Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

I will read everything Lauren Groff ever writes (previously she has written, and I have read: Matrix, Fates and Furies, Florida, Arcadia, Monsters of Templeton), so I savored the anticipation of diving into her newest, receiving my copy immediately upon its publication in mid-September. (It was much fun that the BOTM Club included this in their September selections!)

Groff is a master of many components of writer’s craft–diction and language, description, imagery, and more–but it is her merging of all craft to create yet another all-inclusive reading experience and adventure that is her super successful mark, well hit, yet again.

Groff’s main character in The Vaster Wilds is a little like Frankenstein’s creature in her ambiguous identification: different people call her different names, and so none really feel like her identity, it seems. She is both on a quest and fleeing at the same time, such that the entire novel has a hurried and harried pace, despite “time” also being vague-ish.

Speaking of time, this could be old, old, old olden times or far into the future time, if you ask me. There are many things, such as the language of this woman’s life, her implements possessions and her understanding and valuing of them, along with her self-provision and independence, that could be archaic and innate or freshly feminine-independence-advanced. And as for her “name,” I’m afraid that she, as so many others, has had to respond to “Hey, you!” as well. But I’d love to discuss this Frankenstein connection with someone–Ms. Groff??–as there are other things I see/love in comparison.

This particularly pure “coming of age” story is remarkable and memorable and will linger long for me in soul-filling ways. I will definitely read it again. I see it for what it is on the page and value it on that level as a psychological adventure of sorts. And I also see it–having heard Groff in person twice–as possibly the story of “everywoman” who has to face unimaginable challenges–judgment and criticism and more–and then make very difficult decisions and learn to determine when it’s necessary to comply and when it’s better to walk–or run–away. It’s never ever known for certain whether one is moving toward something better or something worse.

I think this novel is about self-care, yet to be clear: there are no pricey moisturizers or hyaluronic acid-filled serums or lattes of any flavor in this wild place. In fact, I think it’s an entire novel with zero mention of coffee or tea or any such cozy comforts. Instead, self-care here involves seeking moments when there is rare time or opportunity–or it is safe–to remove lice and nits from clothing and hair and person, or to bathe and in the most rudimentary iteration. Self-care is critical.

While this story is about a particular female in a particular situation and time and place, and told in a rather raw way, well…I think many of us have been there in some figurative ways. May we all find this kind–yet via not at all this kind of literal trauma or treatment–of peace, and preferably with a whole lotta life ahead to live…and in a thriving, self-caring way.

Having met this “girl” or woman–Lamentations, Zed, “everywoman” by my calling–I remain on my own personal mission to take good care of my “self” while also valuing the company of others and doing and being my best by–and for and with–them as well.

Come back next Monday for another book review!

Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

This one grabbed my head and heart in soooooo many wonderful ways.

I understand exactly why and how this book did this to me, and it may or may not, then hit every reader exactly the same. My deep fondness for the play Our Town and my own “having” of adult daughters were two-fold connections in complex ways to this novel.

One can definitely enjoy this book without having a deeply personal connection to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, but if you, reader, have never read it before OR did in high school but don’t remember it at all, I recommend reading it again now–or watching it–before taking on the gorgeousness that is Tom Lake.

If, instead, Our Town long ago or more recently took up residence in your heart and soul because you taught it and/or read it aloud so many times that you lost count a long, long time ago, or at any point in time played a role in it…then you are in for an absolutely amazingly allusive and immersive treat–and that much like a homemade version of whatever treat from your past would most awe you in some stranger serving you a plate of it that tastes JUST LIKE you used to enjoy, and the whole thing will take you right back to some time or place or experience that you’ve not thought of for a long time, maybe, but once the buttons on the time machine are all pushed, it all comes right back to you and immediately–the smells, the taste, the view from the cemetery, the entire and wholesomely encapsulating feel of it all.

For this mom of adult daughters, there are additional connections to be made as well. Knowing as I do that Ms. Patchett does not have children of her own, I found these things as she presented them to be much more Our Town-like and idyllically nearly utopian-ideal-unreal, as well…and yet I aspire to the kind of connections she describes here…hope for yet someday.

For the reader of Tom Lake who has neither Our Town nor adult daughters in their own experiences, there is still an absolutely beautiful story to read here that will take anyone back to their own coming-of-age-ness and pondering the things that happened which contributed to the adults they’ve become. It enriches one’s personal history, as I see it, making important the little things that got us each to “here,” to consider, even, that perhaps they are worthy of storytelling/sharing as well.

Truly, none tell stories quite as well as Ms. Patchett does. Here she resurrects Thornton Wilder’s voice–perhaps that is hers–to bring it all back to life again: New Hampshire, Our Town, LA and the high (and low) acting/movie life, Tom Lake and summer stock, New York, and this absolutely beautiful orchard and family farm in Michigan–home–as well as all that unites this family: Emily, Maisie, and Nell home in the spring of 2020 to generously listen to their mom’s stories.

This is an absolutely gorgeous read.

Come back next Monday for another book review!