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mehitabels's review
3.0
"She regarded the small, cheap phone as if it were a weapon she didn't know how to use."
"Her voice quavered, then regained its briskness. 'Old age is not for the timid, Alice. You get shot full of fissures. And memory takes on a life of its own.'"
"Her voice quavered, then regained its briskness. 'Old age is not for the timid, Alice. You get shot full of fissures. And memory takes on a life of its own.'"
wordsmithreads's review
5.0
Last year I read [b:Search|58636923|Search|Michelle Huneven|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1628532955l/58636923._SY75_.jpg|92225538] by Huneven and loved it. I can see the beginnings of Search in this book — Huneven's two big loves are the UU faith and food. In Search, that comes through a narrator who is a food critic and a far-from-devout UU congregant. In Jamesland, that manifests through Helen, a UU minister, and Pete, a chef who has careened through the last few years of his life and is now living with his mom (a nun) to get things back on track. But our book opens with Alice, who sees a deer and her Aunt Kate in her house in the middle of the night. In the morning, however, she remembers: Kate has lived at an assisted living facility for years, and the tuft of deer fur looks like it could maybe be something else? What really happened last night?
From there, Huneven takes us on a journey of Alice's self discovery, and it is through Alice learning about herself that we learn about Helen, who hates her ministry job, and Pete, who can hear himself saying terrible things but can't quite seem to stop it. (It's here I will note as a trigger warning that Pete says f*g a borderline "often" amount of times, though it's not out of homophobia, but a tic. As a second and third and fourth trigger warning, there is mention of suicide attempts, alcoholism, infidelity ... the whole nine yards. Things are not great for our Hollywood characters.)
I appreciate Huneven's prose, because in the same novel where you get something cutting, and incisive, like
you also get a goofy, almost Austen-esq sentence like this
But what I most appreciate about Huneven is the moralizing. If you don't want to be preached to, even sans God, skip this read. I personally really enjoyed Helen's sermon snippets and off-the-pulpit insights:
“Sure, but if you deny the divine, you risk deifying the human ego. Any concept of an other—let alone a higher—power becomes untenable. For my group, it’s unthinkable.”
“How can you say that? Even my brilliant genius psychiatrist says my personality is incompatible with life—way-way-way oversensitive.” [says Pete]
“I’m not so sure that puts you at odds with life. I mean, what’s more sensitive than the universe itself, where every action causes an equal and opposite reaction?” [says Helen]
Pete was stopped by this line of reasoning and, taking it in, approved. Imagine if he was the universe manifest—or the universe a vast, macro version of himself.
You can’t just surrender. You have to surrender to something, and have a sense of what that something is. Preferably, it’s something greater and larger and more encompassing than yourself, something dynamic rather than fixed, something that enlarges rather than constricts, something that energizes the spirit and doesn’t deplete it.
But I wasn't just charmed by Helen. Pete's directness grows on you, because you see what a good heart he is and how hard he's trying to be worthy of himself and others. Alice you come to love as she comes to like herself. I found myself especially drawn to this wonderful thought Alice has early in the novel:
Sometimes, when she coughed, a mockingbird outside the window sang back, as if they were conducting a conversation. In this bird’s song Alice identified the neighborhood noises of a three-tone car alarm, the short piercing blears of a microwave timer, the caw of ravens who nested in the palms, and swore, too, she heard Aunt Kate’s inflection as she had called Uncle Walter in to dinner, her tone rising on the last syllable. Wall-ter? Wall-ter? But Walter had been gone from Wren Street for seven or eight years. Did mockingbirds live that long? Or did they pass on noises, parent to child, as a senseless, persistent inheritance?
In all, Huneven is now 2/2 for me, so I will likely be taking a chance on even more of her writing.
From there, Huneven takes us on a journey of Alice's self discovery, and it is through Alice learning about herself that we learn about Helen, who hates her ministry job, and Pete, who can hear himself saying terrible things but can't quite seem to stop it. (It's here I will note as a trigger warning that Pete says f*g a borderline "often" amount of times, though it's not out of homophobia, but a tic. As a second and third and fourth trigger warning, there is mention of suicide attempts, alcoholism, infidelity ... the whole nine yards. Things are not great for our Hollywood characters.)
I appreciate Huneven's prose, because in the same novel where you get something cutting, and incisive, like
It was smugness, not cruelty, Helen decided, that was the opposite of compassion.
you also get a goofy, almost Austen-esq sentence like this
She was not going to lock horns with a panpipe band, least of all with the queenly Francine, who, despite her Episcopalian flirtation, could still be classified as a supporter.
But what I most appreciate about Huneven is the moralizing. If you don't want to be preached to, even sans God, skip this read. I personally really enjoyed Helen's sermon snippets and off-the-pulpit insights:
“Sure, but if you deny the divine, you risk deifying the human ego. Any concept of an other—let alone a higher—power becomes untenable. For my group, it’s unthinkable.”
“How can you say that? Even my brilliant genius psychiatrist says my personality is incompatible with life—way-way-way oversensitive.” [says Pete]
“I’m not so sure that puts you at odds with life. I mean, what’s more sensitive than the universe itself, where every action causes an equal and opposite reaction?” [says Helen]
Pete was stopped by this line of reasoning and, taking it in, approved. Imagine if he was the universe manifest—or the universe a vast, macro version of himself.
You can’t just surrender. You have to surrender to something, and have a sense of what that something is. Preferably, it’s something greater and larger and more encompassing than yourself, something dynamic rather than fixed, something that enlarges rather than constricts, something that energizes the spirit and doesn’t deplete it.
But I wasn't just charmed by Helen. Pete's directness grows on you, because you see what a good heart he is and how hard he's trying to be worthy of himself and others. Alice you come to love as she comes to like herself. I found myself especially drawn to this wonderful thought Alice has early in the novel:
Sometimes, when she coughed, a mockingbird outside the window sang back, as if they were conducting a conversation. In this bird’s song Alice identified the neighborhood noises of a three-tone car alarm, the short piercing blears of a microwave timer, the caw of ravens who nested in the palms, and swore, too, she heard Aunt Kate’s inflection as she had called Uncle Walter in to dinner, her tone rising on the last syllable. Wall-ter? Wall-ter? But Walter had been gone from Wren Street for seven or eight years. Did mockingbirds live that long? Or did they pass on noises, parent to child, as a senseless, persistent inheritance?
In all, Huneven is now 2/2 for me, so I will likely be taking a chance on even more of her writing.
jchant's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Last year I read Michelle Huneven's most recent novel, Search, and I enjoyed it, so I decided to try one of her older books. This was a weird little book. but I enjoyed it—it had interesting characters, with a mostly compelling plot. Huneven must be an active Unitarian, because like Search, a Unitarian church (and minister) play a major role in the story. Anyway, this definitely kept my interest, so I recommend it.
edboies's review against another edition
4.0
This book has such a good heart that it is easy to overlook its shortcomings.
pattydsf's review
3.0
I picked this book up because of Shelf Awareness. This is a daily email produced for the book trade and also useful (in my opinion) for librarians. There is lots of good info in this publication, but my favorite part is the Book Brahmin. A couple of times a week, they ask an author a variety of questions from "On your nightstand now", to "Favorite book when you were a child" and lots of other questions. The last question is usually "Book you most want to read again for the first time" and that is where I first heard about Jamesland. Dan Barden offered this title as his choice for this category. Some how what he said about this book, made me want to read it.
I am glad I did. I don't think I would have picked up this book on my own. The cover seems boring (yes, that matters to me) and the characters are a bit strange. They are not people I would want in my life. No matter, once I started the book, I was hooked. The question that Michelle Huneven is trying to answer is "How do people live in this world?" That question is especially important for Alice, Pete, Helen and the others in this story. After a couple of chapters I really wanted to know how these folk would live in this world - I cared about them.
I often read for the information I glean from a book. Also I am usually interested in the world that the author creates. I am not sure what I learned from Jamesland, but I know the world Huneven writes about was a new world for me.
I recommend this book to readers interested in good writing, those who care about different kinds of people and those who want their stories wrapped up at the end.
I am glad I did. I don't think I would have picked up this book on my own. The cover seems boring (yes, that matters to me) and the characters are a bit strange. They are not people I would want in my life. No matter, once I started the book, I was hooked. The question that Michelle Huneven is trying to answer is "How do people live in this world?" That question is especially important for Alice, Pete, Helen and the others in this story. After a couple of chapters I really wanted to know how these folk would live in this world - I cared about them.
I often read for the information I glean from a book. Also I am usually interested in the world that the author creates. I am not sure what I learned from Jamesland, but I know the world Huneven writes about was a new world for me.
I recommend this book to readers interested in good writing, those who care about different kinds of people and those who want their stories wrapped up at the end.
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