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The Man Without a Shadow, by Joyce Carol Oates

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Margot Sharpe is a graduate student of the great psychologist Milton Ferris when she meets amnesiac Elihu Hoopes. Eli has suffered brain damage from an illness and has no short term memory. Everything from before his illness he remembers clearly, but his real time memory lasts no more than seventy seconds. Margot can work with him on various tests for most of the day. If she leaves to go to the restroom, when she returns he has forgotten who she is, what they were doing, even that they’ve met before. Hel-lo, he will say. Eli often tries to place people he meets today as grown-up versions of those he went to school with. I can’t even imagine the frustration a patient with this illness must feel, but Eli is usually genial and upbeat. Eli comes from a wealthy family, was well educated, athletic and worked for his family’s financial firm. After his illness and the onset of memory loss, he lives with his aunt and is taken to the clinic each week. However, certain events in his otherwise idyllic childhood keep resurfacing. He keeps a sketchbook and repeatedly draws a scene of a young girl who has drowned. This was his cousin Gretchen, who was killed at Lake George, the family’s summer retreat.

Margot becomes, to say the least, obsessed with Eli Hoopes. She works with him for decades, long after Milton Ferris has moved on to bigger and better things. She publishes widely on her subject, known to the academic world as E.H. His identity is kept secret, partially to protect him from the press, but also to protect the researchers’ claim to this most unusual subject. All sorts of tests are devised to benefit the scientific community studying memory, or the loss of it.

So many interesting things arise regarding the subject E.H. Even without short term memory he seems to remember someone who is unkind to him, and though he certainly could not say why, changes his behavior from cheerful and congenial to standoffish and reserved when encountering that person again, even though to him, it’s always for the first time.

The Last White Rose, by Alison Weir

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Historical novel based on the life of Elizabeth of York. The story starts with Elizabeth being woken by her mother when she’s about four years old. Quietly, but hurriedly, they are fleeing the castle for sanctuary. Edward’s rule is being challenged and his queen fears for the safety of his heirs. They flee to the church where they are housed until Elizabeth’s father returns victorious. Unfortunately Elizabeth’s life is lived in fear of invaders and later, imposters. When her beloved father dies at an early age, he appoints his trusted ally Richard as regent for his young sons, Edward and York. But it soon becomes apparent that Richard has designs on the throne for himself. Elizabeth’s mother again takes her children into sanctuary. Richard’s men come and demand that her youngest son, York, be taken to the Tower to join his older brother Edward (Ned), in preparation for his coronation. Reluctantly, the queen agrees. Neither of the princes are ever seen or heard from again. Richard seizes the throne and keeps it until Henry VII returns from exile, rouses the people, and kills Richard in battle. Part of Henry’s plan to establish his reign is to marry Elizabeth, who is the rightful heir to the throne, except that at the time women could not rule alone.

During her life, Elizabeth is haunted by the fact that no one has ever discovered what happened to her brothers, for if either of them could be found alive, Henry’s claim to the throne could be undermined. More than once, imposters mount insurrections which have to be quelled. Elizabeth would dearly love to see her brothers again, but she fears what would happen to her husband, and their children if either of her brothers should come forward. She and Henry have numerous offspring, the first boy, Edward, is good, studious and pious, but sickly. He is removed at an early age from court, to study and train, but his health remains poor. He is betrothed to the princess of Spain, in a royal chess match which allies England with a potential enemy. But Edward’s health is misdiagnosed and he dies soon after the marriage. Fate has played a big hand here, because the spare is Henry VIII. From birth a boisterous, lively and ambitious child, he is well suited to being a king.

One thing I found hard to follow in the book was all the different characters with the same name. Many Elizabeth’s, Margaret’s, Edward’s, Henry’s. Not being British, it all got rather confusing at times. Still, a good story. I look forward to reading more of Alison Weir’s works in the near future.

Dawnlands, by Phillipa Gregory

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Published 2022

The year is 1685, King Charles of England has died and King James is set to gain the throne. This news causes Ned Ferryman of Boston, Massachusetts to set sail for home. He plans to join the Duke of Monmouth’s challenge to King James. Before he can board ship he observes a gang of slaves, mostly Native Americans, heading to the docks. One of them manages to call him by his Indian name, and he recognizes a child he once knew in the wilderness, who has now grown into a young man. Ned ends up purchasing this slave, it’s the least he can do to repay the tribe’s kindness to him in years gone by. They board ship before he discovers that the young man is actually a young woman, who is passing as male to keep from being assaulted. Ned hatches a plan to pose the young woman, still posing as male, as his servant. Not a slave, but a working man in his service. Once they reach England he will give her freedom but for now, keeping her with him will provide for her safety. However, once they reach England, Rowan, as he calls her, will not leave his side until her debt to him is repaid. She follows him to enlist with the Duke, and sets out on the march to overthrow the new king. Ned is injured and taken prisoner, but Rowan tricks the guards into letting her in dressed as a washerwoman. She knocks Ned out and steals his clothes, posing as him on the ship where the prisoners are to be transported to Barbados to serve a ten year indenture. Ned, when he comes to, dresses in the washerwoman’s clothing and escapes back home to the wharf.

Meanwhile, in London, Livia Avery, whose ties to Ned’s family are based on deceit but whose son has been raised as their foster child, has gone to court as the queen’s favorite lady in waiting. She has not seen any of the Stoneys, or her son for many years but now that the queen has elevated her she uses her son as a pawn in her attempts to gain favor at court.

Alinor, Ned’s sister, is getting old and lives with her daughter Alys and her husband at the wharf where their warehouse is located. As Livia’s plots thicken, she rewards her son Matthew, with the gift of the lands where Ned, Alinor and Alys lived prior to coming to London many years ago. Alinor returns to her old home but instead of living in a small hut beside the ferry she now lives in the priory, owned by the crown and given to Matthew by his mother as a gift from the queen. Here, she remembers her affair with Livia’s husband many years before and his refusal to protect her when the townspeople descried her as a witch. She survived the ordeal but fled with her daughter to London and had not returned. No one is left who remembers her or her family, although tales are told about the mermaid who fell in love with a man, but who was cast back into the sea.

It appears I have missed a book in this series, will have to find it and read how the main characters ended up in this novel. I learned a lot about this period of history in England, and the US. More details on how cruelty to Native Americans and slaves was the norm during those times

Barkskins, by Annie Proulz

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Published 2016

The author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain now tells the store of two immigrants to the New World. Both are from France and have signed on as indentured servants to a man who puts them to work chopping trees in what is now Canada. People at that time believed the forests to be indestructible, since the wilderness was so vast compared to what they had seen in the Old World. The native Americans did not cut the forests and made their homes from animal hides instead of lumber. Since they were at least partially nomadic they did not want immovable homes made of wood. Even though the original Americans had been on the land for many centuries, the forests were virgin. The timber was cut mostly for export back to the Old World, much of it for ships’ masts.

Rene Sel and Charles Duquet are the two men whose stories the author follows through many generations. Rene Sel remains with his master for many years and is rewarded with a piece of land of his own. He is forced to marry his master’s cook when the master’s new wife believes he is having an affair. But the marriage is a happy one, and their children go on to inhabit America. They do not achieve much wealth since they are part Native American and during that time were largely treated as slaves or at best, expendable. Charles Duquet, on the other hand, is a rebel from the very beginning. He is plagued with ill health, in particular suffering from bad teeth. When the pain becomes overwhelming, he runs away into the forest where Sel and the master can hear his painful moans. No attempt is made to recapture him, the forest at night being deemed too dangerous to enter. Years later Rene hears of a man with bad teeth, or no teeth, having had them all pulled, who has made a reputation for himself as a fur trader, one of the best in the new country. When the old master hears of this, he is enraged and sets out to find and recapture his servant, who has not worked his time to pay for his passage. Duquet goes on to found a wealthy family, trading in furs and timber from the new world.

Life during this time in Canada and North America is pretty dismal. Lawlessness and corruption are rife. The book was a struggle to get through at times, because the life it portrayed was so fraught with peril from all sides. I did get a new awareness of the plight of the Native Americans, how much they gave and how much was taken from them at the beginning of colonization. Disease killed many, but greed killed many more. This is a very long book. It reminded me in some ways of Jane Smiley’s saga of the Iowa farm family, but hers is modern day and split into three novels.

This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub

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Published 2022

Time travels by a forty year old woman who desperately wants to find a way to save her father. Alice Stern and her dad Leonard are New Yorkers through and through. When the narrative begins Leonard is in the hospital and is unresponsive. Alice hasn’t been able to converse with him in weeks. She knows the end is near but is having trouble facing it. On her fortieth birthday she meets her best friend Sam for dinner, but the meal is cut short by an emergency involving Sam’s young son. Alice goes on to some of her favorite haunts, determined to have a big time on such a milestone. Forty years old, still single, still in the same apartment and the same job after more than a decade. Having had too much to drink she decides to go by her Dad’s place but can’t find her key to the house. She slips inside the old guardhouse, used now days to store gardening tools. Alice curls up inside and falls asleep. When she awakes, she is sixteen, it’s her birthday but twenty four years earlier. She’s in her old bedroom at home, and her Dad is in the kitchen having breakfast. Leonard doesn’t notice anything is amiss but Alice is both delighted and scared. Delighted that she has her Dad back, healthy and laughing, his old self. But scared that she’s losing her mind. She remembers a lot of things about that sixteenth birthday, where they went for lunch and her party later that night. As it turns out, the time travel lasts one day. When she gets back to her forty year old self, not much has changes. But Alice has plans. She begins travelling back and forth between her forty year old self and her sixteen year old self, hoping to change both her Dad’s life and her own so that she can hold onto him for longer. She wonders what would’ve happened if she had not let the love of her life get involved with another girl at her sixteenth birthday party. Would they have been happy? Will convincing her Dad to quit smoking keep him healthier longer? All these questions Alice has a chance to explore. By going back in time and changing just a few things, important things like taking care of yourself and speaking up for herself instead of letting things ride. How will this affect the years going forward.

It’s an interesting concept, not sure I agree with it but I enjoyed seeing how it turned out.

Avenue of Mysteries, by John Irving

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Jaun Diego and his sister Lupe are dump kids. That means they live in the dump outside the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. They scavenge the garbage for any kind of valuable. A couple of things set them apart. Juan Diego has taught himself to read by salvaging books, thrown out by the Jesuits who run a monastery and orphanage nearby. Lupe has the ability to read minds, however, she is unable to communicate and no one can understand her but Juan Diego. When Juan Deigo’s foot is crushed in an accident, the two kids move into the orphanage. Although not strictly orphans, their mother, Esperanza, works as a cleaning woman for the church, and also walks the streets at night. Rumors are that the dump boss is their father, but Esperanza never says for sure. She is struck down by the huge statue of the Virgin Mary while standing on a ladder to clean it. From there, Juan Diego and Lupe are shuttled into the circus because the doctor says it will be a good profession for Lupe, with her mind-reading abilities. Juan Diego must go with her because he’s the only one who can understand her gibberish

Juan Diego goes on to become a writer in his adult life, but not before losing Lupe, and being adopted by a former priest and his lover, who move to Iowa to teach at the University. By now he is travelling to the Philippines, to fulfill a promise he made as a child to the good gringo, a hippie in Oaxaca to avoid the draft. The good gringo dies before he can make a pilgrimage to see his father’s grave, which Juan Diego sets out to do, aided by one of his students. But Juan Diego is taken over during his travels by a mother and daughter team, who take charge of his itinerary, and his life. Strangely, a photo taken of the three of them in front of a sightseeing spot shows only Juan Diego, the mother and daughter, Miriam and Dorothy, do not show up in the photo at all. Juan Diego should be taking his beta blocker prescription, but because of the two very attractive women, he takes Viagra instead, alternating his doses and choosing to forego the beta blockers many times in order to find pleasure with one or the other of the two women. Also, the beta blockers interfere with his dreams, which is the only place he can reconnect with his former life as a child in Mexico. All advise him to leave the past behind, but that cuts out those he loved the most, his sister Lupe, Senor Eduardo and Flor, who adopted him and took him to America.

Lots of religion in this story, with strongly held views for and against by the different characters. Miracles, or not, depending on who’s doing the interpreting. According to Lupe, only she and her brother Juan Diego are the miracles.