of the past 50 years.

It contains excerpts from 27 writers, with a slight majority of male writers represented. The pieces are essays, poems, and short stories, and as the publisher puts it, "this collection demonstrates that the desire for freedom and the struggle to achieve it is a theme that cuts across generations of Ukrainian writers, and is a central preoccupation of Ukrainian society."

I think that the collection meets this goal quite effectively. No matter whether a writer is talking about an earlier Revolution or conflict, or directly referencing the current war, the words are illuminating, powerful, and full of current meaning. I appreciated that there was a small bio of each writer prior to their work, giving some info on them and context as to their place in Ukrainian literature. There was also info given on each translator, which was another nice element, as these translators are doing a huge job sharing work into other languages - there are many names I've seen elsewhere with other newly translated work. 

There is a wide range of voices here, showing off different styles, topics and literary schools. It's a great way to become more familiar not only with new young writers but some of the older ones who've been writing throughout past years of Soviet rule and the struggles of a newly independent country. It includes some of my favourites, like Oksana Zabuzhko and Lyuba Yakimchuk, as well as some names I hadn't read before. 

Another fabulous collection to look out for if you are interested in expanding your knowledge of the writers working in Ukraine now. Their many perspectives on the past and present will also expand your understanding of the reasons behind and effects of the current war.

You can get a taste of the book by watching the book trailer, which includes 4 of the poems from the book, on YouTube: 

Marigold and Rose

 

Marigold and Rose / Louise Gluck 
New York : Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023, ©2022
55p.

This slim tale by poet Louise Gluck is a charming read. Marigold and Rose are twins, infant girls who don't yet have language but have rich inner lives. It is interested in words, language, time, identity -- sweet and yet thoughtful, it’s also melancholic in parts.

It's a quick read, short and plainly written. But there is so much in it, you can linger on lines and think about the deeper meaning in an apparently simple statement. Marigold is the quieter, more thoughtful twin, who wishes she could be appealing and worldly, like Rose. Meanwhile Rose thinks that she is all surface appeal and wishes she could have more of an inner life like Marigold.

Of course this is all a conceit; infants aren't pondering the philosophical depths of an alphabet book they can't actually read yet. But it's a lovely one, which highlights ideas of meaning and memory. Louise Gluck has said something like, "We observe life as children, all the rest is memory" and this is an examination of the looking part of existence. These infants, barely into the world, observe the incomprehensible and worry about aging, dying, loss, identity, meaning, even words themselves as a way to capture the world.

This is a delicate read, somewhere between prose and poetry - no plot really, more reflections and thoughts from an interior life. Is it a short story or a novella? Not quite certain, but it is a worthwhile read from a poet who has been reflecting on these issues her whole career.

A Dress of Violet Taffeta

A Dress of Violet Taffeta / Tessa Arlen
NY: Berkley, c2022.
335 p.

This novel is based on the life of Lady Duff Gordon, otherwise known as British fashion designer Lucille. I've always been interested in this figure, the sister of sensational writer Elinor Glyn, as they have a Canadian connection. Their mother was Canadian, and they both spent some childhood years living in Guelph with their maternal grandparents after their father died. When their mother remarried, they returned to England. 

In any case, this book focuses on Lucy at the moment that her first marriage is breaking down. Her husband James Wallace was a drunk and a philanderer, and he walked out on her and their daughter Esme. She, somewhat scandalously at the time, filed for divorce. But to support herself and her daughter, she started designing and selling dresses from their flat. 

This took off and she kept growing, with her finger on the pulse of fashion -- less restrictive clothing, less corsetry, lower necklines, and skimpy & silky underclothes. She was a hit. The book focuses quite a bit on the business side of things, describing the dresses and clients well. There is also an assistant who is important in the book, who is an amalgamation of two real people in Lucy's life. The character is interesting, so I was disappointed to learn she was a mashup of sorts. 

Lucy also meets a Scottish lord, Cosmo Duff Gordon, who she eventually marries. They end up travelling on the Titanic, and both survived, though they were accused of bribery afterward as the way they survived. They were completely cleared of the accusations in an inquiry, but Cosmo never got over the character assassination during the trial, and they separated a few years later, he retiring back to Scotland and Lucy spending much time in New York where she'd launched a shop. 

The book was mostly interesting, though it did drag on a bit. I enjoyed the descriptions of the fashions and the sewing, as well as the actual running of a business by a woman at this time. The problem with the book is one I often have with these kinds of stories: the reliance on real people as fictional characters. I don't mind real people showing up as side characters, or having a walk-through role. But when they are the main characters and their motives and personal thoughts are created by a fiction writer, it makes me uncomfortable. Where does truth end? It's not always clear what the author is basing their interpretation of a character on. And I found that in this book, the author tries very hard to create a great love affair between Lucy and Cosmo that I just don't think is based in real life. She focuses heavily on romance, perhaps because this book falls into that kind of genre. But I feel like Lucy would have been a much more self-focused, pragmatic person, as shown by the couple's eventual separation as well. 

In any case, I enjoyed the dressmaking parts, found the writing adequate, and was a little unsettled by the heavy use of real people as main characters. Despite the fact that Lady Duff Gordon had an eventful life, full of moments perfect for a novelist, I am not sure that in the end I wouldn't have just preferred a good biography. 

(this review first appeared at Following the Thread)

The Thread Collectors

 

The Thread Collectors / Shaunna J. Edwards & Alyson Richman
NY: Graydon House, c2022.
400 p.

This recent novel is co-written by two friends, aiming to give a different perspective on the American Civil War. It's set in 1863, and moves between chapters told from the viewpoints of our two main characters, Lily (a New York Jewish wife) and Stella (a Creole woman in New Orleans who is the mistress of a white man but in love with a black man). 

The dual perspectives add to this book. It looks at the Civil War from a woman's point of view, as well as those of the Jewish and Black communities; it examines love, family ties - or fractures, history, music, racism, and the title hints at how sewing and thread make their way through the story in meaningful ways. 

I can't summarize the plot, there's too much in it. However, the basic outline is that Stella's William has run away to join a regiment accepting black soldiers. To help him, she stitches a map from threads she's pulled from household items. These maps become much in demand and she finds herself surreptitiously making many for local families. All this while dealing with her family legacy of being claimed by a white man as a kind of mistress at the right age, as a way of staying alive. 

Lily, on the other hand, has her eyes opened to wider realities once her husband Jacob joins up and is sent south. She gets involved in war work to support him, which includes a lot of sewing and bandage making. She eventually travels south herself to find him when his letters stop. 

William and Jacob are both musicians and coincidentally end up in companion units, where Jacob befriends him -- unusual at this time. Their experiences and developing relationship make up a lot of the book, which we see from their eyes, not from a distance. This does mean that there are some horrific events included, so be aware. But they are all based in real events or stories, and it's important to remember that. 

The tone of the chapters varies slightly depending on who's telling it, but the book overall is well edited and the narrative is smoothly told. It's a bit long in some ways - some of the backstory could have been tightened up, for me anyhow. And there were some parts that felt a little coincidental, but were needed to keep the story going. These few small caveats were the only issues I had with an otherwise very unusual and compelling read about this time in history. I thought the characters were fascinating and complex. I was especially drawn in by Stella and her sister, finding their story rich and full of life. I enjoyed how Stella upcycled and used the fibres around her to work toward freedom for many, and how this process strengthened her sense of self. 

Definitely a great read for anyone who is interested in widening their view of American history, or loves a story of strong women swept up in big events. The sewing content is another plus for me!

(first published in slightly different form at FollowingTheThread)

Enchanted April, at 100 years

 

The Enchanted April / Elizabeth von Arnim
NY: NYRB, 2007, c1922
247 p.

The beginning of 2023 has been speeding by, but I finally have a chance to sit down and talk about the book that I finished out 2022 with! I wanted to reread The Enchanted April in 2022, and it was the hundred-year anniversary of its publication - and I just squeezed it in. 

I've mentioned my fondness for this book before, but have never given it a proper review. Rereading it, this time a bit older, brought out new elements for me, and I also realized the clever use of wordplay and characterization in the book that gets a little lost in the movie -- even if that movie is one of my favourite book-to-film adaptations ever. 

In any case, if you don't know Elizabeth von Arnim's work, this is probably her most famous novel, alongside her somewhat fictionalized memoir Elizabeth and her German Garden. It's also one of her sunniest stories, with a heartwarming conclusion and lots of beauty and joy involved, even if some things aren't always happy in the characters' lives. Von Arnim has a sharp eye for unhappiness and the small moments of interpersonal clashes, and that all shows here. Each character has a depth to their misery, hidden under their socially acceptable shells. But the somewhat strange situation the four women who are our main characters find themselves in - sharing a castle in Italy for the month, even though initially strangers - breaks down the social constraints between these women of different classes. There's Lottie Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot, both middle class women fed up with being subservient wives and ladies, and Lady Caroline Dester, a young aristocratic beauty sick of being pawed by men, and then there is Mrs. Fisher, an 'old' woman of 65 who lives in the past and her memories of Great Men. 

Italy itself and all its warmth and beauty, softens their hearts and makes the prickly people and situations of rainy England melt away. Lottie, the heart of the book and of the quartet, expands with joy and love, and quickly writes to invite her husband to join them even though he was what she was trying to get away from. This throws the other women into a bit of upset, with each feeling their own reasons for not wanting a husband there. 

But all is well, with humour and friendships and understandings all blossoming, until there is a perfect happy ending. In the movie, this ending leaves the viewer happy, peaceful and believing in miracles. The book, while also ending happily, also leaves you with a sense that perhaps this Italian idyll is made just for San Salvatore and will not travel with the holidayers as they leave. But one can hope...

In any case, this is one of my favourite and most reread Von Arnim books, and if you haven't really explored her before, I would recommend this one for sure. There are others that I also love, and only a couple that I don't, and I hope that you'll also develop a fondness for this clever and acerbic writer too. 

Souvenirs From Kyiv

 

Souvenirs from Kyiv / Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger

Now something different; this is a set of six linked stories set in Ukraine during WWII, written by an American with Ukrainian family ties. It's quite similar to many historical novels written about this period in tone and description, but it differs in its setting (this isn't a Paris WWII novel) and in its exploration of the little known political realities of Ukraine as it was being overrun by Nazis and Soviets alike.

The stories stand alone, but also connect. The first one centres around Larissa, a famed embroiderer with a shop in occupied Ukraine. A German officer comes in and wants her to make him a special shirt, embroidered with all her famous folk embroidery. This request, for a traditional shirt while the Germans are destroying Ukraine, is another example of the way folk culture is made into a quaint souvenir rather than respected in its own right. Larissa can not refuse, but she sews her resistance into the motifs. And her statements have consequences. I thought this story was very well done, and I related closely to Larissa and her decisions. I really liked this story.

Another focuses on Mykhailo, a Ukrainian who is a German solider on leave, travelling through Ukraine on Christmas Eve, hoping to get to his family. He doesn't, but he does end up being taken in by another family, and their words (along with all the things he sees from the train) change his views and also the actions he will take in future. This is a powerful story, and one to read as war rages in Ukraine at this Christmas season, to remind us of how our personal decisions can help change things. 

We also meet Marusia and her family who scatter to safety when Nazis come looking for her partisan brother. And there's Lida, a young girl forced to labour in a munitions factory in Germany. And a few more memorable characters, too. Many of these stories are based around interviews that the author did with her own family members -- she's a first generation American, with Ukrainian parents and family.

All these stories together create a wide view of some of the past events in Ukraine which people who don't already have a natural interest in the region might find very illuminating. The author really focuses on the personal and emotional costs of war, for individuals, families and the wider nation. I think it's a solid addition to the wide range of WWII stories out there, exposing a region which got the worst of both sides but is often neglected in discussions of this era. Ukraine's perspective in this war isn't often shared, so I think this is an important contribution to this genre. 

Daughter

 

Daughter / Tamara Duda
trans. from the Ukrainian by Daisy Gibbons
Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2022, c2019
350 p.

This is a stunning read; it's the story of a woman from Donbas as the Russian invasion of 2014 begins, following the Maidan protests. She's a stained glass artist with a workshop, but as the Russian occupation begins she becomes a supporter of the Ukrainian defence forces, along with the men in her workshop. These artists start organizing logistics and getting clothing, food and supplies to the Ukrainian troops in the area. This requires much care; fake names online, braving their way through checkpoints, facing violence and potential for death with every mission. 

The story is based on the true experiences of a variety of people, and there is an afterword with those people telling their story in their own words. But the story is a fictional account of this era, and it's told in bare and straightforward prose, but is immensely compelling. It starts with 'normal' life, our main character working at a successful arts business and beginning to participate in the Maidan protests at the local square. She still thinks that these are normal days, but when she sees a protest become violent, with people killed right beside her, she realizes that life is changing. 

And at this point she must make her choice; many people in the city are waiting for the Russians to arrive to calm things down (ha!) but she decides that "ours" for her are Ukrainians. Luckily, her staff agrees, and they all work together in new ways as they begin to support the Ukrainians. Things are intense for a few months, and then as conditions get worse - her apartment is shelled, there is a lack of food, water, utilities in one part of town, but not another - there comes the realization that this isn't a short term effort, that it's going to drag on. This was published originally in 2019, by which time the conflict had been ongoing for five years; this year the story takes on even more resonance. 

It's a tough read in parts; Duda doesn't hide the realities of war - rapes, bombings, the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in the summer of 2014 (particularly gruesome), torture, oppression. It can be difficult to read, but the grit and spirit of resistance is there. The ending is sad but realistic, and I think as we look back a few years from today's perspective, current events seem inevitable. 

The book is designed well, also. Each section/chapter has a black and white photo of the region on the first page, overlaid with the same kind of stained glass grid as the cover. It really does give it a documentary feel. 

I feel that this is a must read for everyone in the current situation. It's a powerful inside look at the daily reality of war and resistance. And it may give you some more context to understand the ongoing conflict. Highly recommended.