The Island of Sea Women
Lisa See, 2019
Scribner
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501154850
Summary
A new novel about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island.
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds.
When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger.
Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore.
The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers.
Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village.
Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.
This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children.
A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 18, 1955
• Where—Paris, France
• Education—B.A., Loyola Marymount University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Lisa See is an American writer and novelist. Her Chinese-American family (See has one Chinese great-grandparent) has had a great impact on her life and work. Her books include On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family (1995) and the novels Flower Net (1997), The Interior (1999), Dragon Bones (2003), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Peony in Love (2007), Shanghai Girls (2009), which made it to the 2010 New York Times bestseller list, and China Dolls (2014).
Flower Net, The Interior, and Dragon Bones make up the Red Princess mystery series. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love focus on the lives of Chinese women in the 19th and 17th centuries respectively. Shanghai Girls chronicles the lives of two sisters who come to Los Angeles in arranged marriages and face, among other things, the pressures put on Chinese-Americans during the anti-Communist mania of the 1950s. See published a sequel titled Dreams of Joy.
Writing under the pen name Monica Highland, See, her mother Carolyn See, and John Espey, published three novels: Lotus Land (1983), 110 Shanghai Road (1986), and Greetings from Southern California (1988).
Biography
Lisa See was born in Paris but has spent many years in Los Angeles, especially Los Angeles Chinatown. Her mother, Carolyn See, is also a writer and novelist. Her autobiography provides insight into her daughter's life. Lisa See graduated with a B.A. from Loyola Marymount University in 1979.
See was West Coast correspondent for Publishers Weekly (1983–1996); has written articles for Vogue, Self, and More; has written the libretto for the opera based on On Gold Mountain, and has helped develop the Family Discovery Gallery for the Autry Museum, which depicts 1930s Los Angeles from the perspective of her father as a seven-year-old boy. Her exhibition On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience was featured in the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Smithsonian. See is also a public speaker.
She has written for and led in many cultural events emphasizing the importance of Los Angeles and Chinatown. Among her awards and recognitions are the Organization of Chinese Americans Women's 2001 award as National Woman of the Year and the 2003 History Makers Award presented by the Chinese American Museum. See has served as a Los Angeles City Commissioner. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/21/2014.)
Book Reviews
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Publishers Weekly
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Library Journal
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Booklist
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Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The story begins with Young-sook as an old woman, gathering algae on the beach. What secrets or clues about the past and the present are revealed in the scenes that take place in 2008? Why do we only understand the beginning of the novel only after we have finished it?
2. When Young-sook and Mi-ja are fifteen, Young-sook’s mother says to them: "You are like sisters, and I expect you to take care of each other today and every day as those tied by blood would do" (p. 13). How are these words of warning? The friendship between Young-sook and Mi-ja is just one of many examples of powerful female relationships in the novel. Discuss the ways in which female relationships are depicted and the important role they play on Jeju.
3. On page 17, Young-sook’s mother recites a traditional haenyeo aphorism: Every woman who enters the sea carries a coffin on her back. But she also says that the sea is like a mother (p. 22). Then, on page 71, Grandmother says, "The ocean is better than your natal mother. The sea is forever." How do these contradictory ideas play out in the novel? What do they say about the dangerous work of the haenyeo?
4. In many ways, the novel is about blame, guilt, and forgiveness. In the first full chapter, Yu-ri has her encounter with the octopus. What effect does this incident have on various characters moving forward: Mother, Young-sook, Mi-ja, Do-saeng, Gu-ja, Gu-sun, and Jun-bu? Young-sook is also involved in the tragic death of her mother. To what extent is she responsible for these sad events? Is her sense of guilt justified?
5. Later, on page 314, Clara recites a proverb attributed to Buddha: To understand everything is to forgive. Considering the novel as a whole, do you think this is true? Young-sook’s mother must forgive herself for Yu-ri’s accident, Young-sook must forgive herself for her mother’s death, Gu-sun forgives Gu-ja for Wan-soon’s death. On a societal level, the people of Jeju also needed to find ways to forgive each other. While not everyone on Jeju has found forgiveness, how and why do you think those communities, neighbors, and families have been able to forgive? Do you think anything can be forgiven eventually? Should it? Does Young-sook take too long to forgive given what she witnessed?
6. Mi-ja carries the burden of being the daughter of a Japanese collaborator. Is there an inevitability to her destiny just as there’s an inevitability to Young-sook’s? Another way of considering this aspect of the story is, are we responsible for the sins of our fathers (or mothers)? Later in the novel, Young-sook will reflect on all the times Mi-ja showed she was the daughter of a collaborator. She also blames Yo-chan for being Mi-ja’s son, as well as the grandson of a Japanese collaborator. Was Young-sook being fair, or had her eyes and heart been too clouded?
7. The haenyeo are respected for having a matrifocal culture—a society focused on women. They work hard, have many responsibilities and freedoms, and earn money for their households, but how much independence and power within their families and their cultures do they really have? Are there examples from the story that illustrate the independence of women but also their subservience?
8. What is life like for men married to haenyeo? Compare Young-sook’s father, Mi-ja’s husband, and Young-sook’s husband.
9. On page 189, there is mention of haenyeo from a different village rowing by Young-sook’s collective to share gossip. How fast did information travel around the island and from the mainland? Was the five-day market a good source of gossip or were there other places that were better? On page 201, Jun-bu mentions his concern about believing information broadcast on the radio, "but can we trust anything we hear?" Were there specific instances when information from the radio was misleading or false? What affects how people hear and interpret the news?
10. Confucianism has traditionally played a lesser role on Jeju than elsewhere in Korea, while Shamanism is quite strong. What practical applications did Shamanism have for the haenyeo? Do the traditions and rituals help the haenyeo conquer the fears and anxieties they have about their dangerous work? Does it bring comfort during illness, death, and other tragedies? Does Young-sook ever question her beliefs, and why?
11. On page 39, Young-sook’s mother recites the aphorism If you plant red beans, then you will harvest red beans. Jun-bu repeats the phrase on page 199. How do these two characters interpret the saying? How does this saying play out for various characters?
12. At first it would seem that the visit of the scientists to the island is a digression. What important consequences does the visit have for Young-sook and the other haenyeo?
13. The aphorism "Deep roots remain tangled underground," is used to describe Young-sook’s and Mi-ja’s friendship, and it becomes especially true when it’s revealed that their children, Joon-lee and Yo-chan, are getting married. How else does this aphorism manifest itself on Jeju, especially in the context of the islanders’ suffering and shared trauma? Do you think it’s true that we cannot remove ourselves from the connections of our pasts?
14. On page 120, Young-sook’s mother-in-law, Do-Saeng, says, "There's modern, and then there's tradition." How does daily life on Jeju change between 1938 and 2008? Discuss architecture, the arrival of the scientists and the studies they conduct, the introduction of wet suits and television and other changes. How does Young-sook reconcile her traditional haenyeo way of life with the encroaching modern world? Do you think it’s possible to modernize without sacrificing important traditional values?
15. The characters have lived through Japanese colonialism, the Sino-Japanese War, World War II, the Korean War, the 4.3 Incident, and the Vietnam War. How do these larger historic events affect the characters and island life?
16. Mi-ja's rubbings are critical to the novel. How do they illustrate the friendship between Mi-ja and Young-sook? How do they help Young-sook in her process of healing?
(Questions issued by the publishers.)
The Uncommitted
Margaret M. Goss, 2015
Henschelhaus Publishing
358 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781595984289
Summary
Josephine Reilly is a typical young mother, striving to do what is best for her family in the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota. Declan, her ambitious and talented husband, has a thriving career as a corporate lawyer. On the surface, life could not appear more perfect.
Yet, Josie has an unrealized gift, one that has haunted her since the drowning death of a childhood friend. Josie is a messenger, as was her mother and grandmother before her, carrying messages from the dead to the living through dreams, visions and telepathy.
For years, Josie suppresses her gift but when mother dies, she is unable to ignore it any longer. Upon exploring her ability, she finds she’s underestimated the dangers in channeling the dead when those she loves become targets of an invisible evil. Her sanity comes into question and she’s at risk of losing everything she holds dear. Then fate places Dr. Andrew Chase in Josie’s path, a healer of supernatural capabilities. Only he hasn’t come to prevent her fall . . .
The Uncommitted is a compelling tale of the spiritual struggle within us and of the realities beyond our physical sight. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—November 12, 1967
• Where—Oswego, New York, USA
• Education—B.S., Arizona State University; M.A., University of Wisconsin
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Madison, Wisconsin
Margaret M. Goss is an award-winning author, hockey mom and registered nurse. She resides in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, three children and border collie mix, a rescue named Hobey. She was raised in an artistic home. Her mother was a painter and art teacher and her father was an English and journalism teacher. When she isn't writing, she is driving her kids to/from school, to/from hockey practice, games and everywhere in between. (From the author.)
Awards
2017 - Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Horror Category
2016 - Winner, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, Cover Design
2015 - Shortlist, BookViral (UK)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Margaret on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Spiritual struggle, The Uncommitted is an engrossing debut novel. Catholicism plays a central role in the debut novel from Madison author Margaret Goss, but readers need not share her beliefs in order to relate to The Uncommitted — a surprisingly dark tale of spiritual struggle. Published by Three Towers Press in Milwaukee, this story set in St. Paul, Minn., contains references to such Madison institutions as UW Children’s Hospital (now American Family Children’s Hospital) and Culver’s, and revolves around Josephine Reilly, a 35-year- old mother of three who can communicate with the dead via dreams, visions and telepathy. While experimenting with what she initially considers a "gift," she unlocks an invisible evil that threatens her family and drives her to the brink of self-destruction. (Read more)
Michael Popke - The Isthamus (Madison, WI)
Solidly crafted and suspensefully written, The Uncommitted is the latest release from Margaret M. Goss and it proves something of a juggernaut when stacked up against other releases in the genre. Ingenious in its plotting, colourful in its characters, taut in its narrative, Goss ably creates an atmosphere thick with dread and ambiguity as Josephine Reilly comes to explore the full extent of her gifts. Yes, there are cliches to be found, but Goss adds more than enough extraordinarily refreshing fillers to keep it original and she knows just when to linger in the detail to maximise the suspense. It brings powerful images to mind, but with a degree of restraint that veers away from overkill and leaves the reader wanting more. Reasons enough to start reading and yet where Goss really excels in bringing her fiction to life is in creating a perpetual state of quiet apprehension that reflects Josephine’s prevailing spiritual struggle. A refreshing debut in this ever popular genre, The Uncommitted bodes well for future releases from Goss and is certainly deserving of a place on your bookshelf. It receives a strong BookViral recommendation.
Book Viral (UK)
This story has all the makings of the next Da Vinci Code but, I think even better.… [A] wonderful love story, mystery, and mystical adventure, all rolled up into one fast-moving and brilliantly told story.
Nick Chiarkas - Wisconsin State Public Defender Emeritus, author of"Weepers"
Discussion Questions
1. Why does Josie inherit the psychic gift but her siblings do not?
2. What was Josie’s motivation to begin channeling the dead?
3. What is the significance by the Glory of the Snow?
4. Why does Josie give up on the Institute?
4. Is The Uncommitted consistent with traditional Christian beliefs? Where does the novel deviate?
6. Why is it important for Josie’s children to be able to face the altar at Mass on Palm Sunday?
7. Why does Andrew feel compelled to help Josie? What is his purpose beyond being "her savior"?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Varina
Charles Frazier, 2018
Ecco Books
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062405982
Summary
Sooner or later, history asks, which side were you on?
In his powerful new novel, Charles Frazier returns to the time and place of Cold Mountain, vividly bringing to life the chaos and devastation of the Civil War.
Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner.
Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history—culpable regardless of her intentions.
The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with "bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit."
Intimate in its detailed observations of one woman’s tragic life and epic in its scope and power, Varina is a novel of an American war and its aftermath. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1950
• Where—Asheville, North Carolina, USA
• Education—B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;
M.A., Ph.D., Appalachian State University
• Awards—National Book Award for Fiction, 1997
• Currently—lives in Raleigh, North Carolina
Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. Cold Mountain, his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller, and won the National Book Award in 1997. In 2006 Mr. Frazier published Thirteen Moons.
Frazier had been teaching University-level literature part-time when he first became spellbound by the story of his great-great uncle W. P. Inman. Inman was a confederate soldier during the Civil War who took a harrowing foot-journey from the ravaged battle fields back to his home in the mountains of North Carolina. The specifics of Inman's history were sketchy, indeed, but Frazier's father spun his tale with such enticing drama that Frazier began filling in the gaps, himself. Bits of the life of Frazier's grandfather, who also fought in the Civil War, helped flesh out the journey of William Pinkney Inman.
He also looked toward the legendary epic poem The Odyssey for inspiration. Slowly, a gripping tale of devotion, faith, redemption, and love coalesced in Frazier's mind. For six or seven years, he toiled away on the story that would ultimately become Cold Mountain, and with the novel's publication in 1997, the first-time author had a modern classic of American literature on his hands.
In Cold Mountain, Inman is a wounded confederate soldier who abandons the war to venture home to his beloved Ada. Along the way, he is confronted by various obstacles, but he journeys on valiantly, regardless. Frazier cleverly divides the narrative between Inman's trek and Ada's story as she struggles to make due in the wake of her father's death and the absence of her love.
When Frazier was only half finished with the book, he passed it along to friend and novelist Kaye Gibbons (Ellen Foster; A Virtuous Woman), who then got it into the hands of her agent. Much to his disbelief, Frazier's novel went on to become the smash sensation of the late-‘90s. Winning countless laudatory reviews from publications throughout the nation, Cold Mountain also became a must-read commercial smash. The novel ultimately won the coveted National Book Award for fiction and was adapted into an Oscar-winning motion picture starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and best supporting actress Renee Zellweger.
Nearly ten years after the publication of Cold Mountain, Frazier published Thirteen Moons. While Thirteen Moons returns to a 19th century setting, 12-year old Will is quite a different protagonist from Inman. With only a horse, a key, and a map, the boy is prodded into Indian country with the mission of running a trading post. In this dangerous environment, Will learns to empathize with the Cherokees, who open his mind to a much broader world than he had ever seen before.
In 2011 Frazier published Nightwoods, the story of a young woman living alone in the Appalachians who takes on the care of her murdered sisters young children, traumatized, violent and mute.
Extras
• Frazier grew up not far from the mountain he immortalized in Cold Mountain in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. Although the actual Cold Mountain exists, the town after which it is named in the novel is entirely fictional.
• Reportedly, Frazier was offered a whopping $8 million advance for Thirteen Moons. Sadly, the book never reached the sales potential Random House had expected. (From Widkipedia.)
Book Reviews
[S]uperb.… Frazier’s historical research generally sits lightly on the story, almost always embedded gracefully in dialogue, a small telling incident or a sharp memory of kindness or brutality. His prose is both of the characters’ time and perfectly evocative.
Mary Dorie Russell - Washington Post
Varina portrays a prescient, conflicted heroine.… Slyly paced.… When [Frazier] is at full-throttle, incredible declarations are tossed off as mere jottings.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Frazier’s novel is the latest to star a worthy female figure rescued from history's dustbin. And Frazier is a superb prose stylist who elevates the historical fiction genre.… Sometimes Frazier’s considerable literary talents get in his way. His writing can be breathtaking, but Varina’s fragmented narrative hopscotches all over the place. Which is a shame, because this picaresque novel’s most memorable scenes rival Gone With the Wind (and Cold Mountain) for sheer jaw-dropping Dixie drama.
USA Today
Frazier works on an epic scale, but his genius is in the details—he has a scholar’s command of the physical realities of early America and a novelist’s gift for bringing them to life.
Time
Frazier’s interjection of historical detail is richly informative, and his descriptions of the natural world of the South are lyrical. While V’s emotional reserve and stoic narration keep her from becoming a fully vibrant character, this is a sharp, evocative novel.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.)The unveiling of Varina's sad story piques the reader's curiosity. Much of what Frazier imagines is consistent with the incomplete historical record surrounding Varina, and he fills in the blanks to reveal a powerful personality. —Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa
Library Journal
Intelligent, outspoken, and clear-sighted but yoked to an intransigent man, the real Varina… sometimes feels elusive.… [S]he proclaims "the right side won" yet seems unable to fully grasp slavery’s ramifications. [A]powerful realization of its time….
Booklist
The most contemporary touch is the disjointed timeline, but even that isn't entirely effective. The resulting text isn't so much a coherent narrative as a series of vignettes. Intriguing subject. Uneven execution.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for VARINA … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Varina Davis? Talk about her upbringing and consider the passage below: Does it ring true?
At sixteen—other than overwhelming scorn and rage—what power do you control? For the pimply boys V knew, it was guns and their prospects for inheritance. Girls had their bodies and minds. That age, you make choices and don’t always know you’re making them.
2. Comparisons have been made with Varina to Gone With the Wind, in terms of the stories themselves and especially the two heroines. Do you see similarities?
3. Consider this next passage regarding V's feelings toward slavery:
V has never made any claim of personal high ground. She grew up where and when she did. From earliest memory, owning other people was a given. But she began feeling the strangeness of it about nine or ten—not the wrongness or the sin of it, but the strangeness only.
In what way did slavery begin to feel strange to V?
4. Next, consider this passage:
[B]eing on the wrong side of history carries consequences. V lives that truth every day. If you’ve done terrible things, lived a terribly way, profited from pain in the face of history’s power to judge, then guilt and loss accrue.
In what way does V live the truth? And what is the "truth"—as she understands it? Has her understanding changed over the years?
5. How would you describe V's marriage with Jefferson Davis? Take into account the considerable age gap, as well as their differing personalities and beliefs.
6. In what way does Limber Jimmie/James Blake stand as a critique of V? How do their separate memories reveal their different experiences? What insights of America's greatest sin and greatest crisis do you, as a reader, gain from both characters' revelations?
7. V claims that "the right side won." Overall, how would you describe her attitude toward, and her understanding of, slavery? What do you think she would think about today's removal over the South's many civil war hero statues, including her husband's?
8. In her Washington Post review, Mary Doria Russell writes of Frazier's novel:
Elegiac without being exculpatory, it is an indictment of complicity without ignoring the historic complexity of the great evil at the core of American history.
Care to unpack that statement? What does Russell mean by"without ignoring the historical complexity"? What is complex about slavery: isn't it a case of black and white?
9. The book's timeline shifts frequently. Did you find this confusing or distracting? Or does the shifting perfectly reveal the fractured nature of memories, as well as the way the past bleeds continually into the present?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Gingerbread
Helen Oyeyemi, 2019
Penguin Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594634659
Summary
Prize-winning author, Helen Oyeyemi, returns with a bewitching and imaginative novel.
Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.
Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are.
For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhastrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth.
The world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend Gretel Kercheval—a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.
Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story.
As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value.
Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, Gingerbread is a true feast for the reader. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 10, 1984
• Where—Nigeria
• Raised—London, England, UK
• Education—B.A. Cambridge University
• Awards—Somerset Maughm Award
• Currently—lives in London, England
Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi is a British author with several novels to her name. She was born in Nigeria and raised in London, England.
Oyeyemi studied Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating in 2006. While at Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen.
Novels
She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
In 2007 Bloomsbury published her second novel, The Opposite House which is inspired by Cuban mythology.
Her third novel, White is for Witching, described as having "roots in Henry James and Edgar Allan Poe" was published in 2009. It was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award.
Mr Fox, Oyeyemi's fourth novel was published in 2011. Aimee Bender said in a New York Times review: "Charm is a quality that overflows in this novel." Kirkus Reviews, however thought that while readers might consider Mr. Fox "an intellectual tour de force," they might also find it "emotionally chilly."
Oyeyemi's fith novel, Boy, Snow, Bird, published in 2014, is a retelling of Snow White, set in Massachusetts in the 1950s.
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, released in 2016, is a collection of intertwined stories, all involving locks and keys.
Extras
• Oyeyemi is a lifelong Catholic who has done voluntary work for CAFOD in Kenya.
• In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognised as one of the women on Venus Zine’s “25 under 25” list.
(Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/18/2014.)
Book Reviews
Exhilarating.… Gingerbread is jarring, funny, surprising, unsettling, disorienting and rewarding.… This is a wildly imagined, head-spinning, deeply intelligent novel that requires some effort and attention from its reader. And that is just one of its many pleasures.
New York Times Book Review
Gingerbread rises to the level of Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird, revealing Oyeyemi as a master of literary masquerade, forging a singular art.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
This is a bold book with a great deal of depth and mischief to it that makes you think how astonishing it would be to have our parents sit up with us for a whole night and tell us in fine detail what they have lived.
Financial Times
[T]he novel's real enchantment is its experimentation with storytelling itself.… [T]his book is not only about childhood, but also what it feels like to be a child.
Time
Charm evident on every page.
Slate
Is there an author working today who is comparable to Helen Oyeyemi? She might be the only contemporary author for whom it’s not hyperbole to claim she’s… a genius, as opposed to talented or newsworthy or relevant or accomplished, each of her novels daring more in storytelling than the one before.… A tale that bears multiple rereadings and is more marvelous the deeper you’re willing to dive into its rearranging of reality, its derangement.
Los Angeles Review of Books
A beautifully, wildly inventive beast. Nobody else writes like this: puncturing the timelessly poetic with harshly contemporary asides, animating plants and dolls with a cool nonchalance. And how is it that this dark, nutty novel exudes cozy warmth above all else?
Entertainment Weekly
Gingerbread isn't just one of the best books of March, it's poised to be one of the best books of the year thanks to the magnificent writing of Helen Oyeyemi.
Cosmopolitan.com
The line between real world and fairy tales in Helen Oyeyemi’s novels is never clear, which means they’re way more fun. Following the plot of Oyeyemi’s latest novel can be a challenge, simply because Gingerbread abides by fairy tale logic, not the conventional structure of a novel. But if you sit back and accept the twists, we guarantee you’ll enjoy your romp.
Refinery29
★ [I]diosyncratically brilliant…. Oyeyemi excels at making the truly astounding believable and turning even the most familiar tales into something strange and new. This fantastic and fantastical romp is a wonderful addition to her formidable canon.
Publishers Weekly
It may require some persistence to keep up with the multiple plot threads, the unusual character names, and the Druhistani lore, but patient readers will be rewarded with a rollicking tale from the wildly inventive Oyeyemi. —Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
Library Journal
Oyeyemi's latest is a clever subversion of fairy tale tropes to expose the secrets [and] entanglements.… [A] scathing indictment of capitalism and a tribute to the… endurance of family bonds, this enchanting tale will resonate with literary fiction lovers.
Booklist
★ Oyeyemi returns to the land of fairy tales in a novel that riffs on "Hansel and Gretel" without… following its well-worn trail of breadcrumbs.… The effect is heady, surreal, and disarming… [a] strange, shape-shifting novel about the power of making your own family.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Circe
Madeline Miller, 2018
Little, Brown and Co.
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316556347
Summary
The daring, dazzling and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song of Achilles
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born.
But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.
To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.
With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 24, 1978
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Raised—New York, New York
• Education—B.A., M.A., Brown University
• Awards—Orange Prize-Fiction
• Currently—lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in New York City, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.
Miller has been teaching and tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students for more than a decade. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Miller's first novel, The Song of Achilles (2011) won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel is Circe (2018). (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) Weaving together Homer’s tale with other sources, Miller crafts a classic story of female empowerment. She paints an uncompromising portrait of a superheroine who learns to wield divine power while coming to understand what it means to be mortal.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Drawing on the mythology of the classical world, Miller deftly weaves episodes of war, treachery, monsters, gods, demigods, heroes, and mortals into her second novel of the ancient world.… [A]absorbing and atmospheric. —Jane Henriksen Baird, formerly at Anchorage Public Library, AK
School Library Journal
[S]tirring.… Miller beautifully voices the experiences of the legendary sorceress Circe.… This immersive blend of literary fiction and mythological fantasy demonstrates that the Greek myths are still very relevant today.
Booklist
(Starred review.) A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch."Monsters are a boon for gods. Imagine all the prayers." So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller's dazzling second novel.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How would you describe the personality that Madeline Miller crafts for Circe? Why is she so roundly dismissed, bullied, and belittled by her fellow immortals? Talk about the ways in which this treatment shapes her character. Despite her ancient, mythological roots, do you relate to Circe?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: In what way is Circe's desire for vengeance at odds with her inherent compassion?
3. How does the ancient Greek society, at least in the realm of the deities, view and treat women.
4. Follow-up to Question 3: Circe tells us:
It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures—flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.
How does Circe disprove the widespread view of women as fragile?
5. Talk about Circe's attitude toward motherhood: as she says, despite all her military style preparations, it was "not enough." What does she mean, and what kind of a mother does Circe end up becoming?
6. What does Circe mean when she says, "All my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it"?
7. How does the author portray the love affair between Circe and Odysseus? If you are familiar with The Odyssey, how does the novel differ from Homer's telling (or does it)?
8. How does Miller depict many of the legendary characters of Greek mythology, including Odysseus, Daedalus, Hermes, among others? In other words, how does she flesh out their "human" traits as distinct from their godlike or heroic ones?
9. What did you know of Greek mythology before reading Circe? If you had some prior familiarity with the mythical figures and their stories, has Miller's novel added to or changed your understanding or appreciation of them?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)