Les Misérables

Les Misérables is a huge, powerful, magnificent, and quirky book.  It is rich in vividly portrayed human emotion: love (Marius and Cosette), pluck and humor (Gavroche), callous villainy (Thénardier) and tragedy (Fantine and Éponine). I thought I knew the main story line from the musical: the relentless pursuit of the still-wanted but reformed criminal Jean Valjean by the obsessive and righteous Javert.  But I was surprised to realize that the novel actually concentrates on the transformation and redemption of Jean Valjean.

The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details ... a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end.

 When Valjean spares Javert’s life, it is but one of several critical steps on his road to salvation and peace, but this act of mercy by a “hardened criminal” disrupts and devastates Javert, who is unable to understand or accept it, and ends his life.  Javert’s story is Valjean’s turned upside down:  Valjean's early encounter with a saintly bishop starts his transformation from a bitter, hate-filled man consumed with revenge, into a humble and loving human being, whereas Javert's late-life encounter with the now merciful and generous Valjean, shatters Javert’s rigid belief in The Right, and destroys his sense of himself.  Are we marked by fate or able to control our destiny?  What are we to make of the superhuman integrity and benevolence that Valjean is able to achieve versus the seemingly inescapable damnation that Javert’s life of stringent rectitude dictated for him? 

A quirky part of the book is the insertion, at intervals, of lengthy discourses on subjects with a glancing relationship, or no relationship whatsoever, to the story: a detailed analysis of the Battle of Waterloo, the different kinds of convents in 18^th century France, the history and meaning of slang, a virtual treatise on the development of the sewer system in Paris.  Some of these were pretty interesting! (But not all). 

A wonderful, compelling story line, tremendous empathy for the downtrodden, and a fiery commitment to human dignity and liberty.  An unforgettable read.

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Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

I recently finished reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me.” It is a very poetic, powerful, and personal look at what it means to grow up as a Black boy and live as a Black man in America. His story is framed as a letter to his son, warning him about the dangers of living in a society run by White people, whom he terms “Dreamers.” This “Dream” is the society in which we all live, where the fantasy of White supremacy has been reified by violence. Through the Dream, Whites have access to what we commonly call “The American Dream,” while Blacks are excluded from opportunity and security - penned into ghettoes and the prison system, and terrorized and murdered by the police. Coates is full of anger at the unfair system that claims the lives of so many Black men, and the heat of his fury is palpable, but his tale also has another side, which is his pride in and love for the power of Black culture and community. Definitely a heart-wrenching book, but an important one. Would recommend to all!

The Alice Network - Kate Quinn

This intriguing novel is based on an actual spy ring that operated in World War I. The real-life Louise de Bettignies, alias Alice, was the brilliant leader of The Alice Network, a very effective group of espionage agents in France who spied on the Germans. Although Louise is an important character in the novel the central characters are the fictional Eve and Charlotte, aka Charlie. In 1947, Eve is a bitter, foul-mouthed alcoholic who had been a spy in both the WWI Alice Network and in WWII. Charlie is a 19-year-old American who is desperately trying to find her cousin Rose who went missing in 1944, presumably while working for the French Resistance. Charlie enlists Eve’s help in finding Rose. Eve’s ulterior motive is to find Rene, a French profiteer Eve spied on during the first World War. Will Charlie find Rose and fulfill their dream of owning a café together? Will Eve find Rene and seek revenge? While the readers follow the 1947 search, we are also told the story of how young, innocent Eve becomes such a wretched character while serving in The Alice Network in 1915. The story kept my interest throughout with exciting plot turns and compelling characters. I have to say that the fictional Rene is one of the creepiest, sleaziest villains I’ve read in a novel in a long time! Author Kate Quinn’s depiction of wartime deprivation and resistance reminded me of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See although Quinn’s novel is not as lyrical as Doerr’s. I appreciated Quinn’s notes at the end of the book about the real Alice Network. I recommend this very readable novel to fans of historical fiction.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See

I’ve been a fan of Lisa See’s cultural and historical novels since reading her bestseller Snow Flower and the Secret Fan several years ago. See’s books have good story telling, compelling characters and fascinating depictions of ancient or contemporary China. See’s latest work, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, has all these qualities. The story begins in 1988 with Li-yan, a young woman of the Akha Hill Tribe of China. Her family ekes out an existence growing and processing tea in a remote village. Li-yan has an unhappy love affair that results in the birth of a baby girl. Evading a tribal taboo of the time that forbids the love child to live, Li-yan secretly leaves the baby at an orphanage. The reader then follows the separate life journeys of Li-yan and her daughter. Through education, Li-yan leaves the village and makes a successful life in modern day China as an entrepreneur of the rare, highly prized tea called Pu’er. Her daughter is adopted by an affluent American family who name her Haley and provide a privileged life in Pasadena, California. Li-Yan agonizes over the loss of her child. Haley struggles with feelings of gratitude for her adopted parents and anger at her biological parents for abandoning her. Li-yan and Haley’s search for each other is what makes the novel a page turner. My favorite parts of the novel are when See deftly interweaves Akha traditions into the storyline. My only criticisms of the book are that Li-yan’s journeys to the “outside world” seem a bit far-fetched at times and See’s lengthy descriptions of cultivating Pu’er tea is perhaps more information than the reader needs to know. But if you enjoy well-written cultural and historical novels, I enthusiastically recommend this book and all of See’s works. 

Also, I was very interested to learn the “back story” for this book. On her Web site at LisaSee.com, the author provides wonderful videos about the Akha culture and her own experiences in China researching this book. And I was fascinated by a YouTube talk given by See in which she discusses her in-depth interviews with Chinese women adopted by American parents. Lisa See is passionate about her research into culture and history and that passion is present in all her well-crafted, highly readable novels.