A Hundred Suns

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe 400 pages

One of my all-time favorite authors, Fiona Davis, called this novel “A haunting evocative tale.” USA Today said that it “…leaves you gripping the edge of your seat.”  I was excited to read this book.

I curled up in my favorite reading chair, ready to had to a faraway land (French Indochine [now Viet Nam], 1933) to join a family dynasty (Michelin [as in rubber]) and following a trail of secrets. At 400 pages, I was ready for a long escape from the stay-at home orders of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic.

The first chapter opens in the Hanoi train station on November 20, 1933. Author Remmer does an excellent job in capturing its feel…and by the time I reached the end of Chapter One, I was sure that this would be a wonderful novel. It felt like something out of Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Chapter Two backs the story up and the rest of the novel explains how a minor cousin of the famous Michelin family, Victor Lesage and his family had arrived in order to be the overseers of two rubber plantations. They are the first of the famous family to ever reside on the plantations.  Riots and massacres are no strangers to the area, but back in France, the Michelins have been able to ignore it.

And that’s where the author lost me. It was a tough read after that. I didn’t understand all the French, and I assume what we now call Vietnamese, words. Not to mention the names of places that I couldn’t decipher nor could I place in either the Northern or Southern parts of the country.

As I read some of the Hitchcockian chapters returned, and I would be glad I had slogged through. But then that joy quickly disappeared again. 

I’m sure the problems I encountered with this novel were more me than the author’s fault. But still, I must give “A Hundred Suns” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Ever Faithful

 

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett      352 pages

 Former park ranger Karen Barnett has given historical fiction readers a wonderful series in her stand-alone novels set in America’s National Parks. Almost like a Ken Burns for readers! We get the history, the beauty and wonderful tales about characters that feel oh so real.

In this, her third novel, she takes us to Yellowstone National Park in 1933. The Great Depression has hit America hard, and the National Parks are no exception. Visitors to the park are few, causing the management not to open certain lodgings and other services. It’s almost a double whammy to park employees.

The protagonist is a young adult, Elsie Brookes, who has grown up in the parks. She desperately wants to go to college and become a teacher. She has been working as maid in the park’s hotels, but after four years, she still hasn’t saved enough. 

I chuckled at the nicknames the park’s employees gave to position, terms like pillow pushers, savages, pack rats, gear jammers, etc.  And I like the way Barnett let the reader know what each nickname represented without overtly doing so.

Poor Elsie. She is facing another summer with little hope of saving enough money for college. However, FDR’s New Deal comes to the rescue without officials realizing it. The year is 1933 and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is sending a group of men to help work in the park, looking for bug-infested copses, culling trees and all around manual labor. For most, this is the first time they have ever seen this much wilderness. Elsie is offered a second job as a teacher to the men who are coming, and she jumps at the opportunity.

Enter Nate Webber. The Brooklyn-ite shows promise. He is a hard worker and a born leader. But he has a secret that he will protect at all costs. When Elsie uncovers that secret, she vows to do everything she can to protect that secret, it makes for some dynamite reading. 

I give “Ever Faithful” 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.