Inheritance—Review by Carole

When you get to the age when you can view your parents as real people instead of larger-than-life figures, then you are officially an adult. At least that’s the way I look at it. Some people never get to that stage—they perennially see their parents from a child’s viewpoint. I think it does your parents great honor if you see them as real people and love them for who they are.

In Inheritance, Natalie Danford explores the adult child-parent relationship in her debut novel. Olivia is the grown—and only—daughter of Luigi Bonocchio.

In English, Bonocchio means "good eyes"—I'm always fascinated by the name authors choose for their characters. I wondered as I read this whether Danford named him Luigi Good Eyes because he "sees more" than perhaps the other characters. Or did she just like the name? Or does my mind just work in weird ways as my mother has suggested on more than one occasion? But I digress.

Olivia discovers a deed to a house in Italy among his possessions after his death. Because her father spoke so little of his family and upbringing there, Olivia is intrigued enough to visit the village of Urbino to learn more. She is guided by a vague notion that she will learn what a wonderful thing having extended family around you is like.

What she actually learns changes the way she views her father. Olivia is essentially raised by her father, but she has been living her own life for many years. She takes care of her father at the end of his life. She grieves for his loss, but she doesn’t want to remember him the way he was at the end. But she feels betrayed by her father when she learns the story of his past.

While I was sympathetic to her on some levels, I have to say that I was often angry with Olivia. She is quick to judge her father without knowing the whole story. Even before his death, Olivia seems to have moved on from her life with her father instead of making sure he had a part in it. And she seems at times to be more ready to believe the word of people she’s only just met than to believe what she knows in her heart to be true of her father.

Now, if we only learned the story from Olivia’s point of view, we would be missing a great deal. Danford doesn’t allow that to happen. She offers us alternating narratives from Olivia’s and Luigi’s perspective. Put together, they offer a complete story of one man’s struggle to reconcile his past with life in a new country and his daughter’s quest to understand how her father could have made the decisions he did and lived with the consequences.

Inheritance deals with betrayal and perceptions—Danford writes about these deeply emotional issues with compassion. Her novel is tightly written (a trait I admire and aspire to); her repeated imagery of sheds, clay, and locks really resonated with me.

We are discussing this in my sisters-in-law's book club next week, but I wanted to share my thoughts with you now. It was my pick, so I’ll update you with what everyone thinks of the book after we meet.

If you want to read more, check out this Square Table interview of Natalie Danford.

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Update: I e-mailed Natalie Danford to let her know that we reviewed her book. She responded:

"Thank you so much, both for reading the book in your book club and for reviewing it. A lot of people get angry with Olivia when they read the book! I went to talk to a college class about the book this week, and the professor referred to Olivia as "morally anxious," a phrase I really like."

I think the phrase "morally anxious" is an apt one to describe Olivia. It's nice to know that the book is being discussed in many different circles.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Review by Carole

Our Harry Potter picnic was rained out this year, but it didn’t stop us. We moved our picnic indoors, and we sat around and talked about the last of the Harry Potter novels, eating Chris' Dementors Demise cupcakes.

We were four 40-something adults, a couple of teenagers, and a college student, and we were all talking at once more often than not. Trying to get someone to listen to what you had to say was a challenge. Everyone had extremely strong views on so many topics, and you wanted to say your piece before you lost your train of thought.

My kids are the perfect ages to have grown up with this series. It is a ride that we all willingly took together, impatiently waiting for the next leg of the journey. We read all of the Harry Potter books aloud, which isn’t easy to do when you’re crying. Many was the time that everyone had to wait for me to collect myself as I wiped away tears and waiting for the quaver in my voice to subside.

The following questions and answers touch on the high spots of our conversation, but plot spoilers abound, so beware.

What made you cry?

Hedwig, Dobby, Mrs. Weasley giving Harry the watch, Hagrid carrying Harry’s body out of the Forbidden Forest, Fred, Ron speaking up for the house elves, Harry wanting his mother by his side as he prepared to lay his life down, Oliver Wood with Colin Creevey.

What did you love?

Ron coming back, Mrs. Weasley being underestimated by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry getting to talk to Dumbledore, Hermione’s beaded bag and her ability to always think about what needs to be done, Neville killing the basilisk, Luna’s kindness, Dudder’s halting realization that he owed Harry much, Percy’s redemption, everyone coming through the portrait to join the battle, Ron speaking Parseltongue, Harry fixing his wand, finding out Snape’s story and why Dumbledore was always so sure about him

What didn’t you get?

Why did Harry have the choice of whether to come back—was it because he was the Master of Death? Why did Harry have to lose Hedwig? Why were Tonks and Lupin so irresponsible? How does George get on with his life? Why the good guys would not use the unforgivable curses even though it meant having to fight the bad guys time and again.

Were you satisfied?

Resoundingly, our crowd was. If the epilogue did not provide enough details for you, check out this interview that J.K. Rowling did shortly after the book was released (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323).

The Ruins - Review by Chris

In a New York Times ad for The Ruins, Stephen King states that he found it a scary read. I wanted to see what frightens a man whose novel about vampires prompted me to wear a cross in seventh grade. I also had liked Scott Smith's story A Simple Plan (whose screenplay was amazing and taut.)

I did not get the horror novel I expected.

Rather, I got a very well-crafted character-driven suspense novel with horror elements, and excellent summer fare. This book should be consumed while the reader feels perspiration trickle between her shoulder blades and a glass of iced tea sweats on the table next to her. (Sandy beach optional.) I read this book as a palate cleanser before I started some of the more intense novels and involved non-fictions in my stack, and I got what I bargained for.

I just wish it had started faster.

After about 40 pages of character development — and only Stephen King's endorsement spurring me on — the players finally get busy: four Americans on holiday in Cancún volunteer to help a new German friend retrieve his brother from the unmet youth's ill-advised side trip to Mayan ruins. They are joined by a Greek who knows no English but is well-versed in the Language of Tequila.

Along the way, they get Clues: a bad beginning, awkward warnings from strangers, blocked and hidden paths. None of these change their course and they discover, too late, why the Mayan-speaking residents of the small village near the ruins were waving them away — and why a single step sealed their fate.

Smith’s writing is like embroidery: each strand is vital and contributes to the image. In The Ruins, he wanted to make sure we knew the characters before the action began because the characters are what compel the story.

However, I want my character development as part of the action. The tension between the characters, how they accept the reality of their situation, how they act in adversity — that all comes from the action. Spoiled twenty-somethings getting drunk on the beach do not interest me. An Eagle Scout who tries to remember the important points of distilling urine does.

I want my suspense or horror stories to grip me from the beginning or I may not trust the author to deliver the scary stuff. I do not need the monster to show up on page one, but I need the author to show me there is a path to the monster that starts on page one.

The Ruins is definitely worth reading — but as a library read, or a book I'd buy for a dime at a library sale for a beach house bookshelf.