Short Novella Reviews: THE ENGLISH UNDERSTAND WOOL; THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR; THE TOMB GUARDIANS

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

Storybook ND, 2022. 69 pages.

     A reviewer on Goodreads sums up this book this way:

The English understand wool is the first and the last sentence of this short novel. That neat sentence fits well with the message I took from the story: just as the English understand wool, and the warp and the weft of the cloth made from it, so a person must understand the people they are dealing with—and cut their cloth accordingly. The heroine of this novella, for whom good taste is the best possible measure, has learned how to cut her cloth very much to suit that measure. But she has also learned, to make a long story short, that when dealing with people not cut from the same cloth as herself, she must read the small print, make her actions speak louder than her words, and basically, have her cake and eat it too—no matter that it may be in very poor taste  (Fionnuala).  

     The seventeen-year-old heroine, Bethany, is raised in Marrakech but travels the world with her mother to avail themselves of the finest things: wool in England/Scotland and linen in Ireland, for example. Bringing a seamstress from Thailand to Paris makes complete sense, as does taking tennis lessons and installing pianos everywhere one stays. One needs to know how to cultivate taste and refinement. When Bethany learns her mother isn't who she thinks she is, the publishing world descends and wants exclusive rights to her tragic story. That is when the real fun begins. This heroine wasn't raised to be a pushover.

     I learned about The English Understand Wool by watching Ann Patchett's reel with her weekly Friday book recommendations.  She learned about the book by visiting a sister bookstore and asking what book was really moving. The English Understand Wool was that book. At 69 pages one can sit down and finish the book in one fell swoop, which is what I did. My initial reaction was "meh" and "what a snotty girl" but since that time, the book has really grown on me. It is so clever, funny, and spot-on. My upgraded rating is 4.5 stars.

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This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Gallery/Saga Press, 2019. 198 pages.

Simon and Schuster Audio. 4 hours, 16 minutes.

     Two special agents, Red and Blue, are on competing factions in the Time War. Red represents the society dominated by technology and artificial intelligences. Blue represents a society dominated by biomass consciousness. The two start a communication with each other, keeping this a secret from their superiors. They have to be very, very careful, communicating between layers of subtlety and deception. They can never, ever meet. What begins as a way of taunting the other turns slowly, over time, into friendship and then love. Because of their relationship, the two women must confront their contributions to this never ending time war.

  

     Described as part epistolary queer romance and part high adventure science fiction, this story unfolds bit by bit and ends in a surprising way.

     I listened to the audiobook narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. The narration just sped along and I was so caught up in the story I was shocked when the story ended so quickly. This is How You Lose the Time War won the Hugo, the Nebula, and Locust awards in 2020 for novella. My rating: 4 stars.

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The Tomb Guardians by Paul Griffiths

Henningham Family Press, 2021. 121 pages.

     After Jesus is crucified he is laid in a tomb, and according to the Gospel of Matthew, four Roman guards are charged with guarding the tomb to make sure none of Jesus' disciples come and steal the body, claiming Jesus rose from the dead. Sometime in the night an angel appears to these guards and they faint out of fear. In the morning, the large stone is rolled away from the tomb which is indeed empty. Now what do the guards do? How do they save face and keep their jobs?

     In The Tomb Guardians the story of these guards is played out as they discuss their options set against two art historians discuss the paintings of the four guards created by Bernhard Strigel in the early 1500s for a commission at the dawn of Protestantism. As one group wrestles with historical truth in art, the other tries to figure a way out of a fix. The conversations between the two different groups of people are delineated by the use of regular and italic fonts.

      Once I figured out the problem the guards were in, I was pretty much done with their part of the story though they went on bickering intermittently throughout the book. I wanted more of what I was learning from the art historians about why Strigel created these pieces -- the first time ordinary people were depicted in religious art and the first time that sleeping people were painted. I was fascinated how they believed the art was used, as a sort of storytelling tool prior to Easter services. And what I learned happened during the infancy of protestantism. All that was interesting to me. The guards whining and worrying, not so much.

The guards at the tomb as depicted by Bernhard Strigel, circa 1511, Germany.

     I was interested by the story and learned new information. I just didn't care for the unique format of the book. My rating: 3 stars.

-Anne

Novella Reviews: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? + CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN

Two short reviews of novellas ---

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

Dial Press, Oct.8, 2024. 133 pages.

Eve is a successful writer but one day she wakes up in a hospital not remembering how she got there or why. Her husband, sitting by her side, tells her she just had surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. He patiently tells her this even though he has told her many times before. Eve's memory is now so fickle and fleeting.

Over the next few months Eve must learn to do almost all normal tasks again -- walking, talking, writing. She also figures out what kind of cancer she has and how low the survival rate, forcing her to stare her own mortality in the face. Brief anecdotes tell Eve's story as she walks through this new reality.

What we learn at the end is that Eve's story is actually Sophie's story, with details changed, of course. She said, “Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”

I placed this book on my TBR last November after other participants in 'Novellas in November' recommended it. I am so glad I read it when I did. Two friends have recently been diagnosed with brain tumors. Though I cried my way through it, I also felt the relief of hope. If Sophie Kinsella survived such a deadly form of cancer maybe my friends will too.

Rating: 5 stars

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

Grove Press, June 12, 2018. Originally published in Japan, July 27, 2016. 163 pages.

Keiko Furakura has known she was different than her peers from a very young age. She just doesn't see the world as others do. If only she could figure out the right things to say and the right way to dress then maybe she could finally be accepted. During college she finds a job at new convenience store near to where she is going to school. The 'Smile Mart' trains its employees by a manual, even scripting dialogue to use with customers. For the first time in her life Keiko understands social interactions and she excels in her job. She also observes the way other employees dress and their manners of speech and finds she can copy them to fit in better. She finally feels like she is a functional part of society. Eighteen years later she is still working at 'Smile Mart' but her family is worried she is not living up to her potential in such a dead-end job. Her few friends also hound her about why she isn't married. Then one day a man with similar communication problems as Keiko gets hired at the store and everything changes.

Don and I listened to the audiobook of Convenience Store Woman on a recent trip. Both of us found the book both interesting and fascinating. We have many friends, colleagues, and family members who are neurodivergent on the autism spectrum. We understand that everyone doesn't process information the same, but that doesn't mean we don't notice when behavior isn't inside the normal societal expectation. We just try not to get too judgy. Keiko was clearly very high functioning she just couldn't read social cues such as recognizing facial or body language and she wasn't interested in dating. She was happy with her life but also wanted to please others by behaving "normally." Her "fix" with the new male employee was so obviously a bad choice it shows how far people will go to try to fit in. Sadly.

Alongside Keiko's story, Convenience Store Woman gives American readers a fun peek at Japanese culture. Convenience stores like the 'Smile Mart' are common in Japan -- small stores where people can pick up a variety of products quickly, including ready-to-go food. These stores sound like a better version of our 7-11s. The foods they offer, like rice balls and chocolate-melon drinks, showcase cultural differences, also. Don and I found ourselves laughing at some of the varieties and combinations offered as daily specials. And we tried pronouncing the typical Japanese greeting, as Keiko did everytime someone entered the store, -- "Irasshaimasé!".  Overall we both enjoyed the book very much. 

Both Don and I rated the book 4 stars.

-Anne

Novella Review: THE MOST

It doesn't require a lot of pages for a novel to make a big impact. And that is the case with this novella, The Most by Jessica Anthony. It tells the story of a marriage on the rocks with such power I felt like I was being drawn into "the most", a cunning strategy used in tennis games, right along with the characters.

The Most takes place on a single day in November of 1957 in Newark, Delaware where a young family lives in an apartment after recently moving from Rhode Island. Virgil and Kathleen have reached an impasse in their marriage. Sputnik II has been launched and the first live being propelled into space is an unfortunate dog, Laika, a doomed "Muttnik." The weather is unseasonably warm.

Slowly over the whole story we learn the backstory of each person in the unhappy couple. Kathleen was a good tennis player in college, she decided to marry rather than turn pro. Virgil was a handsome man with little ambition who easily got a job without trying. Neither of them have been faithful to their partner. On this hot day in November Kathleen begs off going to church and while the family is gone, slips into her old, red bathing suit and hops into the apartment's swimming pool. She stays in the pool all day, no one can talk her out.

At one point in the story we learn when Kathleen is a teenager her parents hired a man, Billy, to give her tennis lesson. It is Billy who teaches her about "the move." It essentially traps your opponent at the net before releasing a bomb to the back court. The strategy has not only given the novel it's name but is a tactic employed to break the marital impasse, one designed to force Virgil to show his hand.

M. Praseed, writing for the Chicago Review of books, calls The Most an "incredibly nuanced conflict", a nearly perfect book in just under 150 pages. And H. McAlpin, reviewing the book for NPR, says it deserves to be a classic. I'm not sure I'd go that far but I do think it would make a good book to use to teach how to write a very tight novel. McAlpin also points out the theme of "bridges" in the book. I missed the theme on my read through but admired the references to bridges when she mentioned them.

I liked and admired The Most. I found myself thinking a lot about the differences in our society from the 1950s to today. I think that is another point which elevates the book to the near classic level.

My rating: 4 stars

-Anne