February 5, 2024February 5, 2024 Frances Boyd

Fiction for February

You Decide

So many good books are out there just waiting for you to read them. Don’t have time? I get it; but, if you do find the time, look into these two:

Mercury, by Amy Jo Burns

New York Times reviewer Mary Beth Keane wrote in the December 30, 2023 issue of the newspaper about a book set in a fictional town in near Pittsburgh. The town is Mercury, and the time is 1990. The story’s main plot centers around a decomposed body found between choir robes at the Presbyterian church. However, according to Keane, the tension is really between two women–an older woman who represents the traditional view of wife and mother, and a younger one who is deciding how to operate in that same role. The reviewer sees the book as sending a message– “We will not lose our minds and identities in order to get dinner on the table and clean clothes into dresser drawers.” In between this theme lies a poignant love story. beckyonbooks describes Mercury as “Technically a mystery but truly a family story, driven by dreams of belonging, long held secrets, by past trauma, by sacrefice, duty and love.”

The Waters, by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Jenna Bush Hager wrote, “If you loved Where the Crawdads Sing, you will love, and I’m saying love, our first book of 2024.” The book is set on an island in the great Massasauga Swamp in Michigan. The main character is a young girl whose grandmother is an eccentric herbalist and whose mother is often nowhere to be found. I wasn’t particularly crazy about Where the Crawdads Sing. I realize that comment is close to blasphemy, but…… The reviewer for The Washington Post, Ron Charles, highly recommends The Waters because he appreciates the author’s grasp of rural life in Michigan and her depictions of resilient women. He likens Campbell to a feminine counterpart of John Irving. This book definitely has a host of complex characters and a quality that Charles describes as “magical.”