White Houses by Amy Bloom & Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees

Sometimes, entirely by coincidence, there are two novels about the same topic published at the same time. This spring we have two fascinating novels about Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. The two women met in 1928, and remained friends for the rest of their lives. The most intimate of those years were just before and during the two presidential terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 -1945, and are those documented in White Houses by Amy Bloom and Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees.

During this time Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok wrote to each other frequently. After both women died in the 1960s the most explicit letters were destroyed, but the rest of their private correspondence was opened in 1998. This extensive archive of letters indicates that the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok was most certainly a passionately intimate one for many years.

Both Amy Bloom and Kelly O’Connor McNees re-imagine the relationship, writing about both the personal relationship, and the years in which it was at it’s most intense.

White Houses by Amy Bloom was released a few weeks earlier than Undiscovered Country so I read it first. The novel begins on a Friday afternoon, April 27, 1945 and ends on Monday morning, April 30, 1945, with a brief glimpse of Sunday, November 11, 1962, a few days after the death of Eleanor Roosevelt.

We begin just days before the end of the Second World War, but then quickly move to a time some years earlier. We meet Lorena Hickok, a journalist reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign in 1932. Lorena soon accepts a position with the Roosevelts, moving into the White House, and quickly becomes fast friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. They travel together, Lorena working as an investigative reporter with the Federal Emergency Relief, and Eleanor Roosevelt getting a look of the lives of Americans most affected by the Great Depression. They appear to be simply “middle-aged women who liked each other: sisters, cousins, best friends”.

Reading Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees a few weeks later, I found it a much more engaging and intimate portrait of the two women and their relationship. I immediately liked them both better than I had in the earlier novel. They are more fun when they are having fun, and more desperate when they are not. Franklin Roosevelt is also made more human, with his good looks and charisma evident. I had not been aware that Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt had what is now known as an “open marriage”, both having intimate relationships with many other partners who often lived with them in the White House.

Kelly O’Connor McNees has managed to breath life into her characters, in a way that I felt Amy Bloom was not. The story is the same, but better somehow. There is more passion, there is more adventure, and there are additional fictional characters who give the reader a sense of the true desperation of the Great Depression. The small towns with empty storefronts were as sad then as they are today in the many towns affected by closed mines and factories.

These two women came from completely different backgrounds, but felt an immediate attraction, enjoying each other’s intelligence and determination. Eleanor grew up in wealth, with a private school education, while Lorena fought to pull herself out of poverty. Their friendship, unequal as it was in many ways, provided them both with much happiness. They appear to have loved each other for the rest of their lives, though they often spent many years apart, often with other partners.

Both books tell the story of a same sex love affair between two women at a time when this was considered scandalous. Of course, they were not the only women – and men – who were having relationships outside of marriage, and not the only ones with same sex partners. But, if discovered the relationship would have destroyed careers and reputations. 

White Houses by Amy Bloom and Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees give readers two different versions of the same story, making for an interesting exploration of the lives of two women and the time in which they lived. Historical fiction at its best.

The Light-Keepers Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol

Jean E. Pendziwol is one of my favourite authors of Canadian Children’s picture books. She has written the text for, most notably, Me and You and the Red Canoe, and Once Upon a Northern Night.

I have eyed her novel The Light-Keeper’s Daughters for some time, and chose it for a long plane trip earlier this month. With a three-hour delay before a five-hour flight I had a lot of uninterrupted time to enjoy this book.

Set on the shores of Lake Superior, the story moves back and forth from the past century into the present time. Anyone who has driven through Northern Ontario and around the top of Lake Superior will recognize the majestic and spectacularly beautiful landscape. The light-keeper is Andrew Livingston, a Scottish immigrant; his wife Lil was born in Canada, her father Scottish, her mother Ojibwe.   Daughters Elizabeth and Emily, twins, were born in the 1920s on Porphyry Island; and with two older boys the family was complete. They lived on the island all year round, the children learning how to help their parents with the light and foghorn, their father teaching them to read and write. Eventually the boys left for schooling but the girls remained at home. It was a severe climate but their lives were full of the wonders of the natural world and they were not unhappy.

This part of the story is revealed through the journals of the light-keeper, and by the memories of Elizabeth, now an elderly woman. Elizabeth has lived out of Canada for most of her adult life, but she has recently returned to Lake Superior and moved into a retirement home. Elizabeth is now blind, and when her father’s journals are discovered and put into her hands, she is unable to read them.

It is Morgan who reads them to her. Morgan is a teenager girl, recently caught painting graffiti on the fence at the retirement home, and now, as punishment, she is scraping and repainting the fence. Morgan is a teenager struggling to find her place in the world, edging into trouble, and currently living in foster care. She is angry and confused and, as it turns out, she is much more in need of Elizabeth’s attention than she could have imagined. This unlikely pair builds a relationship that begins with need and ends with true affection.

The passages from the light-keepers journals about daily life on the island paint a picture of a time long past. There are beautiful days picking wildflowers, herbs and edible wild plants, as well as the harvest of the gardens. There is fishing and trapping and hunting. There are also ships in distress, and some who founder.

As Elizabeth remembers her childhood she realizes that she knows things that have been hidden deep in her memory, and were not understood by the child she once was. There was a great deceit in this family that affected all of the children, and the generations to come. The complicated story and the truth of the past is slowly revealed as both Elizabeth and Morgan make discoveries, along with the reader of this satisfying novel.

Published just last year, The Light-Keepers Daughters has become a book club favourite, and has been published in many languages and read around the world.

Sofie & Cecilia by Katherine Ashenburg

Sofie & Cecilia is a first novel by Katherine Ashenburg, an academic and an accomplished journalist and author, who has now turned to fiction to tell the story of a female friendship that takes place over half a century, from the late 1800s until the mid 1930s. Although the characters are “loosely based” upon the lives of two Swedish artists, it would make absolutely no difference to the power of the story if they were not. And, in fact, it is the women, the two wives of the artists who are at the centre of the novel and make it such a compelling story.

We meet the two women in1882 and 1887. Sofie marries Nils Olsson, and immediately falls into a life of child bearing and support of a husband who assumes her assistance as his due. Though Sofie was herself a talented artist, who had studied painting, it is given up – as is expected - when she marries. She takes up spinning and weaving and needlework as a vehicle for her need to be creative, to use her sense of colour to make beautiful things. It is Nils work that is important.

Cecilia is from a well to do Jewish family, and waits some time to marry Lars Vogt. In agreement with the wishes of her family, it is not until Lars has established himself that the marriage takes place.

The two women meet through their husbands work, and begin a friendship that will span half a century. They soon discover that they are both readers of literary fiction, and readers of this novel will delight in the exchanges of letters, and the conversations between the women as they discuss their feelings about the books they are reading – from Dickens, to Mary Shelly, to Virginia Woolf.

Then, there are descriptions of the astounding beauty of the landscape, and summers spent in the Archipelago – a landscape so very similar to Georgian Bay. There are long summer days with picnics, and evenings of conversation. Both couples are interested in local folk-art and the primitive objects of daily life that are fast disappearing in a modern world. With the foresight to collect the old costumes, household objects, and clothing they amass what will become a museum collection.

This is a novel that explores questions of fidelity, loyalty, sacrifice, and respect. These are narcissistic men who have little respect for marriage vows. The women know their support makes it possible for their husbands to concentrate on their careers, but they also struggle with the lack of acknowledgment of their sacrifice. Though Sofie does consider leaving her marriage, she thinks, “but such a dense web of strings bind us together. I do not see how I could cut it.” Her loyalty is both admirable and sad.

Toward the end of the novel Cecilia says to Sofie, “I always thought that when I was old, I would have worked everything out, and I would have no worries”.  Some time later, Sofie muses, “small things worry me less. What people think doesn’t concern me much any more”. The conversations of older women are sometimes astonishing, as we examine who we are now that we have aged in every way.

Sofie & Cecilia is certainly a book women my age, well past what we used to call middle-age, will find not only a pleasure to read, but also thought provoking. Its themes perhaps echo what many of us think about now that we are very definitely well into the second half of life.

I feel very safe in predicting that Sofie & Cecilia will be on all the book club lists this year. It is a book that will be read by women, passed between friends, and lead to conversations about our own lives and who we have become.

I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May

For the many readers of the many books of Peter May, you will be happy to know there is a new one.

I’ll Keep You Safe flew in the door today just as I finished reading an advance copy. It is a stand alone novel and returns to the landscape of the islands of Lewis and Harris for most of the action.

But, the story begins in Paris, where we meet Niamh and Ruairidh, fabric weavers and designers who are in Paris preparing to display their fabric at a prestigious trade fair.

We have, however, barely met them when we learn of a conflict between the two. Niamh has received an email from a “well wisher” telling her that her husband has been having an affair with a Russian fashion designer. Ruairidh leaves the hotel room, denying her accusation, and as she watches, he climbs into the woman’s vehicle, driving off just as the vehicle explodes.

With both driver and passenger dead, a grieving Niamh returns to Lewis to bury her husband and wonder how she will carry on the business without him. As the present day story progresses, the back story of the lives of Niamh and Ruairidh and their families is slowly revealed. A tragedy from their childhood has coloured all of the years since, and though their love survived, it divided their families. Even with the death of their son-in-law it seems unlikely that Niamh’s parents will forgive her for choosing Ruairidh for her husband.

The French police investigate, and after a few days, allow Niamh to return to Lewis with what is left of her husband’s body for burial. Without a suspect, the French detective Lieutenant Sylvie Braque is sent to witness the funeral and consult with the local policeman on Lewis. They attempt to discover who might have sent the emails, as not only did Niamh receive one but so did the designer’s husband, a man who has since disappeared.

Woven ( no pun intended) into the mystery of the murder is the story of the weaving of Harris Tweed, and fictional characters from the fashion industry provide a great collection of secondary characters and many possible perpetrators. The setting on the island of Lewis, is of course stunningly beautiful, where Niamh and Ruairidh have built a home overlooking the ocean on a remote point of land in a place of beauty and peace, even in grief.

I’ve often said that Peter May is not a great writer but he is a very good storyteller, and except for a few rather too long passages about the past that slow the pace, I’ll Keep You Safe is much what one expects from Peter May – a (mostly) fast paced action-packed story, set in a landscape to die for (again, no pun intended).  And, a satisfactory conclusion – though I’d surprisingly long since clued into who the murderer was and suspected the twist double-twist revelation at the end of the novel.

For fans of Peter May, I’ll Keep You Safe is a satisfying escape from our own troubles – as his characters always have so many more things to worry about than we do – not to mention the challenge of just staying alive.

A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

The blurb on the jacket of Peter Carey’s new book A Long Way From Home is “In his wildly exuberant, deeply surprising new novel about a road race that circumnavigates 1954 Australia, Peter Carey takes us on an unforgettable journey into the lies and secrets of his homeland.”

Sounded good to me – and it is better than good. A Long Way From Home is the story of a young couple who, determined to prove themselves worthy of running a new car dealership, take part in the Redex Trail, a grueling long distance circumnavigation of Australia.

“Titch” and Irene Bobs are young, idealistic, and very much in love. Titch grew up around cars, his over-bearing and manipulative father a well-known car salesman. Irene would like to see Titch get out from under his father’s heavy thumb and become his own man. This race might be just the thing to do it, if they can win and establish their reputation, they may be able to secure the rights to a car dealership for themselves.

Titch and Irene live in the middle of nowhere, in Bacchus Marsh, where their closest neighbor is Willem Bachhuber, a disgraced schoolteacher. A sensitive, educated and intelligent, man he is fascinated by the Bobs and being presently at loose ends, is happy to become their navigator.

The unlikely trio set off with high hopes into a months’ long road trip fraught with the physical challenges of the landscape and perilous driving conditions. All are leaving something behind, and all will discover this trip is as much about personal exploration as it is about meeting the challenges posed by the geography of the remote outback. They are young, and only beginning to realize their adult selves. Their very different childhood experiences are revealed, and the relationships between each of them change, as miles and miles of time spent together pass.

Irene loves her husband but she also comes to care deeply for the loyal Willem. As she learns more and more about Willem’s past, he is also coming to terms with acknowledging the truth of past experiences, and discovering his own ability. As life changes dramatically for Willem, his story becomes more central to the novel.

I was reminded as I read this book, as with novels by Kate Grenville and Thomas Keneally, that Australia has an aboriginal population whose experience is, in many ways, similar to that of Canada’s native people. What is known in Canada as the Sixties Scoop also happened in Australia some years earlier. With compassion and honesty, Peter Carey explores the very difficult modern experience of the aboriginal people and those with racially mixed heritage.

A Long Way From Home is one of those, rare, wonderful novels that offers not only a page turning story, but a thought provoking one. We think about love and marriage, friendship, and parental love. We meet parents who believe they are doing what is best for a child, only to discover that the child is left with nothing when secrets and lies are exposed. We think about loyalty to friends, to a husband or wife, or a parent who may or may not be deserving of trust, or respect, but is loved nonetheless.

A Long Way From Home is a good read that also leaves the reader dwelling on some profound themes. Pretty perfect!