Small Town News

Library Book(s) of the Week

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When I find a new author I like, I'm like a dog searching for a buried bone; I want to unearth as many previous works as I can. Using the library makes this process easier, thus I recently read a book of short stories by Richard Russo caUed A Whore's Child. In my opinion the title work was the least interesting of all the stories in the book, but certainly not because it didn't come from an interesting prospective. In the story a nun drops into an advanced creative writing class because her neighbor, an author, teaches it. She neither pays for the class or is officially registered and simply wants to write her story down. Dumped into a convent orphanage in Belgium, she becomes a nun by default. Everyone at the orphanage is fully aware the young girl's mother is a prostitute, but when the man who calls himself her father drops her off, he assures her he will be back to get her. The years she spends waiting and the final revelation are fairly compelling, but it is still not the best story in the book.

One of the stories in this slim volume was clearly the precursor to Russo's Straight Man, which I recently wrote about. This is the fun part of short stories; apparently Russo found enough in the short story and after some thought developed in into a full-length book. Short stories are wonderful, their length tailor-made for pre-bedtime reading for those lucky enough to fall asleep with ease. For the rest of us, a short story can fill a spare half-hour here and there. Russo is a talented writer and I'm currently on a quest to get more of his previous work and looking forward to a new book of his being published soon.

Also on tap for this edition of this column is The Bone Garden by Tess Ger-ritsen. This is the first book I've read by this author, who apparently has a series going on and writes medical thrillers in the main. This is not really a medical thriller, but does offer some horrifying glimpses of medicine and how it was practiced in 1830.

The book opens with Julia Hamill, newly divorced, digging in the garden of a 130-year-old house she has recently purchased in a suburb of Boston. While trying to bring order to the garden in which the previous owner had suffered a heart attack and died, Julia digs up some human bones. The forensic team dispatched to her home estimates the bones date back to a time older than the house and they feel certain the bones represent a murder victim. Shortly after this revelation, an old man living in Maine, a cousin of the woman who previously owned the home, contacts Julia. Hearing of the bones, he tells Julia they may be able to solve the mystery by looking through the boxes and boxes of correspondence saved by his pack-rat cousin.

This novel switches back and forth in time from the present to 1830 where we meet Rose Connolly, a young Irish immigrant at the bedside of her dying sister who has just given birth to a daughter. Among the medical students attending her are Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Norris Marshall. Rose is determined to protect her niece from the clutches of her father, who blithely signed away parental rights hours after the death of his wife. When approached by one of the hospital's nurses about giving the child up for adoption, Rose is adamant she will take care of her own.

Shortly thereafter, people who had attended to Rose's sister start being killed in a most gruesome way by a killer soon dubbed the West End Reaper. Somehow the child Meggy is at the epicenter of the murders and soon Rose and Norris join forces to try and unravel the mystery. This is a good yarn, but not for the squeamish. The rich details depicted of 1830s era medicine, and the necessity of grave robbing for the education of medical students, is grim indeed. Sanitation and basic hand washing were not the norm and the reader learns probably way more than necessary about how far the medical establishment has come.

Both of these books are available through the Walton County Library System.

Two that are not, but probably readily available at any used bookstore, are two oldies but goodies I recently re-read from my own library by John D. MacDonald. The two, Beach Girls and The Crossroads are classic examples of MacDonald's storytelling ability. Stories move along quickly, while at the same time richly drawing the characters. MacDonald's works usually have a hero, of sorts, and wrap up tidily at the end. These stories were written decades ago, but showed no age. Had the year been 2008 instead of 1958, both the circumstances of the story and the joy of reading them would have been the same. If you happen to not be familiar with John D. MacDonald, the library has numerous volumes of his work. He was quite prolific and I've yet to find a book he's written I did not enjoy.

Leah Stratmann may be reached via leahwrites@ gmail.com



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© 2010 The DeFuniak Springs Herald DeFuniak Springs, Florida. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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