the sound of glass by Karen White: review

(I was in the middle of reading one book when I decided to read my November book club pick, not the smartest thing to do. So I am almost finished Golden Notebook, so I hope to have a blog by the end of the week.)

the sound of glass by Karen White ( and yes I realize I did not use capitals in the title, but neither did she,) published by New American Library a division of Penguin Group, May 2015. This book starts off with a plane crash, accident and a young woman afraid of her husband. Then we jump ahead 2 generations to an accident which leaves a young widow looking for answers about her husband and an inheritance of his family home in Beaufort, South Carolina.  We also have a step-mother, half-brother Owen to Merritt, the second generational widow, and Gibbes the brother to Merritt's husband Cal. All these lives are weaved within a tale of abuse, suffering, hardship and mystery that gets centered around a plane crash that happened when Edith Heyward finds a note in the bottom of a suitcase that had blown up over the skies of Beaufort. This book is written in two voices one is Merritt whenever we are in a chapter about her and the second is third person narration when we are in other chapters.  This is a bit confusing at first, but makes sense.

The only other thing that was really troubling in the read was the fact that each generation of abusers in the narrative were named Cal. I had to think which Cal were they talking about, but eventually I got used to it and settled in for the read. The domestic abuse in this narrative was both physical and psychological, making the woman feel less than adequate, playing on their fears, until they were lucky enough to escape, unfortunately one was through death of the woman.

Characters that I loved:
Loralee- Merritt's very young step-mother who writes down sayings in a journal for her son, some of her own and some her mother uses to say to her. She also spouts of sayings from her mother to Merritt, which annoys Merritt immensely, as she has never liked her step-mother for taking place of her mother.
Owen- the half-brother who is the only one who seems to be able to bring a smile to Merritt's face. He is very much like his big sister and Loralee loves to make the comparisons.

Okay I liked all the characters, but the two above were my favorite. Merritt for her strength to face her demon. Gibbes for his gentleness towards this new family, especially since he knew nothing about Merritt as his brother never mentioned her and vice a versa.

There are so many plot twists, some more obvious then others but still essential to the telling of the story. A good book all around.

Review: Brideshead Revisited

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, by Evelyn Waugh, copyright 1944/1945 and then Laura Waugh made a renewed copyright in 1972/1973. My book was published by Back Bay books which looks to be a division of Little Brown and Company. The cover page says that is a companion to the PBS television series, so I might have to watch it.  This is a book that starts in the 1940's because WWII is happening and Evelyn Waugh was recuperating in the Chagford and writing this book.

The book starts off with the narrator of the story Charles Ryder coming with his unit to Brideshead, where they are to set up camp. This gets him to remember the past and the people who lived at Brideshead. The Flyte family is a well-to-do family of four children, an estranged father who does not live at either of the properties and his wife who is very pious. Charles is introduced to this family through college, Sebastian Flyte becomes one of his college friends. It is interesting because there is very much more than a casual relationship between the two men.

We see multiple relationships and alliances, dissolution of the same and the feeling that all is not right with any of the characters. It is a nice historical piece written at the time of conflict. I am amused by the feeling you get as we got closer to the actual time line of Charles Ryder, the belief that the war would not come to much, followed by Germany not having enough money to wage war, followed by the bombings and still the feeling that it was happening to others. An interesting perspective.

It was a pretty fast read and the characters are intricately woven, I may have to look up some of his other books. History and relationships fascinate me.