Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

 

There was a good idea hiding in this book, but it somehow missed the page. While I understand where the exciting points should be in this mysterious, slightly gothic novel, the anti-climactic way everything gets presented muted the entire story. I say all this upfront because I'm not sure you should even keep reading this review. This was not a book for me.

Catherine House is almost like an abstract painting. You can kind of feel what's going on, but nothing is drawn in a way that hits you over the head. I typically read mysterious stories to feel a 'wow' at some point. It's a, "wow, I didn't see that coming" or, "wow, I can't believe that actually happened." There were no 'wow's' here. Even the 'a-ha moments, as characters discover certain truths in the story, felt lackadaisical. 

It's even hard for me to summarize this story because so much about it bugs me, or falls short. Of course, I'll do it anyway, to a certain extent, this is a book review after all....

Catherine House is a college you go to for free if you get in. The only caveat is you can't make any contact with the outside world the entire time you're enrolled. You don't leave, there's no television, you're completely isolated. The admissions committee (if there is one) seems to target a certain type of student. They're all lost souls, I think, who aren't leaving behind anyone they have strong ties with, even if that includes their families. Why kids want to go here is never really made clear.

The school is also associated with a controversial area of science known as plasm. This isn't the study of a physical substance, like the name alludes to, but rather a force that somehow connects things and allows energy to be shared. In the past, the science was presented and shunned, so it's odd the school is still pursuing it without any type of review from the outside. Oh, and they're also experimenting on the students.

Then, there's The Tower, the location for near-torture punishment that nobody seems to have a problem with. Even when a student dies while there, we're all "cool" with it.

Everything about this book feels odd and not fully flushed out. The end lacks a much-needed sense of immediacy and sense. Through it all, the school seems to come away unscathed, as much by the outside world as the students who are suffering within its walls. It just doesn't feel entirely plausible. Even the student with the greatest internal conflict can't break fully away. It should feel scary, but it didn't.

It's okay to skip this one in my opinion. It's missing something, or a lot of things, to establish that emotional connection you want to feel when reading a story. At the very least, you want to feel some way about the characters, or the plot. I didn't.

The Female Persuasion: A Novel by Meg Wolitzer

I'm not really sure what this book is about.Initially, the impression was it would be a feminist journey of a shy, slightly withdrawn girl coming into her own while surrounded by inspirational women. It's kind of that, but then also not. The trajectory Greer -- our lead -- starts on really becomes where she ends up. The "major" event that might have sent her on a tangent really just helps her get to where you expect her to be all along. It's strange. She does learn how to speak up and speak out, but it's not cliche in that she's suddenly empowered. Also, I think she would have gotten to where she ended up regardless of what happened in the story.

The book revolves around six characters, three men and three women. The women have a much more dominant role in the book, but the men are present in one way or another. The females have a common thread of purpose, the males are a bit more listless,. Even the most successful man, Emmett, has a significant inability to listen. Cory, Greer's boyfriend, suffers a great family tragedy and withdraws from the world. His own grief becomes the central need he must attend to, leaving Greer out in the cold. The third guy, Darren simply serves as a catalyst to get Greer angry about how men get away with improper behavior. The guys get to tell a little of their stories, but only one is really "good." They're all flawed at varying degrees.

The women include Greer, her friend Zee, and Faith. Zee encourages Greer to think and act like an activist. Faith, much older than the other two, has already created a successful career around speaking out for women. She gives Greer her first job out of college, working for a foundation that puts on events and does special projects to aid those in need. The foundation is funded by Emmett's company. Emmett is in love with Faith. He's doing this to be close to her. Allowing the men to also exhibit the stereotypical gender roles often found in literature is a subtle piece to this book. It's not a full role reversal though. 

I didn't love this book, but the more I think about it, the more I appreciate how the author decided to flaw her characters. It's not a hyper-realized version of men and women, it's not a declaration of one being better than the other. It's the mediocre reality that we all mess up to varying degrees. Sometimes we overcome those mess ups, sometimes we hide them and hope they stay hidden, and sometimes we never acknowledge we did wrong. It's telling who people are by how they handle their flaws, regardless of whether they're a man or woman. I like that the author is willing to admit that sometimes your flaws tarnish all the good you're putting out into the world.

I picked up this book because The Interestings is a favorite of mine. This isn't as good. It's not bad though. Maybe you'd like it.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Book club book #10

I'm not really sure I liked this book. The message felt muddled. The writing isn't that good. I know a memoir is a real story, so there's not a lot of control, but I feel it has to have a preconceived endpoint. Titling this book Educated leads one (or maybe just me) to think the end is headed in a certain direction, but the book never gets there.

Growing up as a sheltered, "home-schooled" child, in an environment I can hardly believe she survived, Tara's introduction to formal education, when she starts college, should be the real place the story starts. The shock of knowledge and the adjustment to the "real" world should stand front and center. It's interesting and different. It's inspiring and amazing that she begins her formal education so late and goes through to earn her Ph.D. Her transition to welcome new knowledge rather than fear it -- that's the heart of the story for me. I love it, but it's barely told; glossed over by her internal struggle to defy and ultimately break from her parents.

Her real education is the rude awakening that her parents can be wrong, and that she's not obligated to blindly acquiesce. Their truth doesn't have to be reality. It's also a strong story, but more common in its essence. Tying her emotional education into her formal learning pushes the schooling into the background and somehow muddles the whole story. At times I felt like she was just transforming lists into paragraphs. I saw these things...I felt these things...I did this stuff...

Tara had to overcome so much mental and physical abuse to finally figure out how to live her life but it wasn't her education that did it. It was her bravery. She decided to leave her home and accept that there were alternative ways to do even the simplest of things. It was a choice to not live in fear, but thrive through curiosity. Her education opened the world to her, but it didn't inspire all this growth based on how the book is written. There's no important point at the end, no strong moment that's allowed to live on its own. Each step forward is accompanied by a long glance backward and it bugged me.

This story will affect people in different ways, and I'm sure my sentiment isn't the popular one since this book has done so well. I personally wouldn't recommend it, but I think it's a good book for conversation, so would suggest you add it to your book club reading list.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

This book was simply a great read. The tone, characters, and story played perfectly with each other.

With a hefty nod to Shakespeare's collected works, The Weird Sisters, introduces us to Rose, Bean, and Cordy, three sisters having crossed over into adulthood with issues. One can't convince herself it's okay to leave the sleepy, little college town they all grew up in as daughters of a professor. One is forced to return home against her will as a consequence of living it up too much. The last sister, more of a wandering soul, isn't sure if she's home for good or just passing through. They're reunited to help their parents cope with their mom's cancer treatment.

By no means is this a perfect family. The author makes no pretense of that, yet the endearing imperfections of each character, interlaced with Shakespearean quotes and a unique narrative touch (the sisters narrate collectively as 'we') propel you along though a story of personal growth and life-defining choices, ending with the three sisters finding their place and their happiness.

I'm hesitant to call this a beach read or chic lit when trying to put this into a genre even though the focus is on female characters. The edges of this story are softer than that, lacking the sarcasm and exaggerated criticism you can typically find within these popular book categories. This story feels honest and simple in an engaging and pleasant way. You're going on a journey of personal discovery with each sister as they just get over it -- the 'it' being different for each sister.

Riding alongside the story of these sisters is Shakespeare. He's an interesting passenger, bringing originality to the, "my family is so weird," statement we've all uttered at some point. The girls are named for Shakespeare heroines, they've memorized just about all of his plays, and they constantly fill conversational voids with direct quotes. Their father is most guilty of this, as the professor whose passion has brought these girls up reading the Bard rather than watching TV. 

I feel like this is a book to be passed on to other readers, that it will leave you feeling content with the time you spent getting to know all the characters in the small town of Barnwell. It's not a page-turner, but a complete story about interesting people. I feel as if you don't see books like this as often anymore, with a more subtle gimmick to differentiate itself. It's a standout read for me and one I highly recommend.