An Invisible Thread, by Laura Schroff

 

In this true story, Laura Schroff befriends a homeless boy, Maurice, and he gradually becomes central to her life. We asked whether we would have had the courage to act as Laura did. We acknowledged that we would have considered the “what if”s and “why”s and “oh no”s of bringing such a boy—and his family— into our lives. Schroff did it with only minimal hesitation and with a wholehearted welcome, and she faced a stunning learning curve she shares with the reader. 

Maurice lives within feet of Laura’s comfortable apartment in midtown Manhattan, but they might as well have been in different countries. Laura even has to teach Maurice how to blow his nose because he has never done it, and she ends up making him school lunches in a plain brown paper bag so he can fit in with the kids at school. 

Laura is honest about how her relationship with Maurice eventually foundered as she tried to build a life with a new husband, and her backstory helps explain why she might have taken the chances she did with Maurice and also defines her need to have a child of her own. 

The writing is a bit weak—Schroff wrote the book with friend and colleague Alex Tresniowski,  which may have reduced some of the immediacy and power of the memoir. It is an easy read, though.

—Pat Prijatel

 

How The Light Gets In, by Louise Penny

The sleepy, scenic village of Three Pines, just hours from Montreal, seems like an unlikely setting for murder and intrigue. But the tiny, secluded village has seen its share of both.

The town square is ringed with older, well kept homes, a theater, and combination library and cozy, welcoming bistro, which is a gathering place for villagers. The book’s unforgettable, main characters are friends and frequent bistro visitors who come in from the cold Canadian winter to enjoy hot coffee, or wine, excellent food and lively discussions around the large stone fireplace.

Ruth is a grumpy, outspoken retired, award-winning poet whose constant companion is a duck. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Montreal Police Department and his wife recently joined the group since moving to Three Pines. Myrna the bookstore owner, mothers quirky but sweet bistro owners Gabriel and Olivier. She is worried about her missing friend, Constance. The elderly Constance carefully guards the secret that she is the last survivor of the famous Ouellette quintriplets, whose birth and early life caused an international media frenzy for years. And no one has ever seen the inside of Constance’s home until the morning she is found murdered and they discover that she has used the walls of her home as canvases for her strange, beautiful paintings.

The Inspector begins discovering connections between Constance’s murder, the unexplained nearby murder of a young woman, and corruption and evil-doing in his own police department. The secrets go deeper and become more intertwined, threatening Inspector Gamache, the police department and the village itself. Penny skillfully twists and turns her plot and her characters, tugging the reader into the lives of the villagers and the intrigue surrounding them.

How the Light Gets In is nine in a series of 10 Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny. All are set in the village of Three Pines.

—by Gail Stilwill

 

 

 

March, by Geraldine Brooks

Anyone who has read Louisa Mae Alcott’s Little Women will likely remember the vague, background figure of the father of the four little women.  For most of that book, he was far from home fighting the Civil War. In this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Geraldine Books brings him to life, calling him only “March,” the family’s last name.

She paints March as a strong believer in the Union cause, but he is too idealistic and totally unprepared for the horrors of the war he is about to become involved in. The story follows March as he leaves behind his family and heads off to join the Union troops as a Chaplin.

But before leaving, and without consulting his wife, Marmee, he gives nearly all of the family’s fortune away to support the losing cause of John Brown, leaving his family to live on the very edge of poverty, barely surviving and only with the reluctant help of the family’s Aunt March.

Behind the lines of the battlefield, March comes face to face with violence, suffering, and the unexpected cruelty and racism of both Northerners and Southerners.  His faith in himself and in his religious and political convictions are mightily tested. But his letters to his family are intentionally evasive and cheerful, never revealing the challenges and discouragement he faces daily.  March becomes attached to a field hospital where he is faced with violence and horrible suffering which he is powerless to prevent.

He re-unites with Grace, a beautiful, well-educated Black nurse who he met years ago while working as a peddler, selling his wares to various Connecticut plantations.  When his sexual indiscretion with Grace becomes known, March is sent to a plantation where recently freed slaves are able to earn money.  But while he struggles with his duties as a Chaplin, he becomes seriously ill from the horrors he has experienced, his guilt and total disillusionment. Marmee is sent for and eventually is able to bring him home from the Washington hospital, a sick, broken man, and an invalid.  His belief in himself is shattered.  He is a changed man.

Then we learn the behind-the-scenes story of Marmee, the strong, outspoken and loving mother who kept her family together during their wartime struggles. She is both enraged and deeply hurt when she learns of March’s indiscretion. His actions have driven a wedge between Marmee and March. Marmee is again left to struggle with keeping her family together and nursing her invalid husband.

— by Gail Stilwill.