The Ramblers. Aidan Donnelley Rowley

The Ramblers
Aidan Donnelley Rowley
Published: William Morrow/Harper Collins
Date: 9th February 2016
Format:e-ARC
Pages: 400
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss and Little Bird Publicity.
Rating:
                



I began reading this book with a little trepidation. Would I like it? There is always a little anxiety for me when I begin reading an author that is new to me, and a book that I did not necessarily seek out.

However as I settled into this novel, spaced over little more than a week around Thanksgiving, I knew it was going to work for me. It is set in New York, and while I am not familiar with the city, never having been there, it was an interesting exploration of the city itself.  Lots of landmarks and interesting little snippets of facts about them.

It is the story of three main characters and their families. We are first introduced to Clio, a gifted ornithologist, but a rather brittle, fragile woman. She is prone to anxiety attacks and she has this gnawing feeling that she will not be able to commit to a relationship like marriage. She is with Henry a wonderful man somewhat older than her, and he seems right for her.  However Clio has never shared with him what really is at the very heart of her. And we need to go back to childhood for that.

Smith is a good friend of Clios, she is wealthy, lives near parents, outwardly an organiser of others lives. Inside her being she is a mess. She was about to marry a man she loved when he backed out and she has been severely affected by it. Her sister Sally is about to marry and while she loves her sister and has a very good relationship with her, it hurts her to see Sally so happy and herself so lost.

Tate is a young man who was at college at the same time as Clio and Smith and has made a fortune in an app he and another friend designed. He too is stalled in life, his wife has been unfaithful to him and divorce proceedings are about to be wrapped up. He loves to photograph New York city and perhaps that is the way his life will journey on. He and Smith seem to hit it off on meeting up again and their is promise in it.

I enjoyed the strong friendships, the difficulties in parent/child relationships, the exploration of illness and its effects on all involved. I loved how the story was told and changed to each of the three characters in turn. I loved learning little facts about birds I never knew, for example the humble pigeon. And while I have never had the pleasure of seeing a humming bird, I feel they must be one of the best birds going.

The Expatriates. Janice Y. K. Lee

The Expatriates
Janice Y. K. Lee
Published: Little Brown
Date: 12th January 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Thank you to Hachette NZ
Rating:
                                                                             

Set in present-day Hong Kong, The Expatriates follows the lives of three women. An unspeakable tragedy leaves twenty-something Mercy with a crippling personal inertia, and Margaret, a mother of three, numb and unable to heal. In the same small expatriate community, Hilary tries to distract herself from a marriage gone stale by providing piano lessons for a local orphan, only to find her actions openly criticized on an anonymous online forum.

In The Expatriates, Janice Y. K. Lee takes us to the world of the American expats community in Hong Kong. In this community while surrounded by a buzzing city they gather together in their pampered world - being served by servers and generally taken care of. They make their home away from home, they stick together, living in a fish bowl of sorts, where everyones lives are fodder for gossip.

The story follows that of three women, who eventually become linked in a variety of ways. When we meet Mercy she is living in a small apartment, making a meal of lettuce leaves. She has no job and seems to be aimless and irresponsible. We eventually learn she has been involved in an incident that has put her life on hold and filled with guilt. She has no job and just gets work when she can, at odds with the top education that she has had. She seems to be a kind of self made victim.

Margaret is first and foremost a mother. She is a landscape architect but no longer really works. She is planning her husband Clarke's 50th birthday, or that would be Priscilla the party planner doing that! Margaret seems incapable of making any decisions. She seems only to find any solace in a small room she has, where she flees to escape a hugely significant moment in her life that has totally rocked her world.

Hillary is childless and thirty eight years of age. She longs for a child, yet seems unable to have one. Her marriage seems to have lost any significance and she and David have drifted apart. She is very rich in her own right, and so money is not an issue. She dreams about adopting a young boy in a home who is about seven years - Julian. 

This is a slow paced, detail rich story. It is filled with the ordinary details of daily life. Yet the mundane everydayness hides and contrasts with the deeper tragedies, loss, longings and aspirations of these three women. You cannot help but become involved with them as their lives intertwine in unusual ways.

By the time the story closes each woman has been on a journey and is ready to start a new phase in her life. How they get there, how they end up being in a room together at the close - to find out you will need to read the book! I think it finished appropriately, although as a reader you know this is where the book pauses in their story, but it is not the finish for them. They must journey on into where life will take them next.

A Year of Marvellous Ways. Sarah Winman

A Year of Marvellous Ways
Sarah Winman
Published: Tinder Press
Date: 23rd June 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312
Genre: Fiction
Source: Thanks to Hachette NZ

Cornwall, 1947. Marvellous Ways is eighty-nine years old and has lived alone in a remote Cornish creek for nearly all her life. Lately she's taken to spending her days sitting by the river with a telescope. She's waiting for something - she's not sure what, but she'll know it when she sees it.

Drake is a young soldier left reeling by the Second World War.  When his promise to fulfil a dying man's last wish sees him wash up on Marvellous' creek, broken in body and spirit, the old woman comes to his aid.

A Year of Marvellous Ways is the story of Marvellous - her life and loves and Drake who arrives at her caravan by the sea in Cornwall, England.  It is an unusual book and it took me awhile to acclimatise to it.  I am used to speeding through a book! It takes a little while to get into the rhythm of reading it, I found it has to be read slowly - no skipping or I just might miss something. 

The language is poetical, sometimes evocative of the beauty of nature and at others of the stark ordinary workings of the human body. Here and there is a play on words - sometimes I chuckled and reread as I enjoyed the little surprises tucked away in various corners. Even the title of the book surprises! Before I had read the synopsis of this book I had no idea Marvellous Ways was the name of a person. 

Marvellous is old, wise, and knows how to be herself and not bend to others rumours and opinions or actions.  She is a healer, a caring person and a kind of doctor of the soul and spirit   She has had three loves in her life, all important with the last being the longest.  She doesn't worry what the neighbours think and sometimes her actions were shocking although I think that was part of being herself rather than setting out to be shocking. I liked her very much.

Drake a soldier scarred by war and what he has witnessed of the hard realities of men's despicable actions,  has loved and lost, and when he arrives on Marvellous' doorstep is very broken.  He never knew his father and lost his mother early in life.  As time goes by he heals with good companionship, story telling and decent helpings of sloe gin.  

There is horror and heartbreak, life and death, love and loss, war and peace, the healing of sharing and telling your story, the importance of the sea and nature, and the importance of being needed in this novel.  Marvellous is coming to the end of her life, Drake must learn to go on and be at peace. The ordinary mingles with the magical, often in dreams and sometimes in the daily living.

The novel speaks of integration for both Marvellous and Drake as they share with each other their lives and are heard. They are a blessing and gift for each other, and while the final surprise was no surprise it was still satisfying.

I love the cover of this book, the teal blue is perfect, the orange firefly look, I believe ties in with the orange starfish often mentioned in the novel and it has a beautiful feel. Makes having a paper book in your hand a sensory experience. Covers matter!