The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

Synopsis

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office-leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist-an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand-and fear-the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.

~~~~~

Review

It's a little while now since I read this book, but like several other books I've read this year but not yet written about here, I did want to share some reflections on it, so even if this isn't a very long post, I still wanted to try and put some thoughts together, so here we are. 

I really enjoyed reading The Miniaturist. I found it a quite magical, wonderful read, I felt immersed in the world created in the novel and the characters were vividly drawn and memorable. It took me away from my troubles, transported me away overseas to Amsterdam and back in time to the seventeenth century, and I really enjoyed every sitting that I spent reading it, and experiencing the storytelling. This story captured my imagination, and I thought it was a really impressive work for a first novel. 

I loved the historical detail, the atmosphere, the locations, the society and people so vividly evoked, they came to life for me and I was there with them as I read, walking beside Nella, anxious about her husband Johannes, uncertain about his sister Marin, or looking out for the Miniaturist.

The story unfolded beautifully and had me wondering and guessing as I read on, needing to know what was being hidden, where danger lay, and who would be safe. 

And I must give a mention to that special cover design, it is so beautiful, incredibly appealing and a great complement to the story itself. This book is one to treasure and it is a novel I could see myself re-reading one day, I'm sure there are fresh details and nuances that I would notice on a second reading.

Jellybird - Lezanne Clannachan

'It's facing your own secrets that takes the greatest courage.'


We meet Jessica Byrne as she has returned to the coastal caravan park owned by her mother, Birdie. Why has she left her life in London, her lovely husband Jacques, and her growing career and returned here? What has happened? Then we are taken back to earlier in the same year, to a first meeting Jessica has with a woman named Libby, who is interested in buying some of the unique jewellery that Jessica designs and makes. Their acquaintance becomes a friendship which Jessica is glad of, it feels like something she didn't have when she was younger. But Jacques seems uncertain about Libby, and Jessica doesn't understand his reaction, he normally likes everyone. Yet she does see that Libby has a domineering personality, and it seems like she becomes controlling of Jessica at times. Libby admits 'I can be tricky and difficult.'....'She bends and shapes words like balloon animals, Jessica thinks.' Then Jessica notices Jacques and Libby in close conversation together and becomes suspicious.

The narrative then takes us further back in time to when Jessica was a lonely teenager, her parents marriage falling apart, her father leaving the family, her mother distracted. Jessica meets Thomas one day, another lonely, ghostly soul, with a cruel father, and they find companionship with each other. Through the novel we move back and forth as more of the past is revealed, and events move on in the present. It's seventeen years since Jessica has seen Thomas, he disappeared, in a desperate state, and she doesn't know where he is, if indeed he is alive - he was feared drowned at the time. Jessica evidently has deep-rooted issues unresolved from these times, as demonstrated by her self-harming. Revisiting these events, and the vivid memories from her childhood, also brings back thoughts of the unsolved brutal murder that lies hidden there. 

There is plenty of uncertainty and suspense within this tense psychological debut novel,  there were moments and revelations which caused me to think twice, to rethink what I thought I knew, and an ending that I had not predicted. I was absorbed in the story and I enjoyed the twists and turns, though sometimes I think I might have liked an ever so slightly quicker pace to parts of the story. The portrayal of growing up and of teenage insecurity and searching for identity, and of struggling to get through those difficult years whilst also dealing with family break-ups and disfunction is strong and really convincing; I was impressed by this aspect of the narrative in particular. The author writes well about so many different relationships; close female friends, partners, parents and children, teenagers. I liked how the story moved from the present to the past and back, building the tension. There's a dark tone and an air of menace to some aspects of the story which makes it an unsettling and intriguing read that depicts both lighter and darker sides of life. Jellybird is an intriguing, engaging and suspenseful debut from a talented new writer. It'll be interesting to see what Lezanne Clannachan does next.

Thank you to the author for kindly sending me a copy of her novel for an honest review.

Author links - twitter @LezanneClan | website |

Published by Orion

Other blog reviews - Girl Vs Bookshelf | Reading Matters | Liz Loves Books | Random Things |

The Engagements - J. Courtney Sullivan

I'm very pleased to be part of the blog tour for The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan, published by Virago. Below are my thoughts on the novel, as well as a Q & A with the author. 

My thoughts

The Engagements is a captivating, delightful novel that invites us into the lives of various characters and spans the years from the 1940s to the present day. In it, the author looks at the significance and history of the diamond engagement ring as a recognised token of love, devotion and commitment, at different attitudes to marriage, at different women and men and the choices they make, and the emotions which connect us all. The underlying or main thread if you like, is the story of Mary Frances Gerety, an independent unmarried female copywriter at a time (1947) when this was exceptional, and a wonder in the advertising world - working for the dominant advertising agency, she was tasked with convincing everyone that every woman who was to be married needed a diamond ring, and she brought us the famous words A Diamond is Forever. 

'The diamond would last even if the love did not. Even though youth would not.'

I found it fascinating to discover more about her through the author's portrait of her, to learn about her personal life and work. Though much of her life's work was devoted to something idealised as the height of romance and commitment, her own personal life was somewhat of a contrast to this; 'she found her job far more exciting than any man she had met...' Frances has to contend with the expectations of her day, when women married and ran the home; other women observed that 'It's not natural for a woman of a certain age to want to work in a stuffy office with men all day...'  so her career and her being single went against this, and others viewed her with suspicion, yet she seemed content. I loved her confidence, her drive, talent and self-belief. Many moments stood out as I read, especially a comment she makes with regard to trying to join the all-male golf club. She watches as other women, even those who had worked, were more or less forced to stop once married. And later in her life, she sees how women are changing and taking chances that were never there for her.

The novel then introduces us to the other strands; there is Evelyn in 1972, James in 1987, Delphine in 2003 and Kate in 2012. Evelyn has been happily married for many years but is concerned about her son's behaviour in his marriage, James is a man devoted to his wife and trying to do the right thing but beset by financial problems, Delphine had a steady marriage but has left France for America with her lover, and Kate who 'was distrustful of marriage' and is happy to live with Dan. Each relationship is different, whether a marriage, an affair, one partner richer or poorer, yet there are emotions, and difficulties, joys and sadness in common for them all.

The narrative is skillfully structured, building together a little from each of the different stories, stories that take us back and forth in time, that illustrate the choices people make in life and love, about passion, loyalty, independence, commitment. There are five stories, and five parts to the novel, and each part takes us back to each story once. The years covered by novel allow the author to illustrate the changes in marriage, in attitudes, from traditional to modern values, from divorce being almost impossible to becoming an everyday occurrence.

My copy, with so many bits I loved tagged.

I adored this novel and I absolutely didn't want it to end. I was swept up in each of the different story strands and I couldn't wait to return to each of them. I took a photo of the paperback copy I read because it just shows how many sentences or events or elements of the prose really struck me or resonated, and which I tagged to refer back to; there were so many in this book. I felt that each of the stories was strong and absorbing; they were each strong tales in their own right and brought together they made for a brilliant read. I wondered if I would be able to keep each of the stories and all the characters in my head as I read, because of the way the narrative shifted, but I found this worked well and each tale, and the primary characters within it, were distinctive and memorable.

I think readers will react differently to the stories depending on their experience and opinions; this would be a great book for discussion. It would also be a wonderful book to take on holiday and get lost in. I escaped into this story and was absorbed; I didn't want to be interrupted or distracted from this book, it was the type of read for me that it both an escape and reminded me of the great enjoyment that comes from a book that you really 'click' with, and it was also an intelligent, thought-provoking read.

I really looked forward to picking it up again every time, and I found that the characters and their lives were in my thoughts even when I wasn't reading it. I found them all interesting and fully formed, and there were things I was drawn to in each of them - Frances' drive in her work, Evelyn's love of her grandchildren and her love of books, plus her feelings about her ring, very similar to how I feel about jewelery and my ring; 'She had never been much of a jewelry person, but her ring was the exception. She loved it.'

Then, James' devotion to his family, Delphine's experience of living in another country, though I think I identified with Kate most of all, and some of the thoughts and beliefs she holds are things that I often think about so it was great to see them represented here through this character. 

The author picks up on several significant moments in the background as she narrates her characters' lives; we hear about precious belongings stolen in WWII, about Vietnam, September 11th, a recession, Iraq; this novel is sweeping in scope but always ultimately focused on the intricacies and beautiful observations about the characters themselves, their thoughts and behaviour. I liked the different locations, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Paris, they added depth to the lives being played out. There are other themes and ideas too; the beauty and joy of music, the influence of modern technology on a marriage, the struggle for equality for all who want to be with, and make a commitment to, their beloved partner whatever their sexuality.

I'm always a bit nervous about longer novels, will it be worth the investment of time as a reader? Plus, sometimes, the synopsis of a novel doesn't always totally hook you, and with this one I wasn't totally sure if it would be for me, so I was ever so pleasantly surprised when I found I genuinely loved the story; this was certainly worth my time. I realise I sound very enthusiastic but that's because I enjoyed it so much, a standout read for me and a book I'll be keeping on my shelves for years to come. In the novel, J. Courtney Sullivan writes that, when Frances was studying, 'like everybody else, she was planning to write the Great American Novel.' Well, this is certainly a very good one.

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Q & A with the author, J. Courtney Sullivan

1.       Can you tell us a little bit about the character of Mary Frances Gerety?

When I started writing The Engagements, it was a story about four marriages. I felt there was a character missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on who he or she might be. I first saw Gerety’s name in a nonfiction book about the diamond industry called The Heartless Stone. The author, Tom Zoellner, included just a paragraph or two about her. He said she wrote the line “A Diamond Is Forever” in 1947 and that she herself never married. I knew right away that I had to write about her. I actually wrote “Put her in the book!!!!” in the margins.

Gerety was a pioneer, working in the male-dominated advertising world starting in the late nineteen-thirties. She wrote every De Beers ad until she retired in 1970. I was drawn to the contradictory nature of her story—utterly unromantic in her personal life, she was responsible for creating our modern attachment to the diamond engagement ring.

I wanted to be as true to who she was as I possibly could. She passed away in 1999, and other than Zoellner’s brief reference, there was nothing written about her. But I was able to interview several of her former co-workers, neighbors and friends. I visited her house, read her correspondence (and confidential company memos that she left in the garage!) I made a photo album of her pictures, which includes a four-page spread of her Great Dane, Blazer. I grew tremendously fond of Frances. She was a sharp, bold, tough woman with a great sense of humor, who often defied convention. I wrote the book with her photograph hanging over my desk. Now that I’m on to other projects, I still haven’t taken it down.

2.       Do you write every day?      

I don’t. When I’m working on fiction (as opposed to an essay or a book review) I need long stretches of time to write—usually somewhere between five and seven hours. It takes me so long to get into the world of my characters, that once I’m there I like to stay a while. Not every day allows for writing fiction. I assuage my guilt over this by reminding myself that so much of a novelist’s job happens off the page—when I’m in the thick of working on a book, even if I don’t write, I’m constantly thinking about the characters and what they are going to do next.

        

3.       Who are your favourite authors?

I love Dickens, Austen, and Thackeray. My favourite contemporary novel is A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. My all-time favourite is Bleak House.

I adore the work of novelists like Maile Meloy, Ethan Canin, Kate Atkinson, Sigrid Nunez, Meg Wolitzer, and Jhumpa Lahiri. (I could go on and on.) Writers who closely examine the complexities of family, marriage and friendship.

4.       How long did it take you to write and research The Engagements?

It took just under two years.

The Engagements is my third novel, but it’s the first that isn’t rooted in a world that I know well. I wanted to get it right, so I did extensive research for every character and I had a tremendous amount of fun doing it. If there were no such thing as deadlines, I’d still be researching this book.

Frances Gerety’s co-workers provided insight into the business of advertising in general and N.W. Ayer (the agency where they worked) in particular. The Cambridge, Massachusetts paramedics took me on ambulance ride-alongs and answered hundreds of questions. I was lucky enough to convince the violin virtuoso Anne Akiko Meyers to let me interview her multiple times, and I wrote P.J. (the virtuoso in the book) with her music playing in the background. To get the character of Delphine right, I interviewed women who had moved from Paris to New York, and I traveled to Paris, where I spent time walking the steps that Delphine would walk every day. I picked a location for her shop on a quiet street in Montmartre, and for her home on a little private road just around the corner.

Because the characters don’t intersect until late in the book, I wrote each story almost like a standalone novella, and only cut them together at the end. This allowed me to really get into the heads of all the characters, though each is very different from the next.

5.       Are you writing another novel and when can we expect it?

I’ve just started writing a new one. Not sure yet when it will be out!

~~~~~

A thank you from me as I found these answers fascinating, and even more so when I re-read them after finishing the novel. 

~~~~~

About the author

J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Commencement, Maine andThe Engagements. Maine was named a Best Book of the Year by Time magazine, and a Washington Post Notable Book for 2011. The Engagements was one of People Magazine’s Top Ten Books of 2013 and an Irish Times Best Book of the Year. It is soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon and distributed by Fox 2000, and it will be translated into 17 languages. Courtney’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, and the New York Observer, among many others. She is a co-editor, with Courtney Martin, of the essay anthology Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Find the author on twitter @jcourtsull and visit her website here

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Other blog reviews: The Writes of Women | A Bookish Affair |

Like to visit the other stops on the blog tour? They are listed below.

The Undertaking - Audrey Magee

In the midst of World War II, Peter Faber and Katherina Spinell embark on an usual marriage – they haven’t even met. Peter takes this step to get ‘honeymoon’ leave from the Eastern front, and he travels to Berlin and meets his wife and her family for the first time. For Katherina, it offers a war pension should he die. Before the war a schoolteacher in Darmstadt, now he is fighting in Russia, for his homeland Germany. Despite the unconventional manner of their union, the pair do find they like and indeed come to love one another, making it difficult for them both when Peter has to return to Russia.

The narration moves between Peter’s horrendous time in Russia as his division moves towards Stalingrad, and Katherina’s life in Berlin, where she enjoys a relatively comfortable existence for a time – this is thanks to her father’s close acquaintance with the powerful Nazi Dr. Weinart, who he almost slavishly complies with, even to the point of not defending his own war-damaged son Johannes in front of him. When the war starts to go against Germany, though, both of them find themselves still apart, and in dire circumstances.

The author writes with brutal honesty of the appalling conditions the soldiers endure, and conveys the different views amongst them about what they are actually fighting for, so that as a reader we can conceivably sympathise with Peter despite the outrage we feel at the regime he was fighting to protect. Audrey Magee also convincingly portrays the turbulent change in fortunes for Katherina and her family.

Throughout the novel, much of the narrative is written as dialogue; I quickly got used to this style and thought it worked very well here; the author lets the characters’ thoughts and decisions speak for themselves, directly, rendering their emotions and experiences vividly to the reader.

The Undertaking is a stark, intelligent and powerful debut novel that confronts harsh realities and depicts two ordinary people complicit in terrible actions.  I was impressed by it and I’d love to read more by this author. There is plenty here for reading groups to debate and get their teeth into – morality, greed, war, damage, and love.

Published by Atlantic Books - 6th February 2014

Originally reviewed for Newbooks magazine

The Silent Wife - A.S.A Harrison

'..it becomes chillingly clear that nothing is remotely as it was.'

Todd Gilbert and Jodi Brett live together in Chicago, and they have been a couple for over twenty years. Jodi is a therapist working part-time from home and Todd is an entrepreneur who has established a successful property business. They enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, but beneath the surface of their relationship, serious cracks are starting to appear, and when Jodi discovers what Todd has been up to most recently, the equilibrium is about to be unsettled forever. I won't go into the plotline further as it is best discovered as you read.

I found The Silent Wife a dark, fascinating and well-observed character study, intelligent, insightful and absorbing, and a book that held my interest and which I wanted to return to. The psychology of it all was very clever and interesting to observe, coupled with the insights from Jodi being a psychologist herself. From early on in the novel, there is a creeping sense of dread, a feeling that things are slowly going to unravel and come apart and ultimately be destructive, and I was compelled to read on, observing the complex lives and behaviour of this pair, the deception and then the desperation. I felt sadness at times thinking about this couple. Though they are not necessarily very likeable creations, in fact they are deeply flawed, neither wholly good nor bad, for me that made them all the more fascinating both individually and when viewed together; it was compelling reading getting inside their heads.

The author had a keen grasp of what makes her characters tick, of motivations, desire, greed, need, stability and routine. She dissects relationships really well, for example that of Todd and his father, or Jodi and her siblings. She also describes the minutiae of life beautifully, such as the everyday routine that keeps Jodi's life running. For me, this is not so much a fast paced, page-turning thriller (though it is certainly thrilling at times), it is more of a measured psychological journey through the breakdown of a relationship, slowly exposing the strengths and weaknesses of two people who know each other inside out and yet in some ways who don't know each other at all. 

I'd seen many reviews of this novel prior to reading it, in fact I wish I'd perhaps not read so many beforehand, as some were very favourable about it and others weren't very keen at all. Nevertheless I tried to go into it with an open mind and for me it was a cleverly crafted and perceptive tale of human desires, insecurities and jealousies from a talented writer. I'm sad to read that she has since passed away. 

Published by Headline

Nearest Thing to Crazy - Elizabeth Forbes

‘Are you sure you’re not imagining all of this?’

I won't reveal too much about the actual storyline to this novel, because it would ruin things; I’m glad I didn’t know too much about it before I read it and I’d advise you don’t read too many reviews or features about it until you’ve read the book in case any of them tip you off a bit. I’ve tried not to disclose anything that would spoil it. For now, think about this: have you ever had a conversation with someone and then they've later denied saying things to you that you distinctly remember them having said? Do you begin to question your own memory, your own sanity? Imagine this, writ large, and you have the crux of this chilling tale.

The author pays homage to Rebecca in the manner in which the main character's name is not revealed at first. A newcomer, Ellie, arrives to rent a place in a small close-knit countryside village. She's a novelist who hopes to work on her book there and also makes an effort befriend the locals. Dan and his wife Cass are part of that circle, and they, along with their affluent friends, all welcome Ellie. However, Cass soon comes to see a different side to Ellie, finding unsettling things out about her and feeling Ellie is excluding her from things in subtle ways, and Cass can't understand why no one else sees it or indeed believes what Cass tells them. When the doubting extends to her husband Dan and their daughter Laura, Cass's world begins to crumble around her and she is caused to question her own sanity. 

A nightmarish situation develops for the central character, Cass. She begins to feel alienated from her friends and family, everyone she thought she could rely on and trust. It was frightening to think that this could happen, but the way Elizabeth Forbes tells it, I believed that it could.

'I stood for a moment, feeling alone and isolated, and yet here I was amongst my closest friends. Everyone was chatting, laughing, relaxing, having a happy time together without a care in the world, and then there was me. It was all so subtle, almost subliminal.' 

Is it really happening to her as she thinks it is, or is it all imagined, in her head? It's cleverly written, and made me question what was true, who could be trusted? Through Cass, the author captures the terrifying struggle to retain your sanity when all around you there ostensibly seems to be proof that you are seriously losing your grip on it. 

‘It was a nasty, creepy feeling of something dark and insidious gathering around me, and because it had no face or name I didn’t know how I was going to fight it.’

This tale was really well done, very cleverly told, I thought. Cass is the main narrator; written in her first person voice almost throughout, we are thrown into her mind and into the unsettling experiences and torment she goes through. From time to time, though, there is an interruption to Cass's narrative, and a passage in italics, when the voice of Ellie takes over, and this device leads us to question who we can trust and believe, what is the reality, how has it become distorted? I liked the additional complexity of Cass's difficult relationship with her mother too. 

Sometimes books of this ilk don’t work out as well as I hope they will, or are initially compelling but then fizzle out a little; but for me this one absolutely did hold up to it’s promise and was utterly gripping, with a great build up of the suspense and tension and some nice twists in the tale.

The cover is appropriately unsettling; a hand seemingly losing grip despite the tension and strain to hold on that is visible, and the image being jagged and distorted.

This was a complete and utter page-turner of the best kind. A riveting, chilling, tense, psychological tale that grabbed hold of me and begged to not be put down until I had finished.

Published by Cutting Edge Press

Thank you to the author and the publisher for sending a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review. 

Find the author on twitter @lizzieforbes and more about the book on facebook here.