The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

 

This is a solid story that felt very much like a puzzle slowly coming together. I loved the interconnectivity of the characters and the way one small gesture brought them all together.

Julian used to live a life of excess and eccentricity. As an artist, he had a life in the spotlight, but now, in his 80's, he's lonely and forgotten. To break back into the world, he creates The Authenticity Project. He writes his truth in a notebook and leaves it behind in his neighborhood coffee shop, encouraging the next person who finds the notebook to add their own story and pass it on.

The concept works, drawing in a cast of characters who somehow become engaged in each others' lives. There's Monica, the uptight cafe owner. Hazard, the adict. Riley, the traveler. Alice, the frazzled new mom. Lizzie, the nosy, but caring nanny. And, finally, the notebook comes to Mary, who surprises everyone and brings the story full circle. There's no rationale, really, for why a group of strangers suddenly want to be there for each other after reading a few pages in a notebook, but they do, and it works. 

By the end of the book, almost everyone has found their potential, what was honestly missing for them when they initially discovered the notebook. It's not necessarily closure on what was pressing on them, but a sense of hope that wasn't there before.

It's hard to say which character is at the heart of the story, and I was surprised at how Pooley was able to take such a large cast and not make anyone feel more important than another. They all seem to have equal impact on the movement of the narrative, and I found that different and very well done. This is a nicely packaged story that moves quickly, and proves to be a satisfying read. Although some of the 'surprises' are a little predictable, I didn't finish things up feeling like I was reading a cliche. 

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

2013 Reread #10

Well even though I technically didn't finish rereading this in 2013, I started it last year, so am counting it as my final reread in my 2013 project. I did save the tougher classic for last knowing it wasn't going to move quickly.

I read this book initially for a class in college and was so affected by it that I obtained a first edition copy from a dusty, old bookshop in London. I've read a lot of Hardy since as well, but this one is still my favorite. It was so ahead of its time and so critical of just about everything that my satirical college brain loved it. I don't think the book moved me as much this time around although I do still feel its greatness in the ideals of the time it goes against and the social standards the book explores.

Hardy dared to posit that radical conventions (for the time) in love and life could lead to happiness of only the world would stop being so judgmental. He calls out everybody and uses this book to show the preconceived notions of society that hold people back really drive them to sorrow. Almost all of the characters here end sadly - broken down - through the corruption of their radical thoughts by the modern mundane. They give up on being different and so suffer. Jude, our lead, wants to learn and go to college but can't because society says he's too poor. So, he turns his attention (eventually) from lofty ideas of education to living a more conventional life where he's tricked into marriage and left shortly thereafter by his wife. He finds real love in Sue, an unconventional girl in her own right, who shrugs off the expected bonds of marriage and a the woman's place to unite in happiness with Jude. But, their happiness in life together is frequently overshadowed by the fact that they never marry and the scorn of the people around them wears them down to a point of despair that only brings on great tragedy.

In the end they both give up trying to live differently than status quo suggests. They're both miserable in their minds and hearts while living "right" by society. Jude dies alone in a most depressing scene. Is that the "normal" he should have spent his whole life working toward? If he and Sue had been strong enough to fight the societal norms he would have died loved, happy and cared for and it's a huge commentary by Hardy on life in the 1890's to set the scene in the way he does. It hit such a chord and public response to this book was so severe it drove Hardy to permanently stop writing fiction for the rest of his career.

Reading classics for fun is hard and I know a lot of people don't do it often, but the perk of reading a classic is already knowing the impact the literature had. Reading books like this is important because of the window into history they give us, because it's comforting to know there were always radical thinkers out there brave enough to tell a story that stirred the pot, and because it helps put life today into perspective to see the things that caused an uproar in daily life in the past and how we've possibly overcome those obstacles in modern times.

Possession by A.S. Byatt

You can definitely tell this book was written by an academic. The level of extreme detail is fitting of an author determined to prove her argument (even though she's not really arguing anything here.) Her thoroughness also gives her away. The whole story is fully explained, no unanswered questions are left for the reader to interpret.

Possession is both a mystery and a love story. It's about taboo relationships reaching higher levels of intensity than traditional ones. There are two main sets of lovers: Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte, two poets from the 19th century and Roland and Maud, two modern academics studying the two poets respectively. When Roland comes across some unsent letters linking Ash to LaMotte he seeks out Maud to uncover the history of the poets' connection. The connection is so important because it could possibly change all existing interpretation of not only the poets' lives but their poetry as well. Roland and Maud begin their search pretty casually, but the subject matter is so significant to the scholars it would affect that other academics begin sniffing along the trail. The mystery here is at the center of the world for these characters even though, comparatively, it's not big mystery. Each character involved in the quest for answers brings an additional nugget of information into the story that helps solve things in the end.

The story is primarily told with a modern-day, third person narrator shedding light on the characters and the story. The characters themselves are all lost in such a way that allows this type of narrator to really shed light on every one's inner thoughts and feelings. It adds depth to the story. In addition to the present in the story, letters, poems, journal entries, and flashbacks are all used to reveal bit and pieces of the plot. Even with all these genres, the story never feels jumpy. I will admit that some parts were harder to get through than others because of the style (I wasn't a huge fan of the poetry,) but I finished the book satisfied with the story itself and how it unfolded.

It's hard to say whether or not I'd recommend this book. It's really for a very specific audience if you ask me, the kind of person who still loves classical literature and the suspense of the taboo from the 19th century. It's definitely not a summer, beach read.

The Dream by Harry Bernstein

This follow-up memoir to The Invisible Wall chronicles the author's life as he moves from England to America with his family. It focuses on the idealized version of America many immigrants had post-World War I and how devastatingly quickly that dream was dashed during The Great Depression.

I like a memoir to have something of the unusual about it and The Dream was severely lacking in this department. Bernstein lives a life full of struggles common (unfortunately) to immigrant families in the 20's and 30's. Money is tight, jobs are impossible to find, dad is an alcoholic...it all read pretty predictably when you compare this one story to history. I even felt like events were foreshadowed in a style more akin to fiction - the set-up was all too perfect at times - that I never expected to see in a memoir.

Bernstein also relates stories in an overly-detailed manner. I felt like I was reading a diary at times of his day-to-day life. It was actually pretty boring.

To sum up the story, Bernstein, amidst all the trials of immigrating to the US post WWI finds love and lives an overall happy life. His siblings all struggle in different ways, but overcome too. The only sad character in the end is Bernstein's Mom, who suffers beyond the scope of The Great Depression, wanting only happiness and comfort for her children and dying before everything smooths out.

I would not recommend this book. I think you can find a more readable account of life during this time period if that's what you're looking for. I would suggest picking up The Invisible Wall though. It's an interesting story with enough unique elements to really make it an engaging memoir.