What I Saw and How I Lied

"When Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she fell slow. She had time to notice things on her way down--Oh, there's a teacup! There's a table! So things seemed normal to her while she was falling. Then she bumped down and rolled into Wonderland, and all hell broke loose."

I love this quote from the opening chapter of What I Saw and How I Lied, not only for its imagery but also for the way it tries to prepare you for the story to come. The narrator, 15 year-old Evie Spooner, is looking back, trying to figure out how her life unraveled in just a few short months. She goes back to the beginning, the day it all started, on a warm day in Queens just after World War II has ended. Joe, the step-father she adores, has returned from the fighting to open appliance stores for a country ready to buy "not only what we needed but what we wanted." Evie and her gorgeous mother are trying to make home life the picture of perfection for him, with roast beef and mashed potato dinners and everything neat and tidy, though it is a strain living under Joe's mother's roof.

Joe comes home from work that day with a wild idea to pack up and drive down to Florida for a vacation...that night. He convinces Evie and her mom with his slick sales skills, and in a few days they find themselves in a half-empty Palm Beach resort during the off-season. There Evie meets Peter, a dashing soldier who makes Evie feel like a woman, her mother light-hearted, and Joe strangely moody. As Evie plots to spend more time with Peter, her mother and step-father's relationship grows tense, and Joe becomes increasingly erratic. Soon events spin into a downward spiral of passion, blackmail, and secrets, and Evie finds the adults in her life are not what they seem. Evie must choose her own path and make a decision that will control all their destinies.

Author Judy Blundell won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for this suspense-filled, noirish, dramatic novel. Those who love attention to detail will revel in the vivid depictions of post-war America, from the fashion (Revlon's Fatal Apple lipstick and nail polish and full-skirted evening gowns) to the dialogue ("Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, baby...it's not all polka dots and moonbeams, you know.") Those who love crime dramas and Bogey and Bacall movies will delight in the stylish mystery and suspense. And for those who appreciate album covers as much as albums, check out the cover, which I thought stunning (and an accurate depiction of the story, something becoming more rare in the book world). I loved this book, which brings me to two years in a row where I thought the National Book Award winner was better than the Printz Award winner.

The Possibilities of Sainthood

Not gonna lie to you, reading The Possibilities of Sainthood felt cleansing after the last two uber-dark books I posted on. First time author Donna Freitas brings us the story Antonia Lucia Labella, a 15-year old Catholic school girl who's never been kissed. Antonia lives with her very strict, very Catholic, very Italian mother and grandmother above their speciality food store in Rhode Island. While she spends most every hour at school or working in the store, Antonia dreams of two things--becoming the first living Catholic saint and getting kissed by her secret love, Andy Rotellini.

Sounds contradictory right? I found Antonia sweet and completely naive at first, and therefore pretty unbelievable as a modern teen protagonist. But I gradually gave into her charms and realized that though her obsession with sainthood was not typical of most teens, her optimisim and longing to believe are not completely unheard of in 15-year girls. Besides, her monthly suggestions to the Vatican for new saints are darn funny and her vision of sainthood is decidedly modern (e.g. she puts herself up for Patron Saint of Kissing, among others).

All told, a sweet story about a girl's first forays into romance, one that stands out in the genre for its humor and warm-heartedness.

Tender Morsels

I seem to be reading thematically of late because the book for this post, like the last one, deals with dark, emotionally disturbing subject matter. However, unlike Living Dead Girl with its chilling realism, Tender Morsels uses fantasy and fairy tale to explore issues like abuse and violence.This Printz Award Honor winner by Australian writer Margo Lanagan is a compelling revamping of the fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red." The novel begins with a short scene narrated by a vulgar and earthy dwarf in a setting that resembles the Dark Ages of Europe. This is a prologue of sorts and the story line quickly shifts to the story of the mother of Snow White and Rose Red...a dreadful story as Lanagan reveals with great subtlety and drawn out suspense.

Just when you can't take any more of the cruelty the girls' mother endures, the tone lightens and she and her daughters find peace and loveliness in a magical "other" world. Snow White and Rose Red grow up, and of course, begin to explore the forbidden, the world which their mother would do anything to protect them from. At this point, the sense of inevitability pervading the novel had me by the throat...that delicious sense you get in a horror movie that something bad is about to happen. But I definitely didn't foresee the twists and turns the story would take as it spun out and in this way the novel proved its maturity...it is literary and complex and worth the effort. It reminded me a little of reading Toni Morrison or Louise Erdrich.

Though this is based on a fairy tale, the story telling is original and innovative, using fantasy to explore how violence and ugliness exist along side innocence and love. Fairy tale or no, this is a most human story.