Woman of the Pharisees

The Woman of the Pharisees by Francois Mauriac, translated by Gerard Hopkins, 241 pages

Brigitte Pian is a wicked stepmother.  She is all the more wicked because she is so widely admired for her goodness, a goodness which she pursues tirelessly.  Yet it is goodness sought not for its own sake but a cramped, loveless drive for perfection rooted in the desire to dominate and control.  Thus, in the end, all of her good deeds turn to ashes.

The story practically writes itself: the religious hypocrite is, after all, a common trope in Western culture, and one that is ideally suited to the ideological demands of modernity.  Thankfully Mauriac is too good a writer for cliche.  Brigitte does not sin through the open embrace of evil but through a perversion of the good.  Were it otherwise, she would not be so pitiable, nor her example so salutary.

A Room Away From The Wolves

A Room Away From TheWolves by Nova Ren Suma, 316 pages

“Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina's cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother--a bond Bina thought was unbreakable. Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women's residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina's lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she's come to Catherine House and what it will cost for her to leave . . .” I can’t quite decide if I liked the story or not.  It was well written and I liked the characters but the plot was odd and a little hard to follow.  It was difficult to figure out and I’m also not sure that I liked the ending.  But I think that there are teens out there who like stories that are a little creepy with a little mystery about hem who would enjoy it.

Shipwreck Island

Shipwreck Island by S.A. Bodeen, 184 pages

I picked this book up because I have liked some of Bodeen’s other books for young adults.  I wasn’t as crazy about this one, mainly because it ends with almost no resolution at all.  The story starts out as a typical one, with a girl whose father is getting remarried to a woman who has two sons.  The older boy, Marco, and the girl, Sarah, hate this idea.  The younger boy, Nacho, is pretty much okay with everything.  The parents decide to take a cruise with the kids instead of going on a honeymoon alone.  The boat, the captain, and pretty much everything, turn out differently than expected, but everything still might have been okay if not for the storm that caused them to crash on an island that is apparently not all it seems.  This has the beginnings of what might be a science fiction type story but at the moment is pretty much a mystery and realistic fiction.  The writing and story are good, but I’m a little ticked that I’m going to have to wait to get the rest of the story.