'The Crimson Petal and the White' by Michel Faber

The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber (3)

I was drawn to this book from a review of Mr. Faber’s current release in which it was referred to as ‘Dickensian’. While it is set in a familiar Dickenson-like time and place (late 1800’s London), and had a number of colorful characters, missing was the balance of strife with comic relief and magically wonderful phraseology. This book does have a lot of strife. The main character is Sugar, a 19-year-old prostitute who (against the odds of growing up in a brothel) has managed to differentiate herself as a clean, smart, canny whore who will ‘do anything’ asked of her. She is atypical from the other prostitutes in every physical way as well – very tall, boyish figure, lizard-like skin and flaming red hair. At least the author has used her smarts and uniqueness to set her apart and give her a power that the reader hopes will get her out of her dismal life. The second character, William Rackham is the hapless heir to a perfume business who needs a good woman (Sugar?) to straighten him out. The fact that Sugar ‘will do anything’ first draws him to her. He also has a wife and lonely, isolated daughter. The wife is a strange child-like woman spiraling into insanity as the book progresses. At 800+ pages long, surprisingly one of the biggest criticisms I have read has to do with the abrupt and somewhat dangling ending. My disappointment had more to do with the length’s proportion to the plot. I did not feel enough happened in the book to warrant that many pages. Mr. Faber does a good job painting a picture of the social and physical London of the time, creating a strong female character and some interesting side characters, but overall I found the plot unsatisfactory.

'Station Eleven' by Emily St. John Mandel

‘Station Eleven’, Emily St. John Mandel (3)

Ms. St. John Mandel seems prescient with this 2014 released post apocalyptic book – since the apocalypse occurs due to a rampant disease that quickly wipes out much of civilization – and the book was released just before the Ebola epidemic in Africa started to scare much of our media into a frenzied mess. Her story spans about 25 years – a few years before the epidemic and 20 years after – with it starting as the main characters are faced with the few days of panic as the disease makes its way through the population. She aptly describes the desolation achieved quickly with the lack of people, then power, then food, and finally all modern conveniences become useless. The story moves in jumps, both forwards and backwards. I enjoyed following the characters as the author jumped into the future and back again, though I would have liked a more balanced look at the characters. For example, the first character we meet disappears from the narrative for 100’s of pages. In general, the word ‘more’ describes my overall feelings for this book. After reading the 330+ pages, I felt something was missing, particularly give the acclaim this book has been getting. The writing was good, but the material was not as fresh and new as I was led to believe.

'Climbing the Mango Trees' by Madhur Jaffrey

‘Climbing the Mango Trees’, Madhur Jaffrey (2.5)

I found this book to be a bit milquetoast for me. It came across as a privileged memoir of the idyllic and not particularly interesting life of an Indian chef/actress.  She describes her storybook life growing up near New Delhi during the 40’s and 50’s. Even though this covers WWII and the partition of India and Pakistan, she keeps it light and fluffy.  Only one member of her family (a selfish Uncle) comes across as anything less than a perfect example of family harmony.  I will admit that seeing ‘The Lunchbox’ while I was reading this may have tainted my opinion. While it was hard to imagine a wife cooking her husband a hot lunch each day – that is then transported on bike and train to be hand delivered to his office every day – the contrast was startling to Ms. Jaffrey’s experience. In elementary school, their servants would deliver their hot lunch and set it up for the three daughters to eat – including tablecloth, plates and silverware! The one element of the book I enjoyed was her weaving into the story the smells and foods of her childhood. She ends the book with pages of exotic recipes. She did transmit her love of the food and the warmth by which it was prepared (by family and servants), though the book ended rather abruptly and it wasn’t clear how she became an actress, chef and author.