Guest Post - Doug Jacobson, Author of The Katyn Order

Please help me welcome Douglas Jacobson to Lit and Life today. Jacobson is the author of Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two (which I reviewed here) and the new novel The Katyn Order, which I'll be reviewing soon. I asked Jacobson to talk about creating believable characters. 

How to Make Characters Believable

Natalie Jastrow was a stunningly beautiful woman. She was also brilliant and filled with self-confidence to the point of being headstrong. Yet she had trouble with relationships and self-doubts about how she fit into American society. She could be cool and calm under duress, yet had serious lacks of judgment in making critical decisions. When Herman Wouk created this unforgettable heroine of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance he gave us a character we cared about from the very first page of these epic novels until the last. And, because of that, we cared about his story.

That is the fundamental goal for anyone writing fiction - make the readers care about your characters. If they care about your characters,  they will care about your story. So, what is it about characters like Natalie Jastrow, Scarlett O'Hara, Atticus Finch or Jane Eyre that make them so memorable?

It is because they are believable. They are as real as our best friends, our sisters or brothers. They have personality flaws and quirks, they don't always act in a predictable way. They can at times be bold and courageous, and at other times hesitant and filled with self-doubt. Just like we are. They are not supermen....they are real people.

My first book was Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two. After it was released in 2007, many readers contacted me to tell how much they enjoyed the character of Anna Kopernik. It was through her that they experienced and understood the story of Poland in WW2. The ironic thing about that is that she was not even on my mind when I started writing the story. She just evolved along the way and before long she became my dominant character, the person I cared about the most.

When I was writing The Katyn Order I wanted the readers understand what it was like to have everything and everyone you care about be suddenly and brutally torn away. Would you be able to carry on? Would you be filled with hate and a quest for vengeance  And, if you were ever given a chance for redemption, could you rise above your inner demons and seize the moment? Adam Nowak evolved into that character as I wrote the story. Time will tell if he is one of those memorable characters that readers care about.

Thanks, Douglas! I always love to hear about how authors develop their characters and it never ceases to amaze me how many of them happen organically. 

Paris In July 2012

When I signed up for Paris In July 2012, I had no idea what I would do for it. I knew I probably wouldn't have time for a book, but since anything French was an option so I turned to my go-to place these days - Pinterest. Type in "Paris" in the search box and you get almost exclusively pictures of the Eiffel Tower which seemed like something of a cliched place to start. But in many of the pictures, there were balloons and that took me straight down memory lane. When I was growing up, there was a program on television called CBS Children's Film Festival, hosted by Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie

With all of the programming available for children these days, there doesn't seem to be anything like it on television any more. The program showed live action films for children from around the world. It was my first real glimpse into life in other places and many of the movies have remained with me for all of these years. The movies dealt with topics including friendship, bullying, racism and bigotry, animal rights and sexism. They were marvelous films and I definitely recommend checking out this site if you have young children.

Of all of the movies that appeared on the series, my favorite was always The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge). Perhaps that's because it was also shown on other telecasts and in my school and I just saw it more. Perhaps it's because it was so cinematically different. Or perhaps it was Paris that stayed in my mind.

The Red Balloon, 1956

The Red Balloon is the story of Pascal who finds, one day on his way to school, an enormous red balloon. This is no ordinary balloon - this balloon seems almost human and patiently waits for Pascal while he's in school, plays keep away, and even torments the teacher who punishes Pascal for having the balloon. When the balloon is destroyed by a group of boys who have been chasing Pascal all over the city, poor Pascal is left standing alone in field, sad to lose his friend. Then, all over the city, balloons begin floating away toward Pascale in the field. When he grabs them into his hands, he is lifted up and the movie  closes with Pascale floating away over Paris.

I found The Red Balloon on YouTube recently and was happy to discover that it has lost none of its charm for me. The movie has a lovely soundtrack, almost no dialogue, and only carefully placed background noises which allow the viewer to really concentrate on the story. Color also plays a big part in the movie. Most of the background and all of the costumes are faded blues, greys, and browns making the colors of the balloons really pop. It made me wonder if Steven Spielberg has seen the movie and was inspired by that when he did Schindler's List.

The part of Paris that the movie is shot in no longer exists - it had fallen into decay and was torn down by the government in the 1960's. Already in 1956 when the movie was made, the decay is obvious but plays a part in bringing a depth to a story that seems so simple on the surface. Pascale's and the balloon's friendship and love are destroyed by a cruel mob but Pascale's goodness is rewarded in the end. Definite religious overtones I never noticed when I watched the movie as a child.

On an altogether lighter tone, here are some other things I noticed about the movie watching it as an adult:

Pascale's clothes are every bit as odd as I remember them being, very European.

There's a scene in a flea market that practically made me drool. Can you imagine the great things you might have found in a Paris flea market in 1956?

Why would so many boys be so eager to get their hands on that balloon only to destroy it? Oh yeah, back to the deeper meaning of the film. But still, why didn't I think that was really strange as a child? Even then it must not have struck me as odd that people could be that mean.

Sunday Salon - July 8

Today was supposed to be house cleaning day - instead it's turned into blog cleaning day. I've been struggling lately to have fun blogging - reading enough to be able to post reviews, coming up with content for the days without reviews, keeping up with all of the blogs I follow. Then there's trying to keep up with the conversations on Twitter, posts on Tumblr and my email. I've been thinking about a post Andi, from Estella's Revenge, wrote a few days ago in which she declared her desire to liberate her blog from outside influences.

It may sound silly to anyone who doesn't blog, who sees bloggers getting free books and thinks that nothing could be greater. Don't get me wrong - I love getting free books! Other than picking up used books and books from clearance shelves, I have only rarely purchased a book in the three years I've been blogging. It's great to come home and find another book in the mail and I have gotten a chance to read some wonderful books I might never have discovered otherwise.

Here's the problem - guilt. I get at least three offers for books everyday and every time I turn down a book, I feel guilty. Even when the person pitching the book has clearly not read my review policy or looked at the kind of books I like to read. I feel guilty every time I look at the books I have accepted for review but haven't yet had the time to read. Mostly, I feel guilty because I have hundreds of books that I have paid for sitting on shelves all over my house with very little hope that I will get to them.

So today, I'm taking my first steps toward making my blogging time fun again. First up - cleaning up my feed reader. I have almost 200 blogs on my reader. Even if there isn't a new post on all of them every day, there are well more new posts every day than I can read. I spend a part of every day trying to scan them and save the ones I want to come back to later and comment on. By the time I"m through all of that, though, there's no time left to go visit the posts I saved. Something has to give so today I've unsubscribed to more than 25 blogs, some obsolete, some I don't have a relationship with the blogger, some where we just don't have the same literary tastes. If we are friends and you don't hear from me in a couple of weeks, though, I may have accidentally deleted you. Shoot me an email!

Next up is a new review policy  - one that's going to the top of the page instead of being buried at the bottom. That way, when I get a pitch that doesn't fit what I'll review, I'll know the pitcher never even looked at my blog and I won't feel guilty saying "no" any more. Thank you so much for the offers, I'm delighted to have so many wonderful books to choose from.  But let's be honest, while I'm getting the chance to have a free book, these offers aren't coming to me out of kindness. I need to be able to recognize that it's okay to say "no, thanks," I don't have time to publicize your book right now.

After that, a calendar for the rest of the year. I'm going to schedule all of the books I've accepted for review (after I go through them and make sure I still want to read them) and get myself caught up. I will go into 2013 with a clean slate - and a review book shelf! While I'm scheduling, I'm putting in places for books to be named later. That is to say, what ever I darn well feel like reading.

I always feel better when I've got a plan and I'm feeling lighter already. And I'm looking forward to the next six months!

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Published June 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers
Source: the publisher and TLC Book Tours

A year and a half ago, I took a chance on Walter's The Financial Lives of the Poets (my review here) and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually possible to mix a recession, drug dealing and humor in a way that worked really well. I've been looking forward to reading more of Walter's books and was thrilled to see Beautiful Ruins come up as a TLC Book Tour. It probably goes without saying that where I had no expectations for The Financial Lives of the Poets, my expectations for Beautiful Ruins were much higher. It's hard to surprise readers with a second book. We're already expecting a certainly level of writing skill, a certain level of storytelling. It's not enough to be a good book; it's got to be at least as good as the last book. Beautiful Ruins is that good and, amazingly, just as surprising as Financial Lives.

In 1962 a beautiful, aspiring American actress shows up in the tiny Italian village of Porto Vergogna to stay at the equally tiny hotel recently inherited by Pasquale Tursi. It's to be a short stop for Dee Moray, while she waits for a friend before heading to Switzerland for treatments for stomach cancer.

"Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life - not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment."

Fifty years later, Shane Wheeler is preparing to pitch a movie to producer Micheal Deane. Deane's assistant, Claire Silver is a woman on the edge - to stay with Deane and her wayward boyfriend or cut all ties and move on to a job she's not sure she wants but knows she wants more than what she has. Pat Bender is once again chasing a dream all of the way to Europe while his long-suffering mother is dying of cancer. And Pasquale Tursi is coming to Michael Deane to ask Deane to help him find the woman he can't get out of his mind after all of these years.

The "stars" of Beautiful Ruins are clearly Pasquale and Dee but Walter introduces a large cast of characters that are much more than merely a supporting cast. Walters moves in and out of each person's story, in and out of places and times. It is sometimes confusing, sometimes jarring to leave one person's narrative and move into another decade and narrative. But it works in Walter's hands in a way that it could not have worked in any other way. As the stories began to come together, Beautiful Ruins becomes that book that you'll stay up much too late just to finish.

Authors rarely attempt to do blend comedy into love stories and even less rarely make it work without having it become cutesy. Walter is masterful at it - it feels like real life. After all, don't we all have lives made up of love, laughter and dreams?

"After the funeral, he begged his elderly mother to move to Florence, but the very idea scandalized her, "What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he is dead?"

Jess Walter is the author of five novels, including The Zero, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award, and Citizen Vince, winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. He has been a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and the PEN USA Literary Prize in both fiction and nonfiction. His books have been New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR best books of the year and have been translated into twenty languages. He lives in Spokane, Washington

For other thoughts on Beautiful Ruins, check out the full tour. Thanks, TLC Book Tours, for including me on this tour. Now it's time for me to go pick up some of Walter's earlier works.

Happy 4th of July!

"1776"

On the two hundred twenty-sixth birthday of the United States of America, let us all remember that this great country exists because the Second Continental Congress, a group of men with widely diverse opinions and beliefs, were willing to compromise to do what was best for the land they loved. In this time of such divisiveness, let us all remember that the first word in the name of our country is "United."

The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye
Published October 2012 by Unbridled Books
Source: this book courtesy of the publisher - thanks, Caitlin!

If you've followed this blog for long, you know that Peter Geye's Safe From The Sea was my favorite book of 2011. I passed it all around and it was a hit with everyone who read it. It will come as no surprise, then that when Caitlin (Unbridled Books) offered me an ARC of Geye's upcoming book The Lighthouse Road I even stop to consider if I had time to read it soon; I knew I would make time.

Geye travels back in time for The Lighthouse Road, telling the story of a mother and son. In 1896, a young Norwegian girl has settled into Gunflint in northern Minnesota, after arriving there alone and friendless. Twenty-four years later, Thea Eide's son, Odd, is every bit a man of the land, working hard to make enough money to reach his dream of making his own boat. But he has also fallen in love with the one woman in town he shouldn't and being with her is going to mean leaving the only home he has ever known, saying goodbye to friends and escaping the man who delivered and raised him, Hosea Grimm.

"Years later, whenever he tried to reconcile the defining moments of his childhood with the man he had become, he thought of that moment on the precipice as a divining one, when he became, for better or worse, the person he would always be."

While The Lighthouse Road and Safe From The Sea are, on the surface, completely different stories, there are themes that tie the two together, most notably family. The Lighthouse Road looks at what makes a group of people a family, it also revisits the relationship between a parent and a child and the idea that the land itself can help form those relationships.

Geye's characters and the land are interchangeable - the land very much a character in the book, the characters very much formed by the land. They are people who have adapted to the land but who seem, at the same time to belong nowhere else. The land is raw and brutal, the people are tough and brutal and Geye spares his readers nothing from a bear mauling, a wolf pack attack, and a botched surgery. The cold, the wind, the isolation are all palpable.

It took me some time to become attached to the characters, for better or for worse, as the story moves back and forth in time. Geye writes such strong characters that it wasn't long before I was deeply invested in them, struggling to understand their actions, holding out hope for them, sharing in their sadness. Several days after finishing the book, I find myself thinking about Hosea and his "daughter," Rebekah, two incredibly complex characters.

There are little treasures of surprises in the book but Geye saved the best of last in this one - the final paragraphs left me gaping. Kudos, Peter Geye; I love an ending I never saw coming!

This is a book I would recommend to men and women alike. I only wish you could read it sooner! The Lighthouse Road is not even published yet and I am already looking forward to Geye's next book. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors, a storyteller who does not disappoint, with the ability to tell more than one kind of story.

Thanks to Unbridled Books for allowing me to get this sneak peek of The Lighthouse Road.

Summer Reading Lists

I've shared with you what I'm planning to read this summer and you'd think that would be the end of my talking about book choices, wouldn't you? I would have thought so, too. But I keep finding new recommendations of books to read during the summer and I just can't resist looking at all of them.

Forbes' writer Meghan Casserly is recommending reading memoirs for the summer. Her list includes Anna Quindlan's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake which also appears on the Good Housekeeping list. "O" Magazine's summer reading list includes plenty of titles I've already added to the list of books I want to read, some books that are new to me, and even a couple that I'm already planning on reading this summer, including Ami McKay's The Virgin Cure. It also includes Jeanne Ray's Calling Invisible Women which I reviewed here.

Alan Cheuse, whose reviews can be heard on NPR, recommends Gone Girl which so many bloggers have been raving about on his summer reading list. Also from NPR comes this list of 15 Summer Reads Handpicked by Indie Booksellers. I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed not to find any books from my beloved Unbridled Books on the list, but it does include The Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau which is on my bookshelf and which I had, I'm sorry to admit, kind of forgotten about.

For a varied list, perhaps more intellectual and a bit heavier on non-fiction works (but which still includes The Hunger Games), check out the list compiled by PBS's Washington Week. Books have been recommended by journalists from television and print media and include both older books and new releases including Blaine Harden's Escape From Camp 14. The New Republic's list claims to the summer reading list for thinking people. I wonder what the people at Washington Week think about that?

Deep South Magazine (I kid you not, there is actually a magazine called "Deep South"), has compiled a list of books from down South to read this summer including Karen White's Sea Change, Wiley Cash's A Land More Kind Than Home, and Ron Rash's The Cove.

I did discover that you pull up surprisingly similar lists when you search for "beach reads" rather than "summer reading lists." The Hollywood Reporter (not my usual source for books) includes Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins (which I'll be reviewing this week). In fact, there were hardly any lists that included what I would traditionally think of as "summer" or "beach" reads, you know, light reads.

This list from Shore News Today might just be my favorite. Not because it's a long list of great books, or a list of books that sound perfect the patio and a cool drink. No, it's because I cannot imagine what kind of reader Shore News Today has who might like Gorilla Beach by "Snooki" Nicole Polizzi (of Jersey Shore fame) and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott!

I'm fairly well set on the summer reading plan I already had, but in looking at these lists, some books kept showing up again and again - those are the books I might just have to make time for...although I don't know how I would manage to work in something as long as Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bones to my already long list.

Are there any books you just have to read this summer?