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A review by mrsthrift
Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg
4.0
I really loved [b:Bee Season|251762|Bee Season|Myla Goldberg|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51im0CfE3TL._SL75_.jpg|2482870], so I was very pleased to listen to Wickett's Remedy on audio book as well. Maybe it's unfair to compare these two different stories solely because they share a maker, but Myla's name is what made me read this.
Initially the books seem like they could not be more dissimilar, although the style of their self-assured narrators indicate that they are related. Bee Season exists at the baffling intersection of Spelling Bees, Jewish mysticism, Hare Krishna recruitment, and mental illness. Wickett's Remedy makes its home at the junction of a young widow, a soda pop flavor, and the deadly raging influenza epidemic. Wickett doesn't hide major plot elements like Bee Season, nor does it hand you every character and facet of the story at once. It is many intersecting, overlapping layers that shift through time and narrators to create a ghostly story. Indeed, in the audio book version many of the sub-characters sound quite like ghosts as they recount their haunting memories.
I love books where the city is a character. Boston almost reaches out of these pages with her self-conscious history, shifting identities tied to neighborhoods and recent immigrants. The audio book has a lot of immigrant accents, clanging street noises, and enough bustle to make the story an immersion experience.
Another major character in this book is death. It's not like in Jennifer Egan's [b:A Visit from the Goon Squad|7331435|A Visit from the Goon Squad|Jennifer Egan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1290480318s/7331435.jpg|8975330], where the goon is time, but in Wickett's, death is all around. It is the major motivating factor of nearly every plot line. The death of a husband drives a poor widow back to her parents house. A soda mogul creates his industry heir from a mailroom clerk who shares a name with his dead son. Deaths of a neighbor, a brother, or a spouse define the moments where Something Happens in this book. The secondary narrators are ghosts talking from beyond the grave. There is so much death, loss, grief and sadness in this book, but it's not an especially sad or dramatic book. The plain, forthright language and earnest characters weave death seamlessly into life like a 50/50 cotton/poly blend.
Overall, this wasn't my most favorite book ever, for no particular reason, but it was highly enjoyable. Goldberg brings a cast of strong, developed characters that sometimes do inadvisable things because they feel like they should. Lydia is a capable, independent young woman who is entirely a product of her loved ones, her heritage and her community, as we all are. The story is set in an interesting place at a difficult time, and the humanity of it all shows through very close to the surface. And that, gentle reader, is entirely what I loved about Bee Season.
Also, though? Lydia's husband, Henry? he kind of creeped me out in a major way. Was that just me?
Initially the books seem like they could not be more dissimilar, although the style of their self-assured narrators indicate that they are related. Bee Season exists at the baffling intersection of Spelling Bees, Jewish mysticism, Hare Krishna recruitment, and mental illness. Wickett's Remedy makes its home at the junction of a young widow, a soda pop flavor, and the deadly raging influenza epidemic. Wickett doesn't hide major plot elements like Bee Season, nor does it hand you every character and facet of the story at once. It is many intersecting, overlapping layers that shift through time and narrators to create a ghostly story. Indeed, in the audio book version many of the sub-characters sound quite like ghosts as they recount their haunting memories.
I love books where the city is a character. Boston almost reaches out of these pages with her self-conscious history, shifting identities tied to neighborhoods and recent immigrants. The audio book has a lot of immigrant accents, clanging street noises, and enough bustle to make the story an immersion experience.
Another major character in this book is death. It's not like in Jennifer Egan's [b:A Visit from the Goon Squad|7331435|A Visit from the Goon Squad|Jennifer Egan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1290480318s/7331435.jpg|8975330], where the goon is time, but in Wickett's, death is all around. It is the major motivating factor of nearly every plot line. The death of a husband drives a poor widow back to her parents house. A soda mogul creates his industry heir from a mailroom clerk who shares a name with his dead son. Deaths of a neighbor, a brother, or a spouse define the moments where Something Happens in this book. The secondary narrators are ghosts talking from beyond the grave. There is so much death, loss, grief and sadness in this book, but it's not an especially sad or dramatic book. The plain, forthright language and earnest characters weave death seamlessly into life like a 50/50 cotton/poly blend.
Overall, this wasn't my most favorite book ever, for no particular reason, but it was highly enjoyable. Goldberg brings a cast of strong, developed characters that sometimes do inadvisable things because they feel like they should. Lydia is a capable, independent young woman who is entirely a product of her loved ones, her heritage and her community, as we all are. The story is set in an interesting place at a difficult time, and the humanity of it all shows through very close to the surface. And that, gentle reader, is entirely what I loved about Bee Season.
Also, though? Lydia's husband, Henry? he kind of creeped me out in a major way. Was that just me?