Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

My neighbour Claire offered me this book as a serving suggestion.  Jodi Picoult is a best-selling author of twenty three novels.  And yet I had never read one of her books.  Somehow one of her titles has never been suggested by my fellow readers, nor as a chosen book for one of my book groups.  With a stack of books awaiting my attention I was very tempted to set the book politely aside.  And then I thought I owed Claire to at least investigate.

Amazon says:  

Following a terrible accident, Luke Warren lies comatose in a hospital bed. His family have been told he might never wake up. 

After seven years of estrangement, Edward has come to face his father for what he believes to be one final time before he discontinues his life support. To Edward, this is a painful but necessary decision which his father would have wanted.

However, this one decision throws the Warren family into bitter conflict and it isn't long before long-kept painful secrets are forced into the light.

Number One bestselling author Jodi Picoult casts a sensitive and humane eye on the question of what makes and breaks a family in this compelling, emotional bestseller.

Synopsis

Cara, 17, still holds a grudge against her brother, since his departure led to her parents’ divorce. In the aftermath, she’s lived with her father – an animal conservationist who became famous after living with a wild wolf pack in the Canadian wild. It is impossible for her to reconcile the still, broken man in the hospital bed with her vibrant, dynamic father.

With Luke’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

Further notes:

LONE WOLF looks at the intersection between medical science and moral choices. If we can keep people who have no hope for recovery alive artificially, should they also be allowed to die artificially? Does the potential to save someone else’s life with a donated organ balance the act of hastening another’s death? And finally, when a father’s life hangs in the balance, which sibling should get to decide his fate? 

So what I thought:

Having initially thought that I must attempt to read this book as part of the reciprocity between readers - I'll read your recommendation if you'll read mine! - I enjoyed the narrative as being thought-provoking, topical, in view of a recent case concerning a small child  with an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder who is on ventilatory life support, and excellent material for discussion within the forum of a book group.  I also really enjoyed the chapters giving Luke's voice as he describes his path to understanding and adopting wolf behaviour.  To be recommended to Splinter. 

Breakfast on Pluto

Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe

Breakfast on Pluto, Patrick McCabe's lyrical and haunting new novel, became a #1 bestseller in Ireland, stayed on the bestseller list for months, and was nominated for the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards. With wonderful delicacy and subtle insight and intimation, McCabe creates Mr. Patrick "Pussy" Braden, the enduringly and endearingly hopeful hero(ine) whose gutsy survival and yearning quest for love resonate in and drive the glimmering, agonizing narrative in which the troubles are a distant and immediate echo and refrain. Twenty years ago, her ladyship escaped her hometown of Tyreelin, Ireland, fleeing her foster mother Whiskers (prodigious Guinness-guzzler, human chimney) and her mad household, to begin a new life in London. There, in blousey tops and satin miniskirts, she plies her trade, often risking life and limb amongst the flotsam and jetsam that fill the bars of Piccadilly Circus. But suave businessmen and lonely old women are not the only dangers that threaten Pussy. It is the 1970's and fear haunts the streets of London and Belfast as the critical mass of history builds up, and Pussy is inevitably drawn into a maelstrom of violence and tragedy destined to blow his fragile soul asunder. Brilliant, startling, profound and soaring, Breakfast on Pluto combines light and dark, laughter and pain, with such sensitivity, directness and restraint that the dramatic impact reverberates in our minds and hearts long after the initial impression................ so says Amazon.

This was a fairly rapid read, and cleverly crafted.  It was a set book for me being a Booker Prize Finalist.  The juxtaposition of violence associated with The Troubles in Ireland intercut with the seedy and sometimes humorous sides of Patrick (Pussy) Braden's life in London and Belfast made for a fast moving narrative.  I would not have read this title had it not cropped up on my reading list, and fortuitously found it in the tiny Canadian bookshop in rue Parcheminerie in a Paris Veme.  

When God was a Rabbit

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born.

Young Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe.

Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever.
Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.

What Sarah Winman writes about her own book:

Elly is the kind of girl who grows up too fast. She doesn’t like to play with little girls her age; she prefers the company of Mr. Golan, her elderly neighbour. But her friendship with Mr. Golan takes a dark turn, and only Elly’s brother, Joe, knows her secret. Joe gives Elly a pet rabbit, which she names god, to alleviate the loneliness of her childhood. Elly soon finds another best friend: Jenny Penny, a new girl in town who has a chaotic home life. But Elly and Jenny are soon separated, too --- Elly’s parents decide to open a bed-and-breakfast in Cornwall, and Jenny disappears without a trace. Friendless in her new town, Elly leans on her family for support, especially Joe, who is struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.

Even as an adult, shadows from childhood haunt Elly’s life. She learns that Jenny Penny murdered an abusive husband, and they renew their friendship through letters Jenny writes from jail. Elly finds her calling as a newspaper columnist, writing about the relationships she has lost and found. Joe tries to start a new life in New York, but he disappears in the chaos of 9/11. Elly manages to track Joe down, but he has lost his memory and feels stifled by his sister’s devotion. As Joe’s memory gradually returns, he reveals Elly’s childhood secret: Mr. Golan molested her. Elly’s loved ones can finally help her heal, and she learns to rely on the family and friends who have stood by her during her years of silence.

What did I think:

This book has so much of real life crammed into it: childhood friendships, child molestation, abuse of women, a lawyer's guilt at betraying a victim by his clever defense of the guilty perpetrayor, homosexual love, attachment to pet animals, terminal illness, hostage taking and ransom, life-shattering events on a grander scale, mystic stuff which defies rational explanation, marital contradictions and idiosyncracies.  That is a long list but never did I have the sense that the writer was trying to pack in as much drama as she could.  Because sometimes writers can over egg their pudding and lose the attention and credulity of the reader.  It was a highly plausible narrative of love and loss, I turned the pages feeling absolutely engaged with the characters.  I thought her narrative around the 9/11 event was well done, not over-dramatized and the lost and found story around Joe was well judged.  I thought the events around Arthur and the errant coconut was a nice touch, what was bad had been turned around.  Joe had been lost and found.  Arthur's sight had been lost and found.  And I thought her ending was masterly because really we have no idea where Elly and Jenny Penny will go from there.............  I loved it.

Days without End and Confederates

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

I've just started a Reading Forum using the Slack chatroom programme.  We are five readers, I am the common factor, the others are friends of mine, geographically spread but women who, I think, would find each other interesting to know.  So I sent them an email proposing my idea and waited to see what the response would be.  The response was favourable, our reading group is established.  Here is what I wrote in that first email:

"I am prompted to write because I have just finished Days without End by Sebastian Barry.  His latest novel has been longlisted for the Man Booker (I follow the Man Booker prize).  Some of you may know that I set myself the task of reading the whole sequence of Short-listeds and Winners.  I have read all Barry's other books which follow the history of two Irish families.  All Dunne/McNulty novels have been prize-winners, two were Booker short-listed.

....... A “searing, magnificent” depiction of a gay relationship during the bloody founding of modern America, described by judges as “one of the most wonderful depictions of love in the whole of fiction”, has won the Costa book of the year award.........  Read more here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/31/days-without-end-wins-sebastian-barry-second-costa-book-of-the-year#img-1

Opening para from the Guardian review of Days without End:

Sebastian Barry's commitment to telling the stories of two Irish families, the Dunnes and the McNultys, over several novels and multiple time frames and locations, has led to one of the most compelling, bravura and heart-wrenching fictional projects of recent memory. Its gaps and fissures, its silences, its elaboration of attachment, separation and loss amount to a profound meditation on the nature of national identity, enforced emigration and the dispersal of a people into lands frequently inhospitable and alienating, there to forge a new life.

I leave this 'serving suggestion' there.  So what else have I read recently?"

I 'read' this book thanks to Audible. Sebastian Barry has alluring Irish good looks, and the voice of the narrator, Aidan Kelly, had a wonderful sense of authenticy.  Kelly is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a Dublin/London-based actor with extensive stage, film, television, and radio experience. He has appeared as Tom in the Druid Theatre’s production of The Good Father, directed by Garry Hynes for the Galway Arts Festival. He won the Sunday Tribune Award for his performances in Howie the Rookie and Comedians.

Confederates by Thomas Keneally  Man Booker Prize: shortlisted 1979

Confederates is a novel by the Australian author Thomas Keneally which uses the American Civil War as its main subject matter.

As the Civil War tears America apart, General Stonewall Jackson leads a troop of Confederate soldiers on a long trek towards the battle they believe will be a conclusive victory. Through their hopes, fears and losses, Keneally searingly conveys both the drama and mundane hardship of war, and brings to life one of the most emotive episodes in American history.

Confederates uses the American Civil War as a setting for a more personal conflict between neighbours. In the midst of the war's climactic battle  another conflict is underway. Ephie Bumpass' husband Usaph and Ephie's lover Decatur Cate are thrown together to fight in the Shenandoah Volunteers. Cate's emasculating injury in the battle is a symbolic punishment for his sin.


My comment:  I got half way through this book before I was obliged to set it aside because I had another title to read within a timeframe.