Ponder: A Fatal Grace

A Fatal Grace ©2006 is the second murder mystery novel written by New York Times best selling author Louise Penny. It is also the second of her books that I have read. She has written fifteen novels with a sixteenth scheduled to be release in a couple days on September 1st. Yes, she is prolific. Based on my small sampling of two, she also seems consistent. Her chief inspector Armand Garmache is a truly likable character and, in my opinion, is the key reason readers become Louise Penny fans. He typically mentors new detectives to teach them the skills needed to effectively observe clues at the crime scene, interview suspects or witnesses, postulate motives, and question assumptions.

The character who is murdered in A Fatal Grace is nasty, cruel, vain, and generally unlikeable. No one grieves her death. The way she was killed is bizarre, via electrocution out on a sub-zero frozen lake. But the meticulous explanation of how such a feat could be accomplished – needing liquid, physical contact, and a source of electrical power – was fascinating and scientifically sound. It was not until the final pages that the murderer was revealed. I was unsuccessful in deciphering the culprit, so that final reveal part of the book entertained me. Sometimes, being duped in a fair competition where all the information is there and you just did not piece it together quite right is surprisingly amusing.

I also enjoy being immersed in the plot with the familiar friendly quirky characters from the first novel. The setting was once again the quaint village of Three Pines in Quebec and the snowy setting makes me imagine the story in unfolding inside a snow globe (image courtesy of 3d animations from Turbosquid. 

True, I can not help but wonder how such an idyllic village could engender so many murders (fifteen of them, if all Penny's future novels take place in Three Pines). But then again, the tiny New England town of Cabot Cove in the TV series Murder She Wrote starring Angela Landsbury had a similar affliction.

Murder, She Wrote is an American crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher The series aired for 12 seasons with 264 episodes from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network. It was followed by four TV films. Among the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, it averaged more than 30 million viewers per week in its prime (sometimes hitting above 40 million viewers), and was a staple of the CBS Sunday night lineup for a decade. In syndication, the series is still highly successful throughout the world.

For a good sample of the author's style, the entire first chapter of Fatal Grace is on Louise Penny's website as an excerpt. The book has the dual title of Dead Cold for the UK and Canada, hence the cryptic "dc" in the link. I think Dead Cold is a better title. I may have missed the explanatory reference in the text but I did not ever figure out the reason for the US title Fatal Grace. I surmise it could be an allusion to the term "coup de grâce", a French phrase that can be defined as "an action or event that serves as the culmination of a bad or deteriorating situation". The murder victim truly was an awful individual. I'd written a rather lengthy review of Louise Penny's first novel, Still Life, in my post dated 2/28/20 where I gave it 4 stars.  I give Fatal Grace 3 stars which in my rating system stands for Better than average; not a waste of time. Why fewer stars then the first novel? I am not sure. Perhaps it has something to do with "why bother to find out who killed such a foul person since they deserved it". Why waste any more time on such an abominable human being? 

Fewer stars do not deter me from reading this author's third and fourth novels. I put my name on the wait list at my local library and will be picking them up next week. They are not extremely riveting, but are certainly absorbing filler reads while deciding what more demanding texts to read next.

Alex Bowling

Frank and I have been visiting our son Alex at the St. Denis Home nearly every Sunday since mid-March when the shelter-in-place order was issued. He is not allowed to come and go from his home for fear of contracting Covid or passing it on to the other clients upon his return. He wolfs down the edible treats we bring each week, and I think he comes to expect the carrots we bring for the bunny.  We also try to include  something of interest like a puzzle or other distraction. We sit on the front lawn and read to him via FaceTime or have a "conversation" using staff iPhones or iPads. See post dated 6/23/20.

On our June 28th visit we brought Alex an iPad of his own that Frank's former co-worker Brett generously gave to us. We were permitted to transfer and introduce the iPad to him with masks and social distancing out in his back yard. We had loaded it with a few movies and some of his song favorites. 

The songs especially were a big hit. We usually played those for him in the car on our Sunday outings to the bowling alley or to the occasional show or movie. He loves the iPad and carries it with him all day listening to his music. He can be convinced –  barely–  to give it up reluctantly at bedtime only so it can be recharged. He is like the typical teenager who is glued to his cell phone. 

On most every FaceTime visit, however, the first word Alex greets us with is not Hiya or Mom. It is Bowl. The alleys are closed of course due to the pandemic and even if they were not, Alex is not allowed to come and go from his home for fear of contracting COVID-19 or passing it on to the other clients upon his return. Frank and I found a hardwood lawn bowling set on Amazon and decide to try to fulfill his bowling request at least partially. Because the pins are not foam or formed plastic or inflatable vinyl they have a heftiness to them that  is more like "real" bowling.

On August 16 we asked if we could meet outside once again to introduce Alex to to the bowling set. We were permitted as long as we had our temperature taken, then filled out and signed a wellness questionnaire. That particular Sunday the temperature hit 106°F, even though we waited until 6:00 pm to go there. By some miracle, we still passed the forehead temperature test. We wore masks, social distanced, and wiped off the pins and the bowls with antiseptic wipes whenever they changed hands between Alex and Frank or me. Alex was pretty good about wearing his mask. Occasionally he would tug it down, but, once reminded, he would pull it back up again.

Aah, would that the set came with an automatic pin setter and ball return... !  Frank was the dutiful pin setter. I was the fetcher and retriever of the balls and cleaner of all wooden items that might be touched by multiple people. In 106°F heat, those trivial tasks grew old quickly. I wanted to take some photos of Alex in action but once I retrieved the balls and sanitized them, and as soon as I handed them back to Alex – at arm's length of course – I was never quick enough with my cell phone camera to aim and snap a picture. I can report though, that he did enjoy the down-scaled bowling activity.

 

We visited for a short while longer but then sent Alex back to the cool indoors and we retreated to our air conditioned car. Staff promised to play with Alex again in the morning when it was not as hot... only in the low 80's if they got out there before 10:00 am.

Today one week later, Sunday August 23, the heat was more tolerable, about 91°F, when we went in the late afternoon. We only dropped off a bag of goodies and FaceTimed very briefly. We could not visit outside because the air quality was unhealthy from all the wild fires. Sigh. We will keep trying. The following air quality meter from our visit today is take from the site AirNow.gov. With his treats of Hershey Kisses, raisins, and M&M's, oblivious to the challenges of heat and air quality and social distancing, Alex was a happy camper.

Ponder: Little Fires Everywhere

I finished reading Little Fires Everywhere ©2017 by Celeste Ng a few weeks ago and I am sitting here struggling to write a blog post about it. I remember reading it through in one sitting so it was gripping. But whether I should attribute my lack of a lasting impression to the book or to my senior memory is debatable. The story is set in Shaker Heights, a planned community ingrained with enough laws, regulations, and social mores that it is perceived by most residents to be Utopian in nature. It is a racially integrated suburb with diverse income levels. Perhaps I find it difficult to a generate a synopsis of the book since the plot seemed secondary to me. The book opens with a family home engulfed in a raging fire, a dramatic scene one would anticipate for a climax, rather than an opening. It did draw me in, intrigued to learn if the presumed perpetrator was really the guilty party and why a fire had been set. It was indeed set and ruled to be arson as the book titled Little Fires Everywhere implies. But the heightened physical action did not continue, at least not at that intense level, and the tone of the book was not that of a whodunit.

 

Little Fires Everywhere became more a study in relationships, thought processes, and emotional journeys. As I turned the pages I delved deeper and deeper into understanding the characters. Celeste Ng's superb portrayal made each of them spring to life for me. Three family units form the main character set of the novel: 1) the Richardsons, a journalist mother, a lawyer father, with their two high school age daughters and two high school age sons, 2) Mia and Pearl Warren, a single artist mother and her high school age daughter and 3) the McCulloughs, a wealthy childless couple. Issues explored included mother and daughter friction, teenage sexuality, academics, career choices, cultural differences, racial biases, child abandonment, adoption, surrogacy, community involvement. I viewed this gamut of topics as another interpretation of "little fires everywhere".

From advertisements for the book, I knew in advance of reading it that one conflict would be controversy over the adoption of a Chinese baby girl by a Caucasian couple. A debate raged within the community over the necessity of raising the child with intimate knowledge of her own native culture. I also learned early on in the book that the eldest Richardson daughter had been dating a black classmate throughout her high school years with no inter-racial repercussions or biases. The Chinese baby was a culture issue; the inter-racial dating was a non-issue. Other than that, I did not see Little Fires Everywhere as a book about race. Skin color seemed irrelevant. Why do I bring up this topic?

This novel was made into a 2020 TV mini-series with eight episodes in its first season. In the first episode I was shocked when I saw the casting of the characters. Mia and Pearl were black. In my Caucasian mind, when I read the book, I defaulted to picturing all characters, unless specifically stated otherwise, to be white. The book had stated no race. I just assumed they were white. Race and its little innuendos within an accepting, integrated community became an issue in the TV version. I have watched the first two episodes and realized the mini-series has very little resemblance to the book. It deviates drastically from what I read and imagined, even in area beyond race. I do not know how far it will stray in the other six episodes. Do not expect to watch the mini-series as a substitute for the book.

But my deep surprise at the casting bothered me. Had I been that oblivious to the racial clues in the book? I googled other interpretations and found this March 31, 2020 article in The Atlantic. In it, the author Celeste Ng, who's Asian American, is quoted as saying

Initially, I had wanted to write [Mia and her daughter, Pearl] as people of color. I thought of them as people of color, because I knew I wanted to talk about race and class, and those things are so intertwined in our country and in our culture … But I didn’t feel like I was the right person to try to bring a black woman’s experience to the page.

So I wasn't that blind, after all, and I am vindicated for "missing" clues that were not in the novel. Race was not needed for this book to have controversies. Wealth disparities, skepticism of art as a career, and parent/child relationships were the big infernos among the "little fires everywhere", more than enough to hold interest in this book. Little Fires Everywhere spent 48 weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list and the Amazon customer ratings gave it 4½ stars out of 5.

I enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere but was not as enamored as previous readers. I give it three stars which in my rating system equates to Better than average; not a waste of time. I am glad I read it and liked Celeste Ng's style sufficiently that I am on my library's waiting list to read her 2015 novel Everything I Never Told You.

Ponder: Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey

Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey, co-written by the mother and son duo of Magdalena & Nathaniel Newman ©2020, tells the experiences of a boy born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. Per Wikipedia this genetic disorder is

characterized by deformities of the ears, eyes, cheekbones, and chin. The degree to which a person is affected, however, may vary from mild to severe. Complications may include breathing problems, problems seeing, cleft palate, and hearing loss. Those affected generally have an average intelligence.

Much of the public was made aware of this syndrome by the 2012 book and 2017 movie Wonder about a fictional character Auggie Pullman, with Treacher Collins syndrome, who struggled to fit socially into middle school because of looking so different. I read and enjoyed the book Wonder and posted a review about it 12/3/17. By contrast, the main character in Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey is real. He is sixteen years old at the time of the 2020 publication of this book, having endured 67 surgeries by that age. These corrective surgeries allow him to breathe, hear, and eat more normally.

Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey opens with Nathaniel at age thirteen swimming in a lake, swimming for the first time in his life, now that he no longer has a tracheotomy. Getting water in a tracheotomy is akin to drowning; swimming with an open hole in the neck is strictly forbidden. Every day routines like showering, or fun activities like splashing and water slides, become life threatening. The following graphic is shown from Part I: A Beautiful Baby Boy / Chapter: To Breathe.

Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey has a medical focus rather than an acceptance focus as Wonder did. The book is fascinating, but neither morbid nor overly explicit. The graphic images among the pages are fun and do a great job of comedic relief in illustrating Nathaniel's various incidents or milestones (mile-boulders as his mom calls them). The following graphic is Nathanial after hearing aid implants, shown from Part I: A Beautiful Baby Boy / Chapter: To Hear.

The following onboard train image is recalls a "humorous" experience with a popping and leaking abdominal feeding tube under pressure during a family rail excursion. These three amusing but poignant illustrations are the artwork of Neil Swaab. There are many, many more of them throughout Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey. They put a remarkably upbeat spin on what in reality are dramatic and potentially heart-rending situations. This next graphic is from Part I: A Beautiful Baby Boy / Chapter: A Day Out with Thomas.

When I requested the book from my local library, I had not realized I was getting a young reader's edition until I looked at the cover after I'd read the 327 page long book. (Book thickness had not clued me in ahead of time that it was from the juvenile section of the library.) An adult version titled Normal: A Mother and her Beautiful Son, authored by Magdalena Newman alone, existed in parallel. "What had I missed?" I fretted. The adult version had a forward by R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder, that was not included in the young adult edition. I learned however that the forward was available in the Look inside⤵︎  feature offered by Amazon. Palacio's forward was worth seeking out. From reading it I found that her impression of the family when they first met over lunch was that the Newmans "were funny and warm and incredibly kind, and that Russel [father] cried easily and Magda [mother] smiled easily." My curiosity about the interactions between the fictional world of Auggie and the real world of Nathaniel were addressed to my satisfaction in chapters of the young reader edition describing R.J. Palacio's interactions with the Newman family, their experiences on the set of the Wonder movie, and their invitation to the premier of the Wonder movie. Hollywood was not at all oblivious to reality.

I found no credit for illustrations given in the adult book Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son, so I cannot be certain if there are "cartoons" in the adult edition of Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son. If there are none, then I am definitely pleased that I read the young edition instead, even if I did so by happenstance rather than choice. Perhaps the intent of those drawings was to have the book appeal to a younger demographic, much as a graphic novel (i.e., a comic book) would. Those many black and white drawings contributed a great deal to my enjoyment of the book and conveyed, to an enhanced degree, the prevailing sense of ebullience of a young man while undergoing so many involved medical interventions to allow him to breathe, eat, hear, and bathe with any sense of normalcy. Normalcy. Nathaniel loved superheroes, he loved dogs, he loved video games, all characteristics of a typical, or should I say normal, boy. He had loving attentive parents who did their utmost best for him –  also normal.

The young adult edition did not have a table of contents but perusing the Table of Contents of the adult edition did not lead me to believe I had missed much. When I compared verbiage in first chapter of both editions, it was alike. Perhaps the mother-only edition contained more of her perspective, her worries, her stress, her angst; in which case I am glad I read the upbeat young adult edition. Maybe the mother-only edition uses bigger medical terms; if so, I am further pleased I read the layman-friendly young reader edition.

In the closing chapter Nathaniel writes

It's weird for me to write this book, about what I've been through, when I don't want people to talk about what I've been through. We like to categorize people. That's how Wonder helped people understand me. "Oh, there's a kid like Auggie." But I think all of us have parts of our identity that we'd prefer people to see through. You notice how I look? Fine. You have a question or two about it? Sure, okay. But after that, I'd like us to move on, so we can see if we like to play the same games or talk about the same things.  ... what I hope people take away from my story, the value of separating who someone is from what he looks like. If this doesn't come to you naturally, if you have to think about it first and remind yourself, looks don't matter, looks don't matter, I don't see anything wrong with that.

There are many instances in this book where I ached or rejoiced or laughed with the Newman family members: his father, after carrying his son to the operating room for each surgery, staying by his side until he was asleep, and then retreating in tears to the waiting room; his mother struggling to be brave when reinserting his feed tube, suctioning his tracheotomy, or tightening the screws on one of his post-surgery restraining devices; Nathaniel swimming for the first time, and eating spaghetti and meatballs for the first time without it having been pureed; Nathaniel hearing voices for the first time. Even though it may have a limited audience, I rate Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey five stars, translating to Great! Read it!