Lara Prescott's Portrait of Dr. Zhivago in The Secrets We Kept

I didn't know anything at all about the intrigue surrounding the publication of Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago before reading Lara Prescott's engrossing new novel, The Secrets We Kept (coming out September 3, 2019). Prescott's novel beautifully weaves together multiple storylines connected to Dr. Zhivago - from the targeting of Pasternak and those he loved for daring to write a story seen as critical of the Soviet Union to the typists at the C.I.A. who are recruited to help distribute the novel as a propaganda tool. Prescott fleshes out the characters in a broad network in multiple involved in the publication, distribution, and banning of the novel, including the Union of Soviet Writers who condemned the novel and the Italian publisher who made sure that it was published, even after the novelist changed his mind.

While the novel paints a clear picture of the repression and brutality of the Soviet regime, it doesn't let the U.S. off the hook. The story is primarily told through the point of view of women, and we are given an uncomfortable picture of how the Agency men saw female operatives as tools to be discarded. Prescott also highlights how the "Lavender Scare" in the U.S. ruined the lives of LGBTQ people who lost their livelihood and reputations.

Overall, Prescott has succeeded in bringing this story to life by creating a compelling cast of characters who are affected by the publication of Dr. Zhivago in unexpected ways. Most tragically, we have a close look at Pasternak's lover and her family who suffer both emotionally by being targeted by the government and physically by being sent to the gulag. One can't help but leave this novel feeling like it was unfortunate for Pasternak that he was persecuted for writing his novel, but it was others who suffered most.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead's new novel, The Nickel Boys, creates a fictional Nickel Academy based on an actual reform school in Florida where generations of boys, particularly African Americans, were brutalized. Through this novel, Whitehead rejects abstraction and insists on the individuality of those trapped in this system. In both The Nickel Boys and his previous novel, The Underground Railroad, Whitehead lays bare the racialized violence that threads through U.S. history.

Whitehead is such a good storyteller that you are drawn into the narrative right away. He starts in the present with a University of South Florida student on an archeology project discovering Nickel Academy's secret graveyard. This unmarked graveyard is where Nickel buried students - mostly black students - who'd died under their brutal treatment, usually through extreme punishments. Whitehead brings this piece of history to life through fiction and makes you care about the story immediately. When he shifts to the story of Elwood Curtis, a young man who's grown up listening to Martin Luther King and living with his grandmother in Tallahassee, the scene has been set for the horrors of Nickel to be revealed.

But then Whitehead takes his time letting it unfold, starting with Elwood's youth and fully developing him as a character. By the time Elwood is sent to Nickel, the groundwork has been laid to reveal the extent of a racially-based miscarriage of justice that has cut short his education and promise. The reader is presented both with the spiteful brutality of the institution, as well as the brutality that comes of robbing black young men of a future. There are both white and black inmates at Nickel, but those on the black "campus" come in for the most vicious mistreatment.

Alongside the tale of Elwood's horrific experience, and a post-Nickel storyline, Whitehead interweaves stories of other students at Nickel. I won't give away the details, but Whitehead gives a wide angle view of the institution's racism, corruption, and viciousness. Because the stories are wide-ranging, the novel can feel a little disconnected at points, but it all comes together in the end.

This is an incredible book. It tells a crucial history that has been long buried and tells it in a compelling way. I completely recommend it.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Berg's The Confession Club - a comfortable novel for this fall

The Confession Club is a light and comfortable novel and a quick read. It's the perfect novel if you're looking for something feel-good and not too challenging emotionally. The story is partly about a group of women who meet periodically to take turns making confessions. The confession club, at times, fades into the background of the other main storylines, and the characters are not drawn with particular depth. A few of the confession club members are fleshed out, but even at the end I had a hard time distinguishing them. The confessions are sometimes moving, although the narrative seems to move past them pretty quickly. There are also a lot of platitudes about loving yourself, making yourself happy, and being a good person.

The meat of the narrative comes in two storylines: Maddy, who is estranged from her husband, and Iris, who teaches baking classes and falls in love with a homeless man who has taken refuge in a farmhouse in town. Both of these storylines are sweet and engrossing, and the story of the homeless vet's struggles with PTSD is moving. 

Overall, this is an enjoyable book, but not one that's likely to keep me up thinking about it.

I received an ARC of this novel from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Mahesh Rao's novel Polite Society: Austen's Emma in India

I’m usually a total sucker for Austen re-writes, and I was excited to see this modern retelling of Emma in India. It’s usually Pride and Prejudice that’s being retold, so I was looking forward to a version of Emma.

Unfortunately, this novel was a real disappointment. It has none of the depth, social critique, humor, or charm of Austen’s original. The Emma character, Ania, has all of her flaws, but no redeeming qualities. She’s petty and even cruel in one scene. She doesn’t redeem herself by the end, and I really didn’t care about her relationship with Dev, the Knightley character. 

In fact, the most interesting character is Dimple (Rao's version of Harriet Smith), who is sweet and much more thoughtful and observant than Ania. 

I know that Emma is often the most disliked of Austen’s protagonists, but that doesn’t mean that Ania has to be this spoiled and thoughtless.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.