BOOK REVIEWS: 'Arcadia Falls,' 'The Wives of Henry Oades'
'Chick Lit': Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
It's no trade secret that women buy more books than men. One estimate, dating from 2005, says that 55 percent of fiction is purchased by women, 45 percent by men (Link: http://www.ecolibris.net/bookpublish.asp).
So what's wrong with me singling out books from time to time that will appeal to women. Nothing! And there's nothing wrong with using the term "chick lit" to describe it, is there? Growing up in a family with a strong mother and two sisters made me sensitive to women's feelings from the start.
So, here are reviews of two books that I'm guessing will appeal to women more than men:
* Carol Goodman's "Arcadia Falls" (Ballantine Books, 368 pages, $25.00), a combination of gothic thriller and romance novel that will appeal to readers who liked Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" or Stephanie Barron's "The White Garden." Goodman is the author of "The Lake of Dead Languages," and "The Night Villa," among many other books. She lives in New York state with her family.
* Johanna Moran's "The Wives of Henry Oades" (Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original, 384 pages, $15.00), based on a true story, of a man who thinks his wife and the mother of his children is dead, marrying again, only to have his first wife reappear. A former flight attendant, Moran lives in Sarasota, FL with her husband and now writes full time.
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"Arcadia Falls" takes place in the eponymous Upstate New York village, the atmospheric setting for the next chapter in the life of Meg Rosenthal and her daughter Sally after the untimely death of Meg's husband Jude. Thanks to financial reverses, she has to resume a career as a teacher and leave her once comfortable life on Long Island behind. Actually, Meg is looking forward to the change as a way of overcoming her grief.
Goodman is great at portraying the gap between a mother and her daughter. The drive to her teaching job at a boarding school in Arcadia Falls takes the two through woods that remind Meg of the stories that she used to read to her daughter. But Sally is a thoroughly modern teen, a good student but one who's permanently linked to her cell phone and iPod.
Meg and Sally have grown apart since the death of Jude. Meg hopes that they're being together at Arcadia School, where Meg will teach English and Sally will be a student, will bridge the gap a little, at least.
They exchange their comfortable home for a long neglected cottage that seems to be something out of a gothic story and are immediately immersed in the life of a school that was founded by the early 20th Century equivalent of hippies or beatniks.
Things get off to a rocky start almost from the beginning with the mysterious death of one of Meg's folklore students, Isabel Cheney, who falls to her death during Arcadia's First Night bonfire. Sheriff Callum Reade, a former New York City cop, investigates and a relationship slowly develops between Reade and Meg.
Meg, a folklore specialist herself, is more than a little disturbed about the school's gothic rituals, but she's determined to succeed in her new career. She's trying to make a good impression on the school's dean, Ivy St. Clare, who has a strong link to the founders of Arcadia School, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt. Women especially will find this novel ideal for reading and as a book to be explored in a book group.
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"The Wives of Henry Oades" is based on a true story that author Johanna Moran heard about from her father, a law professor. In Victorian England, accountant Henry Oades jumps at a chance to work in New Zealand. His wife, Margaret, is reluctant to leave her comfortable life in England, especially with two young children. Henry convinces her and they travel to Wellington, NZ, where they find their home is not exactly as advertised.
They move to a house on the outskirts of the city, which turns out to be a bad decision: Margaret and her children are kidnapped by the indigenous Maori, who -- unknown to Henry -- hold them captive. Henry, seeing the burned down house with human remains, suspects that his wife and children are dead. He persists in searching for clues of their survival, but eventually decides to accept a job offer in Northern California, in the rural areas east of Berkeley.
Henry arrives in California where he meets and falls in love with Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a child. He marries her and buys a dairy farm. All goes well until Margaret and their children, having escaped from captivity with the help of a sympathetic Maori, learn of Henry's decision to move to California and travel to rejoin him.
"The Wives of Henry Oades" is narrated primarily by Margaret and Nancy, who show remarkable understanding in the face of a seemingly intolerable situation. It's made more complicated when authorities, accusing them of being Mormons practicing polygamy, prosecute the three for bigamy.
Moran tells the story with humor and understanding. The California of more than a century ago is not the tolerant state that it is today and most of their neighbors turn against Henry, Nancy and Margaret. I found it to be an enthralling novel, exploring family values and the narrow minded Victorian attitudes prevailing in a state that's known today for tolerance. I would also nominate "The Wives of Henry Oades" as a book group selection.