Monthly Book Report: Nightwoods

I read so many good books in June, that’s it’s nearly impossible to pick one as the monthly favorite.  I started the month finishing out the splendid The Covenant of Water and from there tore through The Lincoln Highway, Salt Houses, and Our Souls at Night.  I landed on Nightwoods by Charles Frazier toward the end of the month.  It’s the shortest of the novels on my June list but I stretched out my reading of it to savor the prose.  

I have loved each of Frazier’s novels. He writes of the South and of its people in ways that are both candid and sympathetic, never excusing their sins but always understanding their very human foibles.  His sense of place and joy in the landscape is palpable, a trait that was shared by the other novels I loved this month.  Nightwoods is the story of a young woman, Luce, and the young children she takes in after their mother - her sister - is murdered.  The children are traumatized but what they’ve seen and experienced and Luce - no stranger to trauma herself - gently cares for them.  Luce lives deep in the woods of Appalachia  in a world big in space and quiet but small in people. The people in Luce’s tiny community - an elderly neighbor and a gentle man with a crush on Luce - soon come to be the family that Luce and her niece and nephew need. 

There is suspense and tension in the novel and the characters richly drawn.  The story is told by a narrator who sees everything and though not jaded is honest, sometimes sarcastically so.  The sarcasm prevents the sweeter parts of the story from becoming cloying.  I’ve been reading library books of late but Nightwoods is a novel I purchased a few years back.  I’m glad that I own it because I will reread this story, if only to visit the splendid landscape once again.

November Book Report: A Place to Hang the Moon

This gem of a book came my way via Bas Bleu, one of my favorite sources for the sorts of stories I love the most.  Set in WW2 London, it’s the story of three siblings:  Will, Edmond, and Anna.  As the novel opens, the three find themselves well and truly orphans as their elderly grandmother has passed away and there is no family remaining to care for them. Though they have resources, the lack of guardian is a problem as the oldest child, Will, is only 12.  He’s an amazing and thoughtful big brother but, like his brother and sister, he wants a family to care for him.  As the three express it, they long for parents who “think they hung the moon.” 

The family solicitor hits upon a plan of sorts: the children will join a group of evacuees departing London for the safety of the countryside.  There, he hopes, they will find a home where they may stay after the war is over.  The children are in on the plan, though it’s being kept secret from everyone else, and they set off with a group of evacuees.  The first home in which they are placed shows promise - the parents are kind -  - but the brothers in the home are not welcoming.  Relations are tense and then an incident sets up conflict and the children are forced to seek another host.  The second home is no improvement at all and is even worse in many ways: the children are cold and hungry.  Comfort of sorts is found in the routines of school and actual happiness can be found at the town library, where the librarian, Mrs. Muller, proves to be welcoming and kind.  Each day after school, the children visit the library to read and find solace in books.  Privately, the children wish to ask Mrs. Muller to host them and Mrs. Muller seems willing……and well, I don’t want to ruin it for those of you who like a good story.  This one is splendid.  

It’s all set up for just the sort of happy ending I love best.  The story is well-written (the narrator is terrific) and the children are both wise beyond their years but still very much children.  I loved this book and it will live happily on the re-read shelves at my home.