Five Books From the Past Three Months

 

Earlier this year I started my own challenge of reading twelve books in one year. The first three books I read were Searching for Grace Kelly by Michael Callahan, Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, and A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott. Since then, I am happy to say that I have read five more books: When the World Was Young by Elizabeth Gaffney, One Day by David Nicholls, A Story Lately Told by Anjelica Huston, Watch Me by Anjelica Huston, and The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes.

When The World Was Young by Elizabeth Gaffney

When I was a freshman in high school, our class was assigned to read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It was one of my favorite books that was required reading and at the time I related to the story's themes of growing up and adolescence. In some ways, I saw this coming-of-age story in Elizabeth Gaffney's When The World Was Young.

When The World Was Young is about a precocious 7-year-old girl named Wally Baker, who experiences many events in her childhood during World War II that culminate on V-J Day and the following years after. While Wally’s father, Rudy Baker, fights in the war he invites his old college friend, Bill Niederman, who is on a secret assignment of his own, to be a boarder in his home and look after Wally and her beautiful mother, Stella. When she is not reading the latest adventures of Wonder Woman, Wally splits her time between her home and her grandparents’ brownstone in Brooklyn Heights where she is close friends with the family’s maid, Loretta, and her son Ham, who introduces her studying ants.

One of the things I liked about the novel were its characters. I found each one of them intriguing and with a story to tell than what is later revealed. You gradually learn more about them as the story progresses, which includes their lives prior to the main events that follow, giving them more depth than what is revealed and with some revelations becoming more surprising than what you would have expected. Although the book opens on V-J Day, I liked that it tracked back to the years before America’s entrance into the war as it gave background to what happens on V-J Day that changes Wally’s life. Along with this, I liked that the story continued all the way through Wally’s childhood at age 7 to her young adult years at age 20. With everything that happens in the story, it was interesting to read how those events during the war affected her life after it ended. Not just to her, but to all the other characters in her life.

Although Elizabeth Gaffney had a good story, there were a few things that dragged it down. To begin with, the symbolism of Wally and Ham’s ant farm was distracting and honestly boring. I think the author was trying to compare the study of ants and their behavior to the events and the characters' actions, but after several chapters of constant references to ants I was tired of reading it. Another issue I found was how Wally thought and processed things for a 7-year-old. When I was 7, I liked running around, playing with Barbies, and watching Nickelodeon cartoons without a care in the world. Wally I thought behaved more like an 11-year-old than a 7-year-old. She seemed more aware of her surroundings and how the adults were than a regular 7-year-old would be. Although there were parts that showed her imaginative mind, such as believing that her mother could be a superhero like Wonder Woman, it felt a little forced as if the author incorporated it to try to make her young character more child-like. The ending involving Bill Niederman was a bit of letdown after how much the story was building up to this meeting between him and Wally years later. I felt it was rushed and after what happened (and this is up for debate) it was a mean note to leave between two characters despite everything. Along with this meeting, the resolution to an event that happens in the ending was too rushed. Without giving away any spoilers, I thought that after the developments of Wally and Ham’s relationship the progression of it came to a sudden halt and then just settled once the novel ended.

There were also a few characters whom I thought were not given a chance at a storyline. After Rudy returns from the war, he is immediately out of Wally’s life again. In what could have been an interesting storyline about Rudy’s relationship with his daughter making up for lost time, he is out of the picture again. I think the author did not have any use for him and wanted to focus more on Wally than distract readers with Wally's relationship with her father. However, I believe she would have been able to balance it well as she had with the other characters in Wally’s life. The same goes for Bill Niederman. Once the war ends, he is also no longer in the story, except for his invisible presence following his relationship with Stella. Another issue I had was that some of the deaths that happen just came and went, which felt like it was abrupt. It just happens and the story continues. There could have been more emotion or feeling. 

As much as I wanted to like When The World Was Young it was not my favorite read. It did not exactly have enough excitement for me, but I will say that it was all right. It is a coming-of-age novel with a cast of characters in a poignant time in history.

One Day by David Nicholls

When I first stumbled upon David Nicholl's novel, I was with my friend at a bookstore. She pointed out the book in a pile of other worthy reads and said how good it was despite the ending. Around this time, the film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess had just been released and I later watched bits of it when it came out on DVD. I knew of the story's tragic ending and yet I wanted to read the book because of the story.

One Day follows two friends, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, who meet in 1988 after graduating from university. Following their meeting, the novel then tracks their relationship on the same day, July 15th, for the next twenty years of their lives.

Out of the books I read so far, this one had me thinking a lot about life. When you are in your twenties and fresh out of school, there is a sense of optimism as you look forward to what lies ahead. You have a few ideas on where the next stage of your life will take you that some would call "The 10 Year Plan," whether it is traveling around Europe, getting married and starting a family by the time you are 30, or becoming someone of significance who has made an impact on the world. The reality is however, life gets in the way of how you ideally hoped your life would be. This is where the novel begins and serves as a theme in Emma and Dexter's story.

Emma and Dexter each had an idea of who they wanted to become, but as time went by their expectations on life turned out to be completely different from the life they were actually living. Emma wanted to make some kind of difference in the world, whereas Dexter had a relaxed vision of traveling and becoming wealthy. As you read their story and follow their lives, from the struggles of a steady job to marriage and divorce, you begin to see how much they need each other as life proves to be more challenging than they had envisioned.  This was what I found especially poignant about One Day - how true and relatable it was.

Initially at a glance of the synopsis, you would think that this novel was a love story. I thought that way too, even after I finished reading it. In many ways it is a love story, both the romantic kind but also the realistic kind where two people deeply care about each other and are putting the other's needs and hopes ahead of their own. Of course, Emma and Dexter encounter hurdles before realizing how much they need each other but that is also a reflection of our own relationship with people. When you are young, there are people who come in and out of your life but as you get older it is the people who were always there from the beginning that are the ones who truly love you and who you need to have in your life. For Emma and Dexter that person was each other.

As incredibly heartbreaking as the ending was, it gave depth to the story and its characters. It further showed how unexpected life is and how important it is to cherish each and every day you have now and with the people you are sharing it with. It also showed how even if you are not making a groundbreaking impact on the world as you had imagined, you really are making a difference in someone else's life by just being there. Reality gets in the way of life, but even if it does not pan out as you had expected it is still a life worth living and looking forward to, especially with someone you love.

A Story Lately Told and Watch Me by Anjelica Huston

Anjelica Huston is truly amazing. Apart from her career and the iconic roles she has played, she has a fascinating story to tell that just happens to be her own life.

I came across her first memoir, A Story Lately Told, after various news outlets praised it and gave it glowing reviews, especially for her writing style. Then about two months ago, I read a back issue of Vanity Fair that included an excerpt of her second memoir, Watch Me. The excerpt was a few pages from the first chapter detailing her meeting with her then soon-to-be boyfriend, Jack Nicholson. I was instantly intrigued and decided to add both memoirs to my reading list. It just so happened that about a few weeks later after reading that excerpt I found myself at the library with Watch Me on display among other recommended books. It must have been a sign. I borrowed it but decided not to start it until I read A Story Lately Told first, just to keep everything in sync and chronological. I managed to find her first memoir in another library and immediately began reading it.

A Story Lately Told is about Anjelica Huston's childhood upbringing in Ireland, to her teenage years in London following her parents' divorce, to later her modeling career in New York. I enjoyed reading the stories and memories she had of growing up in St. Clarens, which was an estate her father owned in Ireland. She writes about her childhood friendships, the nanny she and her brother, Tony, had since the day they were born, as well as the people she met who were friends with her father, most notably Peter O'Toole. I also liked how before she began her story she shared some history on her family lineage, that included a background on her great-grandparents, how her paternal grandparents met, her maternal grandparents' life when her grandfather opened their famous restaurant in New York, and how her mother, Enrica "Ricki" Soma, met her father, John Huston.

When she begins talking about her teenage years in London, you can see a shift from her pastoral childhood in Ireland to her loss of innocence in London after her parents divorce. It gets really interesting, such as the time she secretly dated actor James Fox and when she became an understudy in a production of Hamlet, but also tragic when her mother dies in a car crash.

Following her mother's death, Anjelica Huston moves to New York and becomes a model where she meets and begins dating photographer Bob Richardson. Her relationship with him was almost terrifying to read because of how volatile it was at times. I was glad when she left him by the end of A Story Lately Told, but mostly proud that she had the courage to leave before their relationship got worse because despite everything I think she really did love him.

With A Story Lately Told, I liked how each section was divided into the places she was living. It not only highlighted where the next chapter of her life took place, but also how it was divided into the stages of her life: Ireland representing her childhood, London representing her teenage years, and New York representing her early young adult years that would lead up to her move to Los Angeles, which is continued in Watch Me.

Watch Me I thought was a totally different story from A Story Lately Told, but with the same protagonist all grown up and about to take on Hollywood. A majority of it is about Anjelica Huston's 17 year relationship with Jack Nicholson, which I found fascinating. Even though I knew they were not going to stay together, I was still rooting for them to. From how she describes their relationship, they really understood and knew each other better than anyone else. Unfortunately though, it seems like they wanted different things and they were not going to get it completely from each other.

One story I found really interesting and surprising amidst her relationship with Jack Nicholson and her growing film career, was her relationship with Ryan O'Neal. It was something I think not too many people know about. Their relationship however, felt almost reminiscent of her relationship with Bob Richardson. That is not to say it was as volatile, but that both men had this incredible almost desperate need for Anjelica Huston's love and attention that became too much for her to handle. I think with Ryan O'Neal, it began as something different and almost romantic than how her relationship with Jack Nicholson was at the time, but the more it progressed the more it turned into something darker.

Aside from her love life, the most significant and biggest highlight in Watch Me was when she got into acting. Prior to her most notable roles, she had first dabbled in acting when her father casted her as the lead in his film A Walk With Love and Death when she was 16-years-old. At the time, as she had described in A Story Lately Told, she was not very interested in acting, but felt obligated to because her father wanted her to. In Watch Me, she writes about her newfound interest in acting and how she began to work tirelessly to be a great actress and later a better director.

There is a whole lot more I could say in both A Story Lately Told and Watch Me, but I think I have given you a good idea on what to expect if you choose to read them. Both memoirs are great in their own right and through Anjelica Huston's writing you feel as if you are with her as she takes you through the story of her life.

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

When Borders bookstore was closing back in 2011, I bought a bunch of books that were 70% off and one of those books was The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes. The story begins in London, 1960 when young housewife, Jennifer Stirling, wakes up in a hospital with no memory of her life. She does not remember the car accident that put her there or her wealthy much older husband, Lawrence. As she tries to figure out who she was, she comes across a series of love letters addressed to her signed only as 'B.' Years later in 2003, journalist Ellie Haworth comes across these same lover letters and begins a search to find out what became of the two lovers. I enjoyed this book a lot and I even tried to read it at a slower pace than usual because I did not want it to end. Call me a romantic, but it is a great love story. I liked all of the characters and I wanted them to have a happy ending by the book's end.

From the book's synopsis, I initially thought that the story was going to jump back and forth between 1960 and 2003 and that it would be some kind of mystery happening in both times. Although that would have been interesting, I actually liked how Jojo Moyes stayed in one time period before heading straight to 2003. By doing this, we get to learn more about Jennifer and the man she was in secretly love with. There are a few time jumps during the first part of the novel between amnesic Jennifer in 1960 and Jennifer and her lover meeting in 1959. So, I guess you can say that Jojo Moyes actually did write a time traveling mystery love story. In 1960, Jennifer is trying to solve the mystery of who her secret lover is, and when Moyes jumps back to 1959 we learn about who he is, how they fell in love, and how did Jennifer get into that car accident. With everything pieced together before the novel's second act, which continues briefly around the mid-1960s before fast-forwarding to 2003, you have already fallen in with Jennifer and B and anxiously wait in anticipation of what happens to them years later. I thought Jennifer was a strong female character, especially since she is a woman of the 1960s. She endures through difficult choices that was frowned upon women of that time, and she did it all for love. Her progression from this lost woman, who had a comfortable but empty life, to this woman determined to be with her lover and sacrifice everything was brave and great to read.

When the story jumps to 2003 and continues with Ellie Haworth, I was eagerly waiting to find out what happens. It felt a bit like catch-up initially because after reading a majority of the book with Jennifer, B, and Lawrence, I now have to connect with some new characters who are about to take me through the rest of the story. At first I thought I would not like Ellie because she seemed different than Jennifer. I thought she would be this young leggy reporter shamelessly having an affair with a married man, but as you get to know her she is actually a good person who does not realize how much of a hopeless romantic she is. Despite her own complicated love life, she still believes in love and wants these two people from those letters to be happy and she knows it will be when they are together.

*Spoiler alert* 

If you are going to write a love story, it is important to create two characters who have great chemistry and I thought Jojo Moyes did a great job with Jennifer Stirling and Anthony O'Hare. By having flashbacks of their relationship in 1959 as well as the events that happen in 1960, Jojo Moyes was able to flesh out both characters and show why they should be together and why they are perfect for each other.

I really liked Anthony because when he meets Jennifer, she was just these housewife putting on a façade of a perfect life, when in truth she was unconsciously unhappy. Anthony was able to let Jennifer's guard down and be herself without the wealth and comfortable lifestyle. Jennifer also brought out the best in Anthony. Anthony has a lot of bottled up emotions and issues as a result of his divorce and how his ex-wife does not want him to be a part of their son's life now that she has remarried. Jennifer was able to help Anthony fight his demons and help him let go of everything he has been keeping inside. When they are reunited in the end, I honestly cried because of how beautiful it was. They had been apart for so long and now they have finally found their way back to each other after all these years. 

*End of spoiler*

The Last Letter from Your Lover is such a great story with characters you become attached to even after the book ends - trust me, I am still reeling over everything I read.