196 Books: France

 The Confidant by Helene Gremillon 

I'm assuming most of you know where France is, but anyway:

I'm assuming you don't already know the summary:

Paris, 1975. While sifting through condolence letters after her mother's death, Camille finds a long, handwritten missive that she assumes came by mistake. But every Tuesday brings another installment from a stranger named Louis, a man separated from his first love, Annie, in the years before World War II. In his tale, Annie falls victim to the merciless plot of a wealthy, barren couple just as German troops arrive in Paris. But also awaiting Camille's discovery is the other side of the story - one that calls into question Annie's innocence and reveals the devastating consequences of revenge. As Camille reads on, she realizes that her own life may be the next chapter in this tragic story.

Here's your warning that this is going to be full of spoilers. 

I had a hard time putting this one down. It went back and forth between Camille's narration and the letters she receives, and the different sections had different font, so it was really easy to tell which was which. The backstory (if you want to call it that) is obviously super weird and basically everyone involved is very manipulative. 

This rich couple that Annie meets can't have children, which back in the 40s was a much bigger deal. So in one account the wife asks Annie to have the child for them, and in the other account Annie offers. But either way, the gist of it is Annie is going to have sex with the husband and hopefully get pregnant. I just...wtf. Look, I get it. Or maybe I don't; my desire to have children would never lead to me asking my husband to have sex with someone else. That's messed up. So in the initial encounter they go off into a room but he actually refuses to do it. But somewhere along there (it wasn't really explained how), they end up falling in love and keep having trysts. Not actually having sex though, so she won't get pregnant and they can keep meeting. Of course he gets drafted into the war and Annie does end up pregnant. Then Annie and the wife run off to Paris for the pregnancy, but they each become more suspicious and hateful of each other as time passes. Shortly after the baby is born, the wife kicks Annie out. She finds out later that Annie is always lurking around though, keeping her distance but watching the child. Eventually it seems like Annie commits suicide, but then at the end it kinda sounds like she didn't. Not really sure about that. 

So on the other end we have Camille. Shortly before her mother's death, Camille finds out she's pregnant and is trying to figure out what to do, as she doesn't think her boyfriend will be on board. She ultimately decides she's going to keep it because, "Abortion may claim to rescue women from the slavery of motherhood, but it imposes another form of slavery: guilt." Which, ugh, made me roll my eyes hard. It's one of the classic "pro-life" (more like pro-fetus) arguments: every single woman who has ever had an abortion regrets it and spends the rest of her life plagued with guilt. 

Anyway, Camille wrestles with her pregnancy and finding out that her mother wasn't really her mother. But it didn't ultimately say if she's going searching for her real mother (who, tbh, might be dead...still not sure). Also, the ending was super weird: Camille is out by this lake and a random plane lands and she takes a ride in it. And there's some light. It probably means something that I'm not deep enough to understand. 

Anyway, great book overall. It kept me on the edge of my seat!

196 Books: Finland

 Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo

Finland is way up here:

Here's the summary:

Angel, a young photographer, comes home from a night of carousing to find a group of drunken teenagers in the courtyard of his apartment building, taunting a wounded, helpless young troll. He takes it in, not suspecting the dramatic consequences of this decision. What does one do with a troll in the city? As the troll’s presence influences Angel’s life in ways he could never have predicted, it becomes clear that the creature is the familiar of man’s most forbidden feelings. A novel of sparkling originality, Troll is a wry, beguiling story of nature and man’s relationship to wild things, and of the dark power of the wildness in ourselves.

A couple of weekends ago we were Soldier's family, and I was debating with the guys about trophy hunting. It was pretty much 3 on 1: they're all hunters and would do some trophy hunting if they could; I argued that it's bad for a number of reasons. One of these reasons was that we're just decimating these species for our own vanity. I broadened my argument to how we increase the size of our cities, cut down the forests, push animals out of their natural homes, and then kill them for being a nuisance or bothering our suburban existence. That bothers me. Now to the book! This book spoke to our urban sprawl a little bit. 

So Angel finds this troll. And in the book, trolls are just wild animals in northern Europe and Russia (maybe in North America too, I don't really remember it speaking to that area much). The troll is obviously hurt or sick and Angel takes it in, then ends up falling in "love" with it. Listen, I understand. I'm pretty obsessed with my cat. But here's the thing: a wild animal is still a wild animal. I'll see articles or Instagram posts about these wild animals that someone has raised and now thinks they're domesticated. But I feel like most people are just kind of waiting for it to go very, very wrong. 

SPOILER. 

The troll situation goes very, very wrong. He injures one guy and kills another. So Angel decides to flee with the troll (who he's named Pessi). 

BIG SPOILERS

It turns out the trolls have learned and evolved a bit; they can use human "tools" and seem to want to take over. So Angel and Pessi find some bigger trolls and they kind of take Angel hostage. And that's it. Which, I usually have a hard time with an ending that leaves a lot to the imagination, but this one didn't really bother me. 

One thing that was really cool was the story was interspersed with news articles, book passages, poems, and the like. Information and stories about trolls as if they're bears or moose. It was the "research" that Angel did to learn how to take care of Pessi. 

This was such a cool book. I loved the folklore turned into a modern story. It would make me want to go to Finland, except it's cold there. 

196 Books: Fiji

 Fiji by Lance Morcan and James Morcan

Fiji is an island I would like to be on right now:

Here's the nutshell of the book:

By the mid-1800's, Fiji has become a melting pot of cannibals, warring native tribes, sailors, traders, prostitutes, escaped convicts and all manner of foreign undesirables. It's in this hostile environment an innocent young Englishwoman and a worldly American adventurer find themselves.

Susannah Drake, a missionary, questions her calling to spread God's Word as she's torn between her spiritual and sexual selves. As her forbidden desires intensify, she turns to the scriptures and prayer to quash the sinful thoughts - without success.

Nathan Johnson arrives to trade muskets to the Fijians and immediately finds himself at odds with Susannah. She despises him for introducing the white man's weapons to the very people she is trying to convert and he pities her for her naivety. Despite their differences, there's an undeniable chemistry between them.

When their lives are suddenly endangered by marauding cannibals, Susannah and Nathan are forced to rely on each other for their very survival.

It was a bit difficult to find a book for Fiji, and I ended up having to go with this father/son duo from New Zealand. But I kinda thought that might be close enough? And, honestly, this was exactly the book I needed right now. I usually have about 3 books going at a time, and most of them have been heavy and full of war and hate. Add that to what's happening in the world and I pretty much lived in a hole of anger, sadness, and despair. 

So this book was just a fun, frivolous, cheesy romance. There did seem to be a lot of research into the history of it, and some (I assume real) native words and customs were thrown in, which I love. I keep meaning to mention it; I love when authors throw in a word native to that country and then say what it is. I don't remember any of them, but I feel like I'm learning something at the time. 

Don't get me wrong, I rolled my eyes a bunch of times because it was the predictable, chauvinistic love story. The only thing I can say is that they at least didn't describe every woman solely by their physical features that inevitably resemble Barbie proportions. But it was also this guy who started out as a headstrong, egotistical asshole who meets this devout, beautiful woman and she completely changes his mind in a matter of like two weeks. So then he becomes a completely different person which is of course absolutely understandable. Could you sense my sarcasm?

Okay, I'll stop hating now. Like I said, I needed this book. Obviously, since I read it in less than a week. It was exciting and kept me interested and didn't make me think too hard. I loved it. Guys. Things are hard right now. I decided it was okay to not take on all the problems of this history of the world and then do nothing to help solve them. At least for now.