Truth

After the hospital, Charlotte recuperates at her daughter and son-in-law’s house.  On the day Rose brings her mother home, she takes a day off work, thus forcing her elderly employer to ask a niece to accompany him to give a lecture.  The niece, Marion, must therefore let her lover know that she will be unavailable. His wife stumbles upon her message and throws him out. Charlotte, bored while recuperating, misses the adult literacy class she teaches and offers to tutor a handsome student, an Eastern European immigrant, at her daughter’s home.

Charlotte is a reader and her musings on the place of reading in her life give depth to her character. “Charlotte knows herself to ride upon…knowledge, some of which she can summon up, much of which is half lost, but in there somewhere, and has had an effect on who she is and how she thinks.  She is as much a product of what she has read as of the way she has lived.”

Lively allows the ripple effect of the first event to grow into a sneaker wave while she develops the stories of seven characters. All of a sudden I realized I was caught up and had come to care about these very charming likeable people.

A bonus is the book cover where the letters of the title fall down, echoing the opening scene of the book.  Clever.

Stella remembers the faraway places she worked, the people with different cultural expectations, the two men she loved, the women who were her good friends. With memories of the past, Lively tells the story of Stella’s life, plus seamlessly educates us on what the discipline means.

There is a lot of teaching, but Stella lives in the present, and slowly, a story in the current time develops.  There are new friendships and neighbors, a sense of unease creeps in, there is tension and a finale.

Lively’s work, unlike her name, is leisurely and thoughtful.  Between these two books, How It All Began is the more captivating choice.

The book, a la The DaVinci Code, is a lovely romp through Europe, ending in cultural Verona with its ancient churches, beautiful old paintings, even Juliet’s balcony.  Anya, a student of medieval artifacts who has just successfully translated an obscure folio, has been hired to catalog priceless manuscripts for a new library. Her fiancé, a computer specialist, moves with her to Scotland where they will work at a small renown institute. But mysterious things happen and soon the couple is on the hunt for one more precious relic, a manuscript called The Book of Wonders.

This is a hybrid cozy mystery/thriller.  The amateur sleuths and lush descriptions of the natural surroundings and small-town academic atmosphere say “cozy.”  The (too) many cold-blooded murders and the embedded power say “thriller.”  The women are as lethal as their male counterparts. The book raises that question about means justifying the end. How much manipulation and violence are okay to achieve a worthwhile goal?

The first main character is a successful financier, a mathematician with an intuitive gift for the stock market, with capital to invest. The second is his wife. The financier is a powerful man, self-assured, and certain in his decisions.  His wife is… sweet? unhappy? mentally ill? or something else entirely?  The four versions are different presentations of the characters and of their lives together.  One is a short novel, another an unfinished autobiography, the third, a memoir, and finally a diary.  The stories don’t feel repetitive.

There are times when the structure of the book, echoing its topic, is tricky to unravel.  It is also one of those novels that must be read to the very end to jell. Which story we choose to believe is the truth or who we can trust to tell us the truth is the provocative subject of this unconventional book.

On this 250^th birthday of our nation, Geroge (who cannot tell a lie) and I wish you a Happy Fourth of July.