The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
288 pages
Published February 2001 by Penguin Group
Source: the publisher and TLC Book Tours

Tall, beautiful, rich Greta Waud, born and raised in California, doesn't really fit in with the "in" crowd and doesn't particularly want to. When her family moves to Denmark for her father to be an ambassador, Greta falls in love--with Denmark and with her art teacher, the petite, pretty, shy Einar Wegener. Rumblings of World War I send the Wauds back to California where Greta meets ceramics artist Teddy Cross. He is entirely the opposite of Einar except in one key point--Greta's mother is not pleased and that makes Teddy all the more appealing. Teddy and Greta marry but life is not easy for them and before the war ends, Teddy has died. Greta returns to Denmark and immediately seeks out Einar.

Soon the two are married and settled into an apartment where both of them have room to paint. Einar is modestly successful; Greta is not. But one day, when the model for the portrait that Greta is working on can't come to Greta asks Einar to put on a pair of women's shoes and stockings to pose. When he does, it awakens something in him. When Greta convinces Einar to also try on a dress, she teasingly calls him "Lili." But several days later, Greta returns to the apartment to find that "Lili" is sitting in her studio. So begins the emergence of the woman that has been living in Einar all of his life. Greta, who may stand up to anyone else, devoted to doing what makes her husbands happy so, despite misgivings, she allows Lili to become more and more a part of their lives, going so far as to convince everyone else that Lili is Einar's cousin and taking her for outings. Soon Lili is appearing more and more frequently, taking over the body entirely. Greta is terribly conflicted--on the one hand, she appears to be losing her husband; on the other hand, Lili has become an inspiration for Greta's painting and Greta is now becoming very successful. The fight is taking it's toll on the body with frequent bouts of unexplained bleeding, loss of appetite and an inability to get enough sleep. Mentally, Einar/Lili have become so separate that one can often not recall what the other has done.

Greta, with encouragement from her brother, Carlisle, in whom she has confided, begins to look for ways to help make Lili whole. Carlisle tries to find psychiatrics who can help but Greta finds a doctor who says he can physically make Lili the woman that she is mentally. Now Greta has to find a way to live with Lili/Einar's decision.

You may have already heard the premise of this book and think that it is a book about gender and sexual identity. It is but it is much more a love story, a book that examines how much one person is willing to give to make another person happy. It's a book about finding our true identities--here the main focus is Einar but the book looks beyond Einar at Greta as well. Ebershoff does a wonderful job of making this a story about people and their motivations and feelings rather than a sensationalist story. I found Greta, in particular, fascinating. As we learn more about her history with Teddy, we learn what may be the reason she is so willing to do whatever it is that will make Einar happy but Greta is also encouraging Lili to come to the fore for her own selfish reasons. And for a woman who is forward thinking enough to encourage her spouse to act out on his desire to become a woman, Greta is terribly old-fashioned in that she remains faithful to Einar despite the fact that they are clearly not a married couple any longer in the usual sense.

"Part of Greta wanted to be married to the most scandalous man in the world. It had always annoyed her when people assumed that just because she had married she was now seeking a conventional life."

"Although she didn't like to admit it, she was like many young women from Pasadena who thought of divorce as a sign of moral faccidness...She found herself unusually concerned about what others might think and say about her--as if she were so week-minded that she had simply married the wrong man."

Ebershoff has a terrific way of making the setting a true part of the story--using just enough words to convey the scene without making the reader's eyes glaze over.

"Inside the Radhuset there was a covered courtyard decorated in the style of the Italian Renaissance. On three sides were open galleries supported by pillars. Above, a canopy of crossing timberbeams. On the stage was an orchestra, and there was a long table with trays of oysters. Hundreds of people were dancing, hands of handsome men on the slender waists of women whose eyelids were painted blue. Two girls on a bench were writing a note to someone, giggling over it. There was a circle of men in tuxedos with their hands in their pockets, their eyes roaming."

Although the book is divided into four place/time periods, it does go back and forth in time within those parts and it was, on occasion, hard to get back into the main story after a flashback. Some of the time spent exploring the past began to feel repetitive to me, as did the descriptions of the paintings of bogs that Einar was known for. But Ebershoff handled what could have been a sordid story without making it sordid. There is some talk of sex and, of course, bodily parts but only what felt like was necessary.

This is not a book for everyone and I'm not sure that I would have picked it up on my own. But I did enjoy it very much and think there would be a lot here for book clubs to talk about--provided the members of your book club are openminded. Thanks to Lisa and TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour!

"The Danish Girl," starring Nicole Kidman as Einar, will released as a movie sometime in 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810819/.


For more opinions on the book, check out these tour stops:
Monday, May 3rd: Peekin’ Between the Pages
Tuesday, May 4th: Bermuda Onion
Thursday, May 6th: Rundpinne
Friday, May 7th: Redlady’s Reading Room
Monday, May 10th: Wordsmithonia
Tuesday, May 11th: Book Addiction
Wednesday, May 12th: Shooting Stars Mag
Thursday, May 13th: The 3R’s Blog
Monday, May 17th: The Zen Leaf
Tuesday, May 18th: Eclectic Eccentric
Wednesday, May 19th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, May 20th: Worducopia
Monday, May 24th: She is Too Fond of Books
Tuesday, May 25th: The Feminist Review
Wednesday, May 26th: Regular Rumination
Thursday, May 27th: Book Club Classics

Guest Post - Jennie Nash On Writing About The Mother/Daughter Relationship

Please join me in welcoming Jennie Nash, author of The Last Beach Bungalow, Raising A Reader, and The Threadbare Heart to Lit and Life! Jennie has kindly offered to talk to us about whether or not her own experience as a daughter and mother has had an impact on her writing.


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So many of your books deal with mother/daughter relationships. How has your own relationship with your mother and as a mother affected your writing?

It’s funny, because I never start out writing about mother daughter relationships. In The Last Beach Bungalow, I started out writing about a woman who falls in love with a house. In The Only True Genius in the Family, I started out writing about a painting prodigy (and while I was aware that she would certainly have a mother and that her mother would play a role in her story, I never imagined that the mother would take over the story.) The Threadbare Heart began as a story about a woman who loses the great love of her life. In the end, each of my books have ended up being very much about mothers and daughters.

Why does this happen? It doesn’t come from any dramatic mother-daughter dynamic in my own life. My mom was a traditional housewife, who now has a full life of her own, and we get along very well. My relationship with my own two daughters – who are 14 and 17 -- is fantastic. My tendency to write about mothers and daughters stems, rather, from a belief in “mother power,” which I felt very keenly when my kids were small. I can remember being hyper consciousness about my role as a “gatekeeper” in their lives. I used to literally think, What if they were meant to be a great dancer and I never take them to dance class? What if their great calling is to be an animator and I restrict them from watching too many Disney movies? I was aware that my attitude and my actions in any given moment could directly impact who they became. I was also aware of the flip side of this equation – that if I messed something up, I’d be to blame forever.

This directly relates to the creation of fictional characters. I get into my characters through their work or their hobbies – through the things that they do every day. That’s the window through which I start to imagine their life. I usually start out my research for a book thinking about a particular activity – photography, or fabric collecting, for example. As soon as I begin to consider how my character got into the activity, or why she quit it, or why she loves it, or why she hates it, I can’t help but think about mothers. Mothers are so often there for those defining moments of our lives – the first time we pick up a camera, or wander into a fabric store, or take a ballet class. They witness the spark that can ignite a passion – and they have the power to either fuel it or squash it down. Right there, you have so much room for drama! Because what if the mother never got to do the thing SHE loved? Or what if she did, but didn’t have the talent to do it well? Or what if she did and she DID have the talent, and she thinks such talent is the key to a good life?

In The Threadbare Heart, I began by thinking that Lily, the main character, was going to be a textile historian. Don’t ask me why – it’s just what I had in my head. I know nothing about textiles and very little about collecting, so I set out to learn about it. I read a number of fascinating books, and ended up having Lily be a mathematician who collects fabrics instead of a fabric expert. As soon as I started thinking about WHY Lily loved to collect fabric, and where she STARTED this hobby, and what it means to her, I started thinking about her mother’s relationship to fabric, and to Lily, and before I knew it, I had a mother who was in the business of cranking out high end pure white sheets for four star hotels, and a daughter who liked to poke around flea markets and collect dusty old “rags.” And ta-da! – not only did I have a surface reason for conflict, I now had two women with two very different ways of moving through the world. Which is to say that I had a story.

Thanks, Jennie! Don't forget to get your 250 word or less essay in by May 8th telling me about your favorite mother/daughter pair in fiction (books or movies)! The winner will appear here and receive a signed copy of Nash's The Threadbare Heart, just released today!

The Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash

The Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash
336 pages
Published May 2010 by Penguin Group
Source: The author

Lily and Tom are settled into their academic life on the East Coast, as far away from Lily's mother, Eleanor, as they can be. Unfortunately, it's also as far away from their sons as they can be. When Tom and Lily travel to California for the holidays, the idea of buying an avocado ranch that one of Eleanor's neighbor's is selling comes into their lives and just won't leave. Both of them decide that the time is right for a change but for very different reasons.

Preparing for the move, Lily and Tom winnow down their possessions to only the essentials which for Lily include 23 bins of fabric, including a piece of heirloom lace that her grandmother passed down to her.

Lily and her grandmother share the love of fabrics and their possibilities but Eleanor has chosen to build her fortune by creating an company that produces high end linens for hotels. That's not the only difference between Lily and Eleanor. Eleanor has been through three husbands and seems to move right onto another man as soon as she's done with a husband. But Lily married Tom for love and for life. Lately, however, she's beginning to question just how well she and Tom really know each other.

As they settle into life in California, Tom begins to spend more time with a young woman who's an expert in avocado growth and it makes Lily very uncomfortable. So when she meets a man whom she knew in high school, she begins having fantasies about him. One night Tom comes home to find that Lily has been drinking red wine, something they both know will cause her to have extreme migraines. So when a wild fire starts later that night, Lily is no help trying to help get them and their essentials into their truck and to safety. Tom manages to save as much as he can but ultimately, he's unable to save himself as he goes back into the house to find their dog. One of the first things he saved was the heirloom piece of lace he knew was so important to Lily.

"It was silvery white, with wide, open flowers, whose petals formed the scalloped edges of the cloth. Around the flowers, delicate ribbons curved and spun like tiny shimmering roads, and in the center of each flower, was a burst of seed pearls. "

In the coming weeks, Lily must learn how to deal with her grief and loss. To say nothing of the guilt she feels...for thinking of another man the last time she and Tom made love, for being unable to help during the fire, for questioning her marriage.

"It suddenly seemed important that she remember every single thing that she and Tom had purchased, and packed, and moved out to California. If she could name all of those items - the furniture, the clothes, the books, the cups, the toiletries - then perhaps she could know exactly what it was that she and Tom had, all those years together, and what it all meant. She would never have said it out loud, or even admitted it to herself, but she had the tiniest hope that if she could name every single one of the things that brought life to their home that they would somehow add up to Tom himself."

Through all of this Lily's son is dealing with a failing marriage and Eleanor is dealing with the loss of her closest friends.

Okay, I've made no secret about the fact that I love Jennie Nash' writing. So when she sent me this book, I had high expectations. As I opened it, I began to be nervous. Could it possibly live up to the bar I had set for it? The answer is a resounding "yes!" The book looks at love from so many aspects: husband and wife, mother and daughter, lovers and it all worked for me. There are no easy answers, just wonderful explorations and thoughts.

"..the whole crashing reality of how you can never know what your husband is doing or thinking. You can never be sure that love is real. You can live with someone for 40 years and love them and be loyal to them and feel loved in return, but you will never know how they truly feel about you, how much space they leave open in their heart for other people, other things."

"But it didn't feel like what I imagined a long marriage to be- rich and vibrant and passionate. It just felt...familiar."

Well, that will make you think, won't it?! Nash's writing just speaks to me. I find so many truths in it, so many characters I can relate to and so many wonderful bits of dialogue. Here Eleanor is talking to her friend, Grace, who is losing her battle with cancer:

" "You're not eating your hot dog."
"I'm dying," Gracie said.
"I know that," Eleanor said, "but that's no reason to ignore a hot dog."
"I think it will be soon," Gracie said."

I loved the relationship between Lily and Eleanor. And, like Lily, I couldn't understand how anyone could be like Eleanor. It turns out that Eleanor has a problem having Lily around as well and Lily finds out she may not be as much different from Eleanor as she thought.

"Tom and Lily were like you and Judy," she said. "They were one of those couple that made you believe in marriage. It used to drive me crazy that she had exactly the thing I had never been able to get. I had husbands die and husbands disappoint, and I took lover after lover trying to fill the void, and she just sort of fell into this beautiful, lasting relationship like it was nothing. I know I should have thought this about my own child, but I didn't think it was fair."

Then Nash throws in things that make me swear that she sneaks into corners of my house and spies on us. How else could she possibly know to have Lily's granddaughter ask to have her father read "Harold and The Purple Crayon, a book that remains one of my son's all-time favorites. How else would she have known that Lily and I would go about preparing for a move in exactly the same way while Tom and my husband would drive us nuts during that time?

"Tom was more difficult. He wanted to keep everything - 25 years of National Geographics, a trekking pole that no longer had a mate, and all his gardening tool, whether their handles were splintered, their tines were rusted or their blades as dull as a piece of wood."

My gosh--that is entirely my husband, right down to the rusty tools and National Geographic magazines!

Book clubs will find so much to talk about in this one. My own club is reading it for September (and getting to talk to Jennie!) and I can't wait to hear their thoughts. If you belong to a book club, be sure to check out the contest on the right side bar for a chance to win a set of signed books for your club and a rum cake. To win a signed copy for yourself, all you'll have to do is impress me with your essay on your favorite mother/daughter pair in fiction!

Who's Your Favorite Fictional Mother-Daughter Pair? A Mother's Day Writing Contest

Who’s Your Favorite Fictional Mother-Daughter Pair? A Mother’s Day Writing Contest





The Threadbare Heart is a story about a mother and a daughter torn apart by grief, jealousy and misunderstanding — and the family heirloom that finally brings them together. To celebrate its publication, and in honor of Mother’s Day, I’m running a ―Favorite Fictional Mother & Daughter‖ contest with the fantastic bloggers listed in the box to the right. We want to know which fictional mother-daughter pair made you laugh? Made you cry? Made you cringe? Which pair revealed something true about your own mother-daughter relationships? (And yes, mothers and daughters in film are eligible. Fiction is fiction, right?)

HOW TO ENTER: On MAY 2, 3 or 4, visit one of the blogs and enter 250 words explaining your favorite fictional mother-daughter pair. Send your entry to me at litandlife@gmail.com. These are some of the best blogs about books, literature and life. Have fun exploring them – but you can only enter on one blog. ON MOTHER’S DAY, each blogger will post the entry they like best. Each blog’s winners will receive a signed copy of The Threadbare Heart and will be entered in the Grand Prize Giveaway. On MAY 16, I will choose a Grand Prize winner from all the winning blog entries. (How will I pick? Whichever entry just hits me as being heartfelt and true.) The Grand Prize will be announced on the participating blogs, on my website and on twitter.

WHAT YOU WIN: The Grand Prize winner will receive a ―Book Club in a Box‖ — ten signed copies of The Threadbare Heart, a call-in from the author, and a delicious rum cake to share with your book-reading friends. (Why rum cake? You’ll have to read the book to understand! I’ve picked out a cake by a baker named Kelli because she started selling rum cakes when she lost her baking buddy to cancer and I loved her story - and I happen to think that good stories are a big part of a good life.) Happy Mother’s Day! Jennie Nash


THE CONTEST BLOG ROLL
5 Minutes for Books
5minutesforbooks.com
Bermudaonion weblog
bermudaonion.wordpress.com
Beth Fish Reads bfishreads.blogspot.com
Book Club Classics
bookclubclassics.com/Blog
Booking Mama
bookingmama.blogspot.com
Books and Needlepoint
bkclubcare.wordpress.com
Books Like Breathing
bibliophile23.wordpress.com
Care’s Online Book Club
bkclubcare.wordpress.com
Caribou’s Mom caribousmom.com
Devourer of Books devourerofbooks.com
Jenn’s Bookshelf jennsbookshelves.com
Linus’s Blanket linussblanket.com
Lit and Life litandlife.blogspot.com
Literary Mama literarymama.com
Manic Mommie’s Book Club
manicmommies.com
Maw Book Blog blog.mawbooks.com
Mother Daughter Book Club
motherdaughterbookclub.com
My Friend Amy myfriendamysblog.com
Book Journey
bookjourney.wordpress.com
Peeking Between the Pages
peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com
Redlady’s Reading Room
redladysreadingroom- redlady.blogspot.com
S.Krishna Books skrishnasbooks.com
She is Too Fond of Books
sheistoofondofbooks.com
The Literate Housewife
literatehousewife.com
Word Lily wordlily.com
Write It Sideways writeitsideways.com
Writing Forward writingforward.com

**Blogger and I may no longer be on speaking terms. Jennie has a great flyer for this contest which will no doubt appear on everyone else's blogs today. But Blogger did not want to download it for me at all. Apparently Blogger and Adobe are not on speaking terms.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - Guest Review

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
272 pages
Published: originally 1990 by Houghton Mifflin
Source: I bought this one from Powell's Books

This one arrived at my house a couple of weeks ago and I was really excited to read it. But I knew it was going to be a couple of months before I could get to it so I loaned it to my dad who has kindly written this guest post for the book.

Synopsis from the publisher:
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear.

The review:

I was not involved in the Vietnam War, but thought I had an understanding of it from the news reports I watched almost daily, from the films I've seen, and from books and magazines. After reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, I'm persuaded that my grasp on it was no better than slight. I knew how we got into it, I knew about the big battles, and I knew how it ended. I did not understand at all how it was from the perspective of the guys who fought it. I think I have a handle on that now.

O'Brien, who was there, begins with an extensive summary of---as the title suggests---the material things that his comrades carried into combat. Some of it was based on necessity, including dog tags, mosquito repellent, salt tablets, rations, water, and, of course, weapons.

Some of what they carried (humped) was partly a function of rank and/or field specialty, including the first lieutenant's compass, maps, and code books; the medics morphine, plasma, and surgical tape; and the radio man's PRC-25. It varied by mission: if the job was to destroy tunnel complexes, they carried blocks of pentrite high explosives, wiring, and detonators; if it took them into an area known to be heavily mined, they took turns humping a mine detector.

Personal individuality and superstition influenced the load. Rat Kiley carried brandy and M&Ms candy; Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had in his mouth for good luck a small, smooth pebble a girl back home had sent him; Dave Jensen included "a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia; Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers to get him through the day; Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend's panty hose into combat "wrapped around his neck as a comforter."

O'Brien gives or estimates the weight (your flak jacket weighed 6.7 lbs, a Claymore anti-personnel mine "3.5 pounds with its firing device," your M-16 assault rifle 8.2 pounds with its full magazine) of most of the things the men humped so you can get a pretty good idea of how physically ponderous was the load they carried when they were in the field.

This is all so well and interestingly written that it escapes the feeling of mere cataloging. But I began to wonder how O'Brien could stretch it out to fill up an entire book and, if that's what he was up to, how long he could hold my attention with it.

Not to worry. He had much more important things to tell about.

How does it feel to always believe you should have been smart enough to have somehow avoided being sent to this dreadful place in which you are very apt to die? To carry inside you the terror of a night patrol, when it's so dark you can't even see your comrades and you walk in dread of getting separated in a hostile environment? To be unable to forget the mistake you made that cost a comrade his life? To come to believe your enemy has supernatural powers that can make him appear where you least expect him and make him invulnerable to your best shots? To play over and over in your mind the occasion on which you were assigned to climb a tree and throw down the various parts of a comrade who'd stepped on a land mine? To know you lacked sufficient courage to take appropriate action at some critical point? To be aware that when you did take action, it was not because of nationalism or some grand idealism but simply because you'd have been embarrassed not to. To be haunted by the image of what was left of the first man you killed? To watch, in the middle of a just-destroyed village, a teenaged girl mindlessly dancing in front of the burn-out hut in which the other members of her family lie dead?

O'Brien deals with these questions and more in a series of stories in which he and the other men of his platoon were involved. Are they true? The reader is advised at the outset that "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." The author contends, however, that what you imagine is true and what you dream is true are sometimes more true than what actually happened. At any rate, he was there, and I'm willing to accept that though the exact stories he relates may be fiction, they're based on things he really saw and felt.

I personally had no experience of this---or any---war, so I'll rely on the understanding of those who have had. The review of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED in The Veteran said "Go out and get this book and read it. Read it slowly and let O'Brien's masterful storytelling and his eloquent philosophizing about the nature of war wash over you."

this one is MINE by Maria Semple

This One Is Mine by Maria Semple
Published March 2010 by Little, Brown and Company
Source: the publisher sent this one for participation in an online book discussion

Violet and David Parry and living the American dream. They have everything they could ever hope for - a darling daughter, Dot, a home in the Hollywood Hills, expensive cars, expensive clothes, and hired help. But David, a highly successful music executive, just isn't making Violet happy any more. In fact, ever since she gave up her job as a successful television writer to have a family and spent all of her own money to remodel their multi-million dollar home, things have been going down hill for Violet. Being a mom isn't what she was expecting and being the perfect executive's wife at the expense of being her own person is making Violet desperately unhappy.

Enter Teddy, a musician Violet meets in a museum bathroom. Despite his being dirty, wearing mismatched clothing, and smelling, there's something about Teddy that draws Violet to him like the proverbial moth to flames. She risks everything to be with him and is willing to give him whatever it takes to have him. But David is on to her and Teddy isn't quite as eager to start a new life as Violet is.

We're also introduced to Sally, David's diabetic sister who teaches ballet and is working like mad to find a husband with money before she gets too old. She has a friend introduce her to Jeremy, a well-known sportswriter who's about to hit it big with a job on ESPN. Sally throws herself at Jeremy, pulling out every trick in her book to reel him in despite the fact that she hardly knows him and doesn't particularly care for him. When she discovers she's pregnant and has that ring on her finger, she thinks her life is made. But happily-ever-after might not be in the cards for Sally.

I read this book as part of an online book club hosted by Gayle at Everyday I Write The Book. I've read several books with the group and, while they haven't always been my favorites, we always read books that provoke discussion and challenge me to read out of my usual comfort zone. Sadly, this one didn't live up to that standard for me despite having great potential.

Semple is, herself, a successful television screenwriter, known for her satire. She does poke plenty of fun at the lifestyle of the rich and famous in this book (Violet keeps spending money in a Hermes store simply because she feels obligated to the salesman who's been diligently looking for a particular hat for her for years) and she takes no prisoners among her characters as she mocks their values. Done well, that works for me--Evelyn Waugh's writing comes to mind. But Semple has created characters that I didn't like and didn't understand to begin with.

It's hard to feel sorry for someone like Violet who seems to have it all, but I actually could sympathize with her at the beginning. There's a certain truth to the "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it" adage. It's what Violet gave up along the way that brings her down. Sure she chose to give it up but we don't always realize what the consequences of our choices will be until it's too late. I could have bought into the idea of Violet being drawn into an affair. But with Teddy? I get that Semple wanted to throw Violet into a relationship with someone that other people in her group might look down their noses at. But there was nothing about this guy that seemed in the least bit enticing. He smelled, he was dirty, he made inappropriate remarks in public, he was a currently clean junkie who had contracted Hepatitis C through a dirty needle, and confesses to having impregnated numerous women because he refuses to use a condom. Oh, yeah, and he's something of a misogynist. What's not to love, right?

And Sally? I think the reader is supposed to feel sorry for her because she's had to deal with diabetes since she was a child and had to give up her career as a ballerina when a part of one toe had to be amputated. But there are a lot of people out there that deal with diabetes on a daily basis but becoming a shallow, screeching money grubber doesn't seem to be a symptom of the disease for most of them.

In addition to dealing with Hepatitis C and diabetes, Semple also includes characters that are dealing with autism and I started to feel like the discussion of these issues was meant to raise the book to a higher level. But it all just seemed like too much to me. And even though not everyone lived happily ever after, the ending was tidier than I usually enjoy.

Semple's writing holds great promise; there were frequently passages and pieces that I thought were spot on.

"One time, as an experiment, Violet had decided to only listen to what he said, and never bring anything up about herself. After a couple of days, he grew depressed and became hostile toward her. Still he had never asked a single question about her day or how she was...The whole thing taught her to everyday volunteer something about herself. Even knowing it would be met with indifference."

How true is this? "Stay happy," he said. "You twinkle when you're happy."

And this statement about a couple who's been married a long time: "We're partners who love each other."

Those little gems have me holding out hope that Semple will keep writing and that her next effort will feature more of them. Thanks to Gayle for allowing me to be part of the discussion. Can't wait to head over to her blog to see what others thought of this one.

Wuthering Heights Wednesday

Wuthering Heights Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts. This week we're talking about Chapters 10-12 and spoilers will abound. Also posting about the book are:

• Literate Housewife
• Vivienne( Serendipidy)
• Messy Karen
• Victoria
• Jenny (Take Me Away)
• Ti (Book Chatter)
• Dar@ Peeking Between the Pages
• J.C. Montgomery (The Biblio Blogazine)
• Whitney
• JoAnn (Lakeside Musing)
• Gentle Reader (Shelf Life)
• Amy at New Century Reading
• Geri at One More Foggy Notion
• Rob at Books are Like Candy Corn

Chapter 10
When last we saw her, Cathy had just married Edgar and moved to Thrushcross Grange to become the mistress of that house and Ellen has come along with her. For six months everyone is pretty happy--Edgar quickly learns to avoid making Cathy upset and she's on her best behavior. But then:

"It ended. Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that the one's interest was not the chief consideration in the other's thoughts."

Those circumstances? None other than the return of Heathcliff who is very much changed although he won't tell anyone where he's been or how he came to have money. Cathy is thrilled to have him back and pretty much acts a fool when he first comes to the house. Edgar? Not so thrilled to have Heathcliff back or about the way Cathy is acting.

"...Catherine, try to be glad, without being absurd! The whole household need not witness the sight of your welcoming a runaway servant as a brother."

Now there's a problem. Because Cathy sees Heathcliff as at least a brother, certainly an equal. But there is nothing that will convince Edgar that Heathcliff is anything more than a servant. Then Isabella develops a raging crush on Heathcliff. Cathy tries to talk Isabella out of throwing herself at Heathcliff.

"Pray, don't imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He's not a rough diamond - a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic; he's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man."

But Isabella, spoiled teenager that she is won't listen and accuses Catherine of being jealous.

"But she uttered falsehoods, didn't she? Mr. Heathcliff is not a fiend; he has an honourable soul, and a true one, or how could he remember her?"

So Catherine decides to embarrass Isabella by talking about Isabella's infatuation right in front of Heathcliff. You can practically see him rubbing his hands together with an evil look as he begins plot how he can use this information.

Chapter 11
Heathcliff has been staying at Wuthering Heights since he's been back which is pretty surprising considering how much Hindley hated him. But Hindley's gone off the deep end and is more than willing to accept Heathcliff back since Heathcliff is paying him. When Ellen stops by, we begin to see that Heathcliff is having a terrible effect on little Hareton and helping Hindley dig himself an even bigger hole.

One day Heathcliff arrives at Thrushcross Grange and he and Catherine get into a huge fight. She's all "stay away from Isabella" and he's all "no I won't and mind your own business." Ellen thinks things are getting out of hand and goes to warn Edgar who heads off to the kitchen to take care of the problem. Too bad he's not up to the battle. Heathcliff really backs him down and makes him look like a coward but then ol' Edgar hauls off and whacks him in the throat. While Heathcliff is recovering, Edgar runs to get some servants to help him kick Heathcliff out.

At this point, Cathy loses it. She's mad at Ellen for dragging Edgar into the whole thing and insists she could have handled it. She's mad at Edgar for banning Heathcliff and threatens to break her own heart if Heathcliff can't come back. Once again Ellen steps in and basically tells Edgar "tsk, tsk, never mind her; she's just putting on an act." So when Catherine locks herself into her bedroom for a couple of days, no one seems to be too concerned.

Chapter 12
Finally on the third day, Catherine lets Ellen into her room. Surprise! In the past couple of days Catherine has done lost her mind. She's imagining things, her moods are changing by the second and she doesn't even seem to know where she's at some of the time. When Linton comes to the room he blames Ellen for giving him bad advice and sends her off to fetch what passes for a doctor, Mr. Kenneth. When she gets there, Kenneth tells her that word is out that Isabella and Heathcliff were seen leaving the area the night before. Ellen rushes back to tell Edgar but he just says that from now on Isabella is his sister in name only because she has disowned him.

My Thoughts
I'm much less cranky about Heathcliff's behavior at this point. The guy's been treated pretty badly in the past. But I'm completely with Edgar when he bans him from Thrushcross Grange. Seriously, the guy has designs on both Edgar's wife and sister. And Catherine? So over her. She's been bending everyone to her will all of this time and is surprised to find out that they don't all just love her.

"How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and despised each other, they could not avoid loving me."

I'm thinking the whole lot of them deserves to be whacked upside the head!

Several of you asked for pictures of my book so here they are.
I actually quite like the expression on Heathcliff's face but I have no idea why they would have made him a redhead! Next week I'll try to remember to take a picture of the drawing of Emily Bronte that's inside the book--the one that makes her look like she's smelled something awful.