Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

fiction

Book Review: Anxious People

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This is the first book I’ve read by Swedish author Fredrik Backman, though some years ago I saw the movie version of A Man Called Ove. My trip through this novel was quite a journey!

Anxious People tells the story of a would-be bank robber, a hostage situation, a bridge, and much more. We twist and turn through the story as if on a roller coaster. Backman alternately makes us laugh and then pulls the rug out from under us, revealing some new detail that is so shocking we are stunned to tears.

The bank robber, you see, is not a real criminal, but someone desperate to get enough money to handle a short-term cash flow problem. The hostages taken turn out to be a group of people with their own issues, and while the would-be bank robber/hostage taker tries to figure out what to do (having zero experience in hostage-taking), somehow start to bond.

Often as I was reading asked myself, how can such a frightening situation be so…funny? It’s not easy to pull that off.

The tightrope walk between comedy and intense drama is one Backman handles brilliantly. There are interesting parallels and connections among some of the characters that I found believable, especially given that they were in a small town. Details are revealed just when they need to be and in a way that keeps the jaw dropping to the floor. I can’t wait to read all his other books!

I hope you’re enjoying my book reviews. Starting soon, I’ll be adding a non-book review post each week. Please subscribe to my blog (see below) and invite others to do so as well! Also, if you’re interested, please consider purchasing one of my novels. More information can be found here.

Book Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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I wasn’t sure I wanted to read The Four Winds. The Great Alone was such an incredible novel, and I thought, how can she top it? That might be impossible, after all. Still, I couldn’t resist. The subject matter was compelling: the struggles of a family during the Dust Bowl.

The story centers around Elsa Wolcott, whose early life was defined by an illness and, in her family’s opinion, a lack of attractiveness. Expected to live at home and tend to her parents in their later years, Elsa had different ideas. Readers will find a young woman defined by both a deep sense of inadequacy and an innate wildness that will give her strength to endure tremendous hardship, though she won’t recognize the latter in herself for some time.

As in The Grapes of Wrath, Elsa will find herself migrating to California with her children to escape the Dust Bowl, where instead of finding milk and honey, she finds more hardship and bigotry. Californians weren’t impressed with the increasing numbers of migrants seeking work, so not only is work limited, but the pay continues to drop.

Hannah describes the conditions in excruciating detail. As someone who just finished writing a historical novel, I was impressed with her ability to take us there, not just as observers, but to help us truly feel the suffering and hardship of these difficult times.

In this painful reality, Elsa finds her inner strength, and that is the real beauty of this story. She is a reminder of the lengths most women will go to for their families, especially their children. I think I cried more during the small happy moments and the occasional humanity than the most difficult times.

I found the beginning a bit slow, and it felt as if the parents and future husband could have been more nuanced. Elsa seemed a bit like Cinderella, and the family a bit too much like the wicked stepmother and stepsisters. However, this part of the story was necessary to set up Elsa’s worldview, so I can forgive it. Elsa, Lareda, and Elsa’s in-laws are far more developed and interesting, and the story really picks up when Elsa leaves home.

The Four Winds is, sadly, too relevant for our times. The treatment of migrants, the inequality, the sense of endlessness of the Depression…all of these are visible now. In addition, the environmental crisis of the time, the Dust Bowl, is a sad reminder of what happens when we don’t care for our planet, and we see that in our current climate crisis. What is astounding to me is how long these travails went on…we are a year into a pandemic and going bonkers, while the main part of this story spans six years. How our fellow Americans endured this is beyond me.

Some reviewers have complained about the “political agenda” of the book, particularly the role of Communists in trying to organize the workforce. Yet what was she supposed to do, write them out of history? They were there, and they were trying to help. I did not see Hannah as “advocating for Communism,” as some reviewers believe. In fact, she uses Elsa to voice deep concerns and reservations about the philosophy. At the same time, by respecting their role in seeking better working conditions for the migrants, she reminds us that people are far more complex than Twitter would have us believe.

I highly recommend The Four Winds, and hell, anything else Kristin Hannah writes.

A Truly “Delicious!” Book

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The reading gods are continuing to smile upon me as I work through a trove of novels that are absolutely wonderful! I don’t often get a streak like this, and many times so-called must reads don’t flip my button at all.

This week’s selection is Delicious! A Novel by Ruth Reichl. This is her first novel, but she’s written a lot about food in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. She’s published non-fiction books as well, and I’m now eager to read all of them! So it makes sense that her first novel would be about, well, food.

Billie Breslin is a young woman with a perfect palette who doesn’t cook. We don’t know why, though I promise, all will be revealed. She has dropped out of college to take a job at Delicious!, a food magazine.

As Billie struggles to create a life for herself far from family, she builds a friendship with Sal and his wife Rosalie, making his cheese shop her second home. Then there’s Sammy, the eccentric and fabulous travel writer, and Jake, the owner of the magazine. Oh, and let’s not forget Mr. Complainer, a regular customer of Sal’s!

It’s hard to write more without adding a lot of spoilers, so I’ll just add that there’s a whole subplot devoted to certain letters addressed to James Beard, who in this novel once ran Delicious!. These letters, and the story that is revealed from them, are in my opinion the meat of the book.

Billie’s past will break your heart. But along the way, there is a lot of joy, friendship, and community, plus the smells and tastes of food that will make you hungry while you read. Yes, there are recipes at the end.

Introducing Jane

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My great-great grandmother, Jane Thorburn, worked in the woollen mills of Scotland as a weaver. Here’s what I know about her: she was the oldest child of a coal miner and his wife. By the age of eight she was no longer living with the family, presumably to go to work (though I don’t know for sure). She fell in love with Robert Stein. Together they had a child, my great-grandfather Hugh, who came to America.

And I know when and how she died, though that would be too much of a spoiler alert.

Due to circumstances, she disappeared from the family tree until I stumbled across her in 2014 after doing some genealogy.

Now, I do not consider myself a great genealogist, or even a good one. I tip my hat to those who are. Their persistence and attention to detail is something to be admired!

I am too wired to be a fiction writer. For example, I discovered that a Stein family in that part of Scotland were involved in bad whisky making (and yes, that’s how whisky is spelled in Scotland). My imagination ran wild with all the possibilities.

Then, *ahem*, a distant relative gently suggested that there were no known links to this particular Stein family. I say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, but that’s not good genealogy behavior.

I’ve been obsessed with Jane ever since. Factory Girl, or whatever I end up calling the darn thing (turns out there are multiple novels of that name), is going through the editing process. As I tried to tease out what Jane’s life might have been like, a group of fairies showed up and I had to deal with them, too. It’s meant reading old Scottish folk tales.

I’m grateful to have found an editor who lives in Scotland and who has even walked the Alva Glen where the old mill once stood, and where Jane, in my story, escaped to be in nature. With her loving care, the story is shaping up nicely, and she is undaunted by the sheer weirdness of this work. It’s outside of anything I’ve ever tried to do before. I am excited and freaked out at the same time.

Look for excerpts soon!

A Writer’s Life is Many Lives #WDC18 #amwriting

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As I come off this year’s Writer’s Digest Conference, I am thinking about how fortunate I am. I get to do work that I love, and when I spend time around other writers, I am among incredibly generous and supportive people. As author Steven James said during his “Story Trumps Structure” workshop, we are in a rare business where people who could be our “competition” come and share everything they know. He likened it to Apple going to Google and sharing all their secrets.

The magic, of course, is that there is  no competition. Each of us has a unique story to tell, so the more of us the merrier. We don’t have to elbow anyone out of the way.

Back home, I am once again immersed in my projects. For one, I am reading about artists, particularly female and self-taught. Think Grandma Moses as one of many examples. I’m also learning to draw and watercolor. I’m not doing this because I want a new hobby, though I suspect I’ll keep at it because it’s fun. No, it’s a way to understand my main character better.

While I continue my research for that novel, I am living (in my mind) in late 19th-century Scotland. This story idea has sent me to Scotland twice and the old mills of Lowell, Massachusetts; introduced me to proletarian novelists such as Elizabeth Gaskell (think contemporaries of Dickens); and introduced me to genealogy.

When I wrote What She Knew, I studied the victims and perpetrators of the Madoff Ponzi Scheme. I was fascinated with the movers and shakers of Wall Street and what would happen if one of them actually grew a conscience.

In short, as a writer I get to live many lives. I get to play dress up and try on new identities. I get to peer inside the heads of my characters, who I grow to love as if they are real people and real friends.

This is a good life. A happy life. A fulfilled life. Last week I met a lot of wonderful writers who share this journey with me, and I am looking forward to getting to know all of you better.

 

Writer Updates #amwriting #womensfiction

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I continue to read, read, read, but I am refilling my well with new books. Not to worry, there are plenty of good ones out there! No doubt next week I’ll be back to share my latest good reads.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share an update on my own work.

I’m revising two separate projects, both of them very different, and I’m having a wonderful time! First is Factory Girl, set in late nineteenth-century Scotland. Though the inspiration for the book is my great-great grandmother, Factory Girl includes a fairy rebellion as well! It wasn’t my intention, but they showed up in my story, and I decided to let them stay.

The other is untitled as yet. It’s a contemporary women’s fiction work about Elaine, a 60-year-old woman who has been the rock, support, and head cheerleader for her family, but who now wants to explore her own dreams. With a husband who has decided to jump into politics and a daughter who drops off the grandson without much notice, Elaine is meeting a fair amount of resistance! There’s also a handsome art teacher and an untrustworthy friend in the mix. I just finished the second draft, so this may take a while, but it’s a promising project.

Meanwhile, we continue to try to sell our home in the Pacific Northwest so we can move full-time to the East Coast. So far, the market is oddly quiet, so our move date remains uncertain. But these are good problems to have! In the meantime we’re enjoying a summer that is generally mild and pleasant (with the exception of air quality — we’re affected by fires in British Colombia), and I’m getting lots of yummy fruit from the garden.

See you next week!

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Nadine’s latest novel, What She Knew, is available on Amazon.