Girls Burn Brighter

"What's going on with the sex slaves?

That's a real question my husband asked me as I was about 3/4 of the way through this book. I typically refrain from explaining the plot of every book I read, but I was just overwhelmed with this one and tried to describe it to him halfway.

Girls Burn Brighter is gripping, heart-wrenching, awful - and, good. I don't mean that the subject matter is "good"; I mean that the book was well-written and even hopeful even in its darkest moments.

The story is actually the story of two girls that overlap. They're incredibly close as young girls in very poor India, but horrific circumstances (rape + forced marriage) rip them apart. They spend the next several years enduring absolute horror as they desperately try to find each other. One is sold to someone in Seattle; the other is desperate to track her down. How she tries leads us on a terrible and improbable journey.

The characters are rich and real; the stories are heartbreaking and easily true. The ending... Well... I have a coworker who was in happy tears at the end. I was just frustrated enough to toss my book onto my bed and sigh. But, it was still the best possible ending I could have imagined.

This book is tough to read. The things this young girls endure should almost not be available for our "entertainment". But, it's raw and real and utterly page-turning. Even though I think it would be better if it were about 75 pages shorter.

Fates and Furies

"She made a promise that she would never show him the evil that lived in her, that he would know of her only a great love and light." -fates and furies

How far do we go to hide our true selves? Where do we bury the darkness that lies within? And, how much will we bury to protect the ones we love?

Those are all central questions in this extraordinary work of fiction. So extraordinary, in fact, that I finished it a couple of hours ago and I know it won't do it justice to write about it here. The story itself is compelling, but that's not what makes this book so remarkable. The true feat here is how it's told.

Our story begins with a passionate encounter on the beach between a man and a woman. Their love is clear, their lust for each other even more so. And, immediately, you hear the foreshadowing of a story that will take them to places together and separately that no one expects them to go.

Part one is Fates and is the love story told from the man's perspective. Lotto - Lancelot - is born into money and sent away as a teenager for his own protection. His father is dead, his mother incapable of caring for him. So, he's off to prep school, then Vassar, then NYC. Despite missteps and failures and being cut off from his family's wealth, the sun seems to always shine on Lotto. He meets Mathilde in their last days of college and she's an enigma to Lotto and their friends. She doesn't speak about her past, says she has no family to speak of, and quietly becomes the force that drives Lotto's success. When he becomes a highly-regarded playwright, she's the one waiting in the wings (and more.) How does she stay with him? How is she so patient? And, how does she manage to live a life only for him?

We find out in Part 2.

Part 2, The Furies, is the love story from the other side. Mathilde's story. You see her past reveal itself, wave after dark wave. You see how she came to be the stoic wife that stands by her husband. You see the family that fell away. You see a woman primed for revenge against those who dare try to stand in the way of her husband's happiness. She wants to be for him something that no one has ever given to her. You see Lotto's story through her eyes and its depth is significantly magnified.

You've heard the basics of the story before. The woman behind the man, the complicated world of mothers and daughters-in-law..  There's Greek tragedy here as well. And there are surprises in the final chapters that left my mouth agape.

The Fates half of this book moves slowly at times, with long chapters and a lot of setup. It pays off in The Furies absolutely.

I've read Groff's writing before in her collection of short stories called Florida. It's soaring prose, yet somehow not overwritten. Even the secondary characters here are deep. I can't imagine how it must be to pull off a book like this, but I'm incredibly grateful that she did.

Mem

Did your mother ever tell you that you weren't living up to her expectations? Man, I hope not. That's cold. But, after reading this book, that sentiment makes sense to me.

So. Much. Potential. Alas, a letdown.

This book practically jumped off the shelf at me from the Staff Picks section of my favorite local bookstore (the amazing Aunties Bookstore in Spokane.) The cover itself is striking; the plot, even more so. We're in 1920's Montreal in a world where science has found a way to take away our darkest memories. Essentially, those who can afford it can have that memory extracted. The Mem, as it's called, is basically a clone of the source person and lives underground in a vault until it expires. What would we do to take away that pain? What would we lose of ourselves if we remove the most undesirable? What could possibly go wrong?

So. Much. Potential.

The story focuses on one Mem much different than the rest. She's not the void, vapid shell that the other Mems are. She's able to think and dream and live outside the vault. Until one day, she's recalled - and, about to be reprinted. Then, she finds out more about her Source and finds the one chance she has to save herself from being erased.

I'm frustrated even writing this.

There were so many different ways this story had gone. There were so many possibilities. So many storylines. Instead, the book sort of just meandered. And, when it finally reached its destination, it was with an unemphatic whimper.

I'm such a disappointed mom. I'd like to have the memory of reading this book extracted!

Fortunately, the next book I read took me on a fulfilling journey instead...