There’s no better time than a chilly winter day to curl up with some fiction.
Though these four titles are set in vastly different places–Korea, Minnesota, Belfast and Civil War-era America–love and survival are the themes that bind them together.
“My Jim” by Nancy Rawles (Crown, $19.95)
There are several brief references to the wife and children of the runaway slave named Jim in Mark Twain’s classic, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” But their names are never mentioned by Twain (slave marriages were neither recognized nor legal), and readers learn little about Jim’s life as a husband and father.
Author-historian Nancy Rawles picks up where Mark Twain left off, giving a name to Jim’s wife–Sadie Watson–and allowing her to tell the story of her and Jim’s harsh lives in this wonderful, first-person narrative. It is told by Sadie to her granddaughter, who’s about to move west to marry a buffalo soldier–black cavalrymen who served on the Western frontier. “My Jim” is both a love story and a chronicle of a brutal time in U.S. history.
Rawles, a former teacher, studied slave narratives and interviews with former slaves to make Sadie’s story accurate. For Twain fans, there are plenty of references to Twain’s books and history.
Ultimately “My Jim” is a testament to the ability of those who experience horrifying events to maintain their love for others.
“The Tea House on Mulberry Street” By Sharon Owens (Putnam, $15)
Daniel and Penny are a struggling couple with a crumbling marriage who run an aging yet charming Belfast cafe. Taking place over a year, “Tea House” is a series of short vignettes that follows their lives and those of their quirky customers.
From the grim young artist who writes hundreds of letters to Nicolas Cage, to the cranky retired twin sisters nicknamed “The Creepy Crawleys,” to the housewife whose husband cheats on her while she pitifully caters to his every need, each customer has a story filled with warmth and humor. And while the characters’ lives grow more complicated, rewards do come in the end.
Irish author Owens’ saga will be followed up by two more imports. Next up: “The Ballroom on Magnolia Street,” a story about two sisters and their search for romance in the local ballroom.
“The Center of Winter” by Marya Hornbacher (HarperCollins, $23.95)
Set in small-town Motley, Minn., during the middle of winter, this is a deeply depressing, beautifully written novel about a family struggling with the life and subsequent suicide of their husband/father.
Arnold Schiller, like others in his family, suffers from depression and spends his days unemployed and drinking. His wife, Claire, snubbed as the town oddball, works hard to earn a living and preserve a normal life for her two young children.
When Arnold kills himself, Claire and her children, Katie and Esau, escape for a while to Arnold’s nearby parents, then return home to rebuild their lives.
Alternately narrated by Claire, Katie and Esau (who is institutionalized several times throughout the story, suffering from depressive demons of his own), the three describe their version of events and the struggle to reconnect with each other, friends and family.
“Somebody’s Daughter” by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Beacon, $23.95)
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Thorson was adopted by a cheerful Lutheran couple in Minnesota shortly after her birth in Korea. Never feeling as though she fit in–rather than “Mom and Dad,” she calls her adoptive parents Ken and Christine–Sarah drops out of college and goes to Korea to find her birth mother.
Her decision isn’t surprising; Korea was a dirty word in Sarah’s Minnesota household, and her true background was always shrouded in mystery.
After asking yet again about how her parents died, Sarah describes Christine’s answer: “`We really knew nothing about her. I’m your mommy. Let’s not talk about this any more, it makes me sad.’ She made little crying motions, pretending to wipe away tears, the same thing she did when I was bad, to show how I had disappointed her.”
“Somebody’s Daughter” alternates between Sarah’s narrative and the story of Kyung-sook, a Korean woman haunted by memories of the child she was forced to give up many years ago.
Author Lee spent a year in Korea taking oral histories from Korean women who had given up their daughters, many of whom were eventually adopted by Caucasian American parents.
“They hoped some fragment of their love would pass into the book and be understood by their birth children,” Lee writes.
