Excellent Reads: The Distant Hours

A letter posted in 1941 finally reaches its destination in 1992 with powerful repercussions for Edie Burchill, a London book editor, in this enthralling romantic thriller from Australian author Morton (The Forgotten Garden). At crumbling Milderhurst Castle live elderly twins Persephone and Seraphina and their younger half-sister, Juniper, the three eccentric spinster daughters of the late Raymond Blythe, author of The True History of the Mud Man, a children's classic Edie adores. Juniper addressed the letter to Meredith, Edie's mother, then a young teen evacuated to Milderhurst during the Blitz. Edie, who's later invited to write an introduction to a reprint of Raymond's masterpiece, visits the seedily alluring castle in search of answers. Why was her mother so shattered by the contents of a letter sent 51 years earlier? And what happened to soldier Thomas Cavill, Juniper's long-missing fiancé and Meredith's former teacher? Despite the many competing narratives, the answers will stun readers. ---Publishers Weekly review at Amazon.com

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Kate Morton is by far my favorite author of all time. I devoured her second work, The Forgotten Garden, and have since read it several times since. Each time I love it even more.  It's my number one favorite book I've ever read.

So I was eagerly awaiting Ms. Morton's third work for the better part of a year. I ordered it and paid extra for shipping the day it came out! A castle, World War II, a longlost letter and a mysterious tale of tragedy among a set of sisters...who could resist?

I was NOT disappointed in this work. One of the best parts of Ms. Morton's works is how she makes her stories unfold: at over 500 pages each, it is a slow and achingly beautiful awakening to the real story every time. While I don't want to rush through the book I really, really want to know the end! And now that I can put it all together, I can't wait to read this again so I can "get" all the foreshadowings and intersections of characters and plot devices.

Ms. Morton is extremely talented not only at creating hauntingly beautiful stories, often achingly tragic, but she is also an extremely articulate writer. Her prose is stunning. Her word combinations are beautiful. I love, love, LOVE to read her writing. I hope she will have another book out soon! Until then I will be reading this one again. I can't recommend it highly enough (although I do still prefer The Forgotten Garden over this one). A must-read!

So-So Reads: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

From Amazon.com:
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern...

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

I kept seeing plugs for this very-well-promoted book, and found the premise extremely enchanting: a little girl who can taste the emotions of others in the food they prepare? Oh, the possibilities! I was thrilled to come across a copy of this at the library and immediately snatched it up. I read it in one day.

I will be blunt and say that I was indeed enchanted with the first half to two-thirds of this book, then it completely went off the deep end and lost me. I finished it simply to know the ending (which I'm still not sure I understand) but was left with a bitter aftertaste, indeed. About halfway through the book it takes a decidedly weird turn, and Rose loses all her previous delightful precociousness.

I totally get that in this genre of "magical realism" one must be able to suspend their beliefs in the world as we know it, and accept the fantastic as mundane. Rose's ability to taste emotions in food actually didn't seem that far-off or fantastic to me, given that I've been interested in the phenomena of synesthesia for a while now. Rarely, some people's senses seem to get "crossed", and they experience their senses in unusual ways: visual images may be strongly associated with smells or sounds, for example; letters and numbers may be colored in a particular way, or they may associate letters or words with musical sounds or even smells. Interesting stuff, and Rose's story held so many fascinating possibilities.

Therefore it is true to say I was very disappointed (and thoroughly confused) by the bizarre path this book began to wander down, about halfway through. I not only lost interest in the story but also any care and concern I might have had for the characters. Ultimately, I found this book a huge disappointment. It's a quick read, though I wouldn't necessarily call it an "easy" read. If you've got a lot of time to kill and want to read something very different, you might give it a try. I would definitely recommend checking it out free from a library; I'm so glad I didn't spend money on this.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone reading this who has read the book. Anyone?