Short Story Wednesday: More Stories from Five Tuesdays in Winter

 

In December 2024, I read the first four stories in Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King. I liked them all; check out my thoughts on those stories here. I liked the characterizations; the stories were serious but ended on an upbeat note.

This week I read the remaining six stories in the book. Many of these stories are slice-of-life stories, and I had never really understood what that meant before. They take some brief time in a person's life and just describe the events, the emotions, etc. Some were about depressing subjects, but what I like about these stories is that you feel that life will go on with these people and they will have better days.

"South" was the ninth story in the book. Marie-Claude is driving from Baltimore, Maryland to Hatteras (Hatteras Island, North Carolina). Her two children are in the car, an obviously young son and an older daughter, age not specified. Marie-Claude and the children's father have recently separated. The mother and daughter talk and the daughter asks questions about the failure of the marriage that Marie-Claude does not want to answer or even think about. Even though the story itself is on the sad side, like most of the stories in this book, the ending leaves us with hope. 

The last story was "The Man at the Door." I noticed that many readers that reviewed this book did not like that story at all, and I am not sure why. It read like a dream sequence to me. A mother with a young baby who is still nursing (and not napping enough) is trying to find some time to write. Her husband and two older children are not in the house. The baby wakes up; she tries to write while nursing him. Then a man comes to the door and insists on being let in. There is nothing at all realistic about this story; he keeps changing form and giving her advice on writing. It was very different from the other stories but still I enjoyed it. NOTE: After I wrote this, I saw several reviews which described this story as magical realism. I have had mixed reactions to magical realism in some books I have read, but this story was fine.

Oona Out of Order: Margarita Montimore

This story starts on New Year's Eve 1982; at the stroke of midnight, Oona will turn 19. She expects to be making a decision about whether to go to school in London the next year or stay in Brooklyn and tour for a year with the band she and her boyfriend are in. But when midnight comes, Oona is jerked out of her current situation. She awakens in a lovely house, in her 51st year. She is appalled to see how old she is, and that she is overweight. 

Oona is living one year of her life at a time, but out of order (hence the title). She has awakened in 2015. Fortunately, there is a man waiting there for her to explain the situation, and she is living in a gorgeous home. The man is Kenzie and he introduces himself as her personal assistant and friend. She freaks out and he does his best to calm her down. 

After that, every year at midnight on New Year's Eve, the same thing happens; Oona either jumps ahead to a future year or goes back to an earlier year that she has not experienced before.  It makes poor Oona very cranky to be jerked off to a different year in her life every New Year's Eve.

This is a time travel book, but there is no explanation of why this phenomenon is happening to her, thus it is more fantasy than science fiction. I enjoyed this a lot while I was reading it; I gave it five stars, and I still think it deserves that rating, but I am pretty generous with my ratings. So as far as entertainment value goes, it did very well. 

Family is a recurring theme in this book. Of course, I loved that part of it. Most of the time I liked Oona's mother Madeleine and Kenzie better than I liked the lead character. Oona is often bratty and immature. She may look older at times but she hasn't had that many years of actual living to mature. 

I was frustrated that not that many years in Oona's life are covered. In a way, each year was approached as if it was a short story and you are getting a glimpse of her life. But because she has no memory of any year that she leaves behind... the reader sometimes knows more that she does. 

In summary, I liked the premise of this book and it was fun and the writing was well done. As with many time travel books, I was confused at times. It was 340 pages long and it was the rare book that I wish was much longer.

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Publisher:  Flatiron Books, 2020.
Length:      336 pages
Format:     Trade Paper
Setting:      New York City
Genre:       Fantasy / Time Travel
Source:     I purchased my copy in 2024.

The Burgess Boys: Elizabeth Strout

In a short prologue, the Burgess family is introduced, focusing mainly on the two boys, Jim and Bob. They both have legal careers and left their home town of Shirley Falls, Maine, to pursue their careers. Bob has always been the lesser brother, the one who plods along but did not succeed spectacularly like his older brother. But he also is the one who every one likes, who is nice and kind and thinks well of people.

Then an incident happens in Shirley Falls, Maine, where Susan, their sister, still lives. Susan's nineteen-year-old son, Zach, commits a crime and the Burgess boys feel like they have to go back to their home town to help her. Jim is going on a vacation with his wife and another couple and he drafts Bob to go and help. But Bob doesn't handle the situation very well and Jim is bent out of shape.

I like books about families and this is a very unusual family. There is a tragedy in their past which has affected all of the relationships in the family. The children's father was killed when they were all under ten years of age; although he was only four years old at the time, Bob was blamed for his father's death and it has affected his self-image, to put it mildly. The dynamics within the family are strange. Jim, the older brother, is needlessly cruel to his brother, taunting him mercilessly. Most of the time this just rolls off of Bob. Susan is Bob's twin, but she is also often disparaging of Bob and his abilities. 

The rest of the story is about how Zack's problems are handled, and the effects these events have on all of their lives.

My thoughts:

• I liked how parts of the story are told from the point of view of characters outside the main family:  Abdikarim Ahmed, a member of the Somali community in Shirley Falls, who testifies against Zack at his hearing; Bob's ex-wife, Pam, who left him because they could not have children;  and Helen Burgess, Jim's wife, who is having problems with an empty nest after her children leave home.
• The majority of the characters in this book are unlikable, but I continued to be interested in reading about all of them. This was partly due to the author's writing style, but also because I was sure that I was going to learn more about them and be able to figure out why they were so disagreeable or unappealing. 
• Coincidentally, the two fiction books I read prior to this one were kind of downers, and this one continued that trend. Unexpectedly, this book probably had a more optimistic outcome towards the end than those books. And certainly this one was more upbeat than the other books by Strout I have read (Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton, and Anything is Possible). 
• This was a compelling read but not an easy read. My description above leaves so much out. That is intentional, so as not to spoil the reading experience. The novel is very rich with important themes and topics.

John Grant wrote a very detailed review of this book in 2019, which can be read either at his blog, Noirish, or on Goodreads.

Short Story Wednesday: "Immune to Murder" by Rex Stout

 

Today I am continuing my reread of Rex Stout's novellas. The Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin series was published between 1934 and 1975. First I will give a brief overview of the series...

Nero Wolfe is an armchair detective, preferring to do all his detecting from home. He is a genius, a lover of orchids and fine food, who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. They live in a New York brownstone and share the house with Theodore, a plant expert who cares for Wolfe's orchids, and Fritz, Wolfe's cook.

 

"Immune to Murder" is a 66-page novella, one of three stories in Three for the Chair, published in 1957.

When I reread one of these novella collections, I always read my favorite story first. "Immune to Murder" is a favorite because it takes Wolfe and Archie out of the brownstone to a remote rural setting, and it involves food, which is a common theme of the series.

Wolfe has been invited to cook for a visiting ambassador at a retreat set in the Adirondack Mountains. The visiting dignitary wanted to fish for American brook trout and he wanted it cooked straight from the brook by Nero Wolfe. 

On the morning following Wolfe and Archie's arrival at the lodge, the other guests go out to fish for bass for three hours. Archie has been given permission to go fishing along the same route they used, after they return, and he does this. (There is a lot of fishing lingo in this story.) Unfortunately, along the way he discovers the dead body of one of the guests. He goes back to report this to Wolfe first, then lets the rest of the group know. And of course, Wolfe ends up solving the crime, reluctantly.

"Immune to Murder" was first published in the November 1955 issue of The American Magazine.

It was also adapted for A&E’s Nero Wolfe Mystery TV series starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Theory & Practice to The Paris Diversion

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Theory & Practice  by Michelle de Kretser. This book won the Stella Prize, a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and championing diversity and cultural change. Theory & Practice is described as autofiction; thus it is a blend between autobiography and fiction. When I was looking into this subgenre of fiction, I was both confused and interested in all the descriptions and various interpretations. 

1st degree:

My first link will be to Outline by Rachel Cusk, which is also described as autofiction. I have that book on my shelves, unread. So I hope to give it a try soon.

The main character in Outline is a novelist who goes to Athens, Greece to teach a writing course during the summer. She has ten conversations with people she meets on the way to Athens and during her stay there.

2nd degree:

The second link is to The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi. This book takes place mainly on the fictional Greek island, Thiminos. A woman is found dead at the bottom of a cliff; the local police call it an accident. Then a stranger comes to Thiminos from Athens, with the intention of solving her murder.

This is another book I have on my bookshelves. The Greek Detective series gets good reviews and I should read it soon.

3rd degree:

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler starts in Athens and ends up in Turkey.  Arthur Simpson, thief and con man, is hired to drive a car to Turkey. He does not know that he is smuggling illegal weapons in the car, and he is caught by border guards. The authorities force him to deliver the weapons to the people who hired him, in order to uncover their nefarious plans. 

The book was adapted to screen as Topkapi. Peter Ustinov won an Oscar for Supporting Actor for the role of Arthur. Maximilian Schell and Robert Morley also starred.

4th degree:

The James Bond spy thriller From Russia with Love (1957, Ian Fleming) is set in Instanbul, Turkey. The Russians plot to rid themselves of James Bond by faking the defection of a female cipher clerk. Bond is sent to Istanbul to help the defector escape. They take the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris, where the story ends. Also made into a very successful film, starring Sean Connery.

5th degree:

A good portion of the last book took place on a train and it ended in Paris. That takes me to The Sleeping-Car Murders by Sébastien Japrisot, a French author, screenwriter and film director. This novel was first published in French in 1962. The night train from Marseilles arrives in Paris. In the sleeping car, the body of a young woman is found dead. This is a police procedural and the investigation takes place in Paris.

6th degree:

My last link is to a book that also takes place in Paris. The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone is an espionage thriller which begins with a terror attack on Paris. It is the second book featuring Kate Moore and her husband Dexter. The first book was The Expats. This is a very fast-paced thriller (at times) but the story is told very well.

This is another Six Degrees where I rediscovered some books on my own shelves that I have not read yet. 

My Six Degrees took me from Athens, Greece to Turkey and then ended up in Paris, France. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on August 2, 2025, and the starting book will be the 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.