I started reading another book after I finished Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, but I couldn't finish it. So I started reading Frog Music by Emma Donoghue. Much better!
I liked this book but didn't totally love it. The writing was good, the story was good, but the way it flip flopped back and forth in a month or so time frame made it a tad hard to follow for me for some reason. This novel is based on the true story of a murder that happened near San Francisco in 1876.
One thing I really found interesting was the use of the term "below job" for you know what. Very interesting. It is below, so it makes sense, I guess!
Author: Emma Donoghue
Book Read: Frog Music
Have you read Room by Emma Donoghue? If so, you know how good it is. If not, do! This book is so unique and compelling. I loved it.
Jack is five years old and lives in Room with Ma. His ma was kidnapped at age 19 and Jack was the result of the repeated rapes by her kidnapper.
The beginning of the book is all about Ma and Jack's small life inside Room. It's exhausting to think about how they pass the time and have to live in their tiny world.
Then the book opens up with some changes that I won't get into. I don't want to spoil if for you if you haven't read Room. It's really an amazing novel from a child's point of view. It's charming and funny and scary, all wrapped up in Rug.
Book Read: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
When I first started reading Astray by Emma Donoghue, I wasn't sure about it. In fact, I read the first short story, set it aside and read another book. Then I picked it up again and I'm glad I did.
Emma Donoghue took true stories, sometimes just a line she read, and embellished with characters and details weaving a fiction story out of a thread. The main theme that made the stories cohesive was that at least one character in each was straying in one way or another. They were all astray.
I really liked a couple of the short stories the best. "Counting the Days" alternated between a wife and mother, Jane, crossing the Atlantic from Ireland to Canada to meet her husband who had gone ahead the year before. Then it's her husband Henry's turn to tell his side of things. On the day he is to meet their ship, his plight is serious. He wants to meet the ship, but you'll have to read it to see what happens. Donoghue never let the two get the messages because of the long distance and time it took for mail to reach another country. She used passages from the couple's letters verbatim and they appear in italics in the story.
"The Body Swap" was interesting to me because it dealt with stealing the body of President Lincoln from his tomb in Springfield, Illinois.
And "The Gift" was another short story that never let the characters speak directly. A poor woman gave up her daughter because she couldn't feed her then tried to get her daughter back when her situation improved. But her daughter had been sent on an Orphan Train from New York to Iowa. The adoptive father wanted no involvement by the natural mother. These two people who loved one child communicated in letters, each writing to the Children's Aid Society pleading their case.
These are just a few of the many stories that Donoghue includes. I loved reading the facts of the tidbit of truth where she gathered her inspiration that she at the end of each story.
Book Read: Astray
Author: Emma Donoghue
