Kicking the Sky

Finished October 16
Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa

This story overlaps and continues that of Barnacle Love. Because I just read Barnacle Love, I was perhaps more aware of the scene overlap between the two books. Here, the main character is Antonio Rebelo, Manuel's son and the story takes place in 1977. Emanuel Jaques, a young son of immigrants from the Azores who worked as a shoeshine boy was lured to his rape and murder, a crime that shocked Toronto at the time. Antonio and his friends Ricky and Manny are deeply affected by this incident. Tony's family has grown more protective, and pay more attention to how he spends his time, but because they both work, he is able to go off on his own or with his friends more than they realize. Manny's parents are less controlling and Manny is influenced by a new young man in the neighborhood, James, to engage in criminal behaviour. Also influenced by James is Ricky, a boy struggling to survive as he lives with his father, and engaging in dangerous behaviour. Taking on the role of a aunt, Tony's father's cousin Edite has come to Toronto from the US and is working for the Toronto Star. Edite has her own story of loss and family issues, that Tony gradually comes to know. Tony is both drawn to James and repelled by him, and this novel is a coming-of-age story for young Tony.

Wide Open

Finished October 14
Wide Open by Larry Bjornson

Set in the 1870s in Abilene, Kansas, this story is based on real events of the Midwest. The story begins in May 1871 and our storyteller here is Will Merritt, a boy. His father JT joined the United States 12 New York Cavalry during the Civil War, leaving his wife and son with his brother's family. When he returned for them in 1865 he found that he had a young daughter and that they had not been given the caring shelter he had hoped and the family moved on for other adventures. JT is always looking for what the future might bring and by 1871, he believes Abilene will provide the future he envisions.
Abilene is still a rough town, with one side of the tracks dubbed Texastown, a magnet for trouble and temporary visitors bringing cattle up from Texas to the train line. The mayor, Joe McCoy, hires Wild Bill Hickock to control this wildness. Will has a group of friends: Jasper, Gordon, Billy and Booth who are excited by this side of town and whose families are dependent on this activity for their livelihood. But there is a growing movement towards settlers and farming, providing a stable growth for the area, and Will's dad has decided to put his efforts behind that as he looks to the future once again. One particular family figures here, the Dunhams, with father Caleb and daughter Anna connecting to the Merritt family. Will's mother Eleanor is not a subservient wife, and works with JT towards their family's and community's future. This book shows the cruelty and compassion in this community and the inexorable move towards civilizing this region. Very entertaining.

Beautiful Ruins

Finished October 13
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

This story begins in 1962 in a small Italian village, Porto Vergogna, a village accessible only by boat or a difficult path from the cliffs above. A young American starlet, Dee Mornay, arrives and the young innkeeper, Pasquale is stunned by this development. No one comes to the village, with the exception of an American car salesman, Alvis Bender, who is trying to write a book, and who served in Italy during World War II as a young man and the men controlling hotel interests in other nearby villages don't like this development. Dee Mornay has apparently been sent there by Michael Deane, a man associated with the movie shoot of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. But when the visit that Dee is expecting does not arrive and her diagnosis of stomach cancer is questioned, Pasquale goes to Rome to find answers.
The story continues in the present day, when Michael Deane is producing reality television, and his assistant Claire Silver is trying to find a script that will draw him back to movies. With a hopeful playwright who knows Italian, and a man trying to find a woman from his past, the stories come together in a remarkable way.
There are all kinds of subtleties here as well. With the village name's English translation being Port of Shame, and the theme of jealousy arising throughout, this is a novel of chances, of love lost and regained. There is humour and sadness, and surprises throughout. A wonderful read.

Barnacle Love

Finished October 11
Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa

This novel was shortlisted for the Giller when it first came out. The story is in two parts: Terra Nova and Caged Birds Sing. Manuel Rebelo is from the Azores, and grew up in a small village with his mother and siblings. His father disappeared when he was very young and his mother, Maria Theresa de Conceição Rabelo, pinned the family hopes to him depriving his siblings to give him opportunities. Lucky for him, his siblings realized it was their mother driving a reluctant Manuel and did not resent him for this. Manuel, however, didn't want to stay in the village and be the success his mother envisioned. He wanted to escape and go elsewhere, and when he was old enough, he signed on as a fisherman to go to fish the banks near Newfoundland. Circumstances left him in Canada, and the second half of the book is several years later, where Manuel is living in Toronto with his wife Georgina and two children, Terri and Tony. Manuel is a bit of a dreamer, and some of his ambitious dreams don't get realized when he doesn't put the necessary effort in. An interesting story of a young man and his dreams versus the reality of his adult life.

New York

Finished October 10
New York by Edward Rutherfurd

The long novel traces the history of New York City, primarily Manhattan, through the lives of several families over time. Unlike others of his that I've read, this doesn't include a family chart, but it does have a good map the shows multiple time periods. The time covered here is 1664 to 2009 and characters include natives, Dutch, English, slaves, freemen, Irish, Italians, and Puerto Ricans. There are Quakers, Catholics, Anglicans, other Protestants, and Jews.
In the Revolutionary War period, we have a father and son on opposite sides of the struggle, and detail on the tax and representation issues that led to the war.
In the Civil War period, we see the complex trade issues that were at play.
In the Great Depression time, we see the effect of the collapse on finances of families, both good and bad.
There are self-made men, and those who lives on the inheritances of their predecessors. We see the evolution of skyscrapers including the building of the Empire State Building and the collapse of the World Trade Center. We see the status that Brooks Brothers clothing had for the wearers and the lives of the women sewing for them. We see the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the building of the New York Public Library and its famous Reading Room. We see the rise of hotels and the Rockefeller Center, and the evolution of Coney Island.
One family line is present from start to finish, the Masters family. Others such as the Van Dycks, the Adlers, the O'Donnells and the Kellers appear and reappear.
There are some real historical figures, with the largest coverage of these given to Lord Cornbury and his likely real habit of crossdressing.
A very interesting book and a good way to learn some history of a very interesting city.

Albert of Adelaide

Finished October 6
Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson

This quirky novel is set in the outback of Australia. Alberta is a platypus who has carefully planned and managed his escape from the Adelaide zoo, looking for a place he has heard where free animals like himself can live happily. He has managed to make his way north by hopping trains and is now well north of Alice Springs. As the book begins he is running low on supplies and is worried about survival, when he encounters a wombat named Jack who shares his supplies with Albert and the two begin to travel together. The first community they encounter is Ponsby Station, a mining town with a bar run by a kangaroo called O'Hanlin. They encounter other animals there, in particular a couple of bandicoots named Alvin and Roger, who reappear later in the story. Things get a little wild in Ponsby Station, and the two are forced to make a hasty run for it. They separate and Albert continues his adventures, first at an establishment called the Gates of Hell, run by a wallaby named Bertram and a possum named Theodore, an unpleasant couple of creatures. He befriends a stranded American, TJ, a raccoon from San Francisco who is attempting to find a way back home. As Albert makes friends, he also finds he has an undeserved reputation that both helps and hinders him. Throughout the book, there is reference to a creature named Muldoon, who we eventually encounter and learn his sad story.
This novel features numerous Australian animals, all looking for a better life than what was dealt to them, and all learning to deal with the reality of what they encounter. Interesting and thought-provoking.

Maya's Notebook

Finished October 4
Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende, read by Maria Cabezas

This novel goes back and forth between Maya's experience on a remote island of Chile, and the events of her life that led up to this time. It is a coming-of-age novel, but also a novel of sadness.
Maya led a happy life with her grandparents in San Francisco until the death of her grandfather starts her down a road into self-destruction.
Because of it moving back and forth in time, you already know that she survives this period of her life, and her time on the island allows her the time and space to reflect on that time and to learn from it. From rebellion, to drugs, to sexual abuse, to living on the street, to being involved with criminals, Maya's life sunk gradually from the middle class home in which she began. As she reflects on the decisions that took her to those depths, she also begins to see how those decisions affected other people in her life, and how the decisions she takes now also have an affect. She sees how people care for each other in this community and in her life overall, and begins to make more adult decisions that take others' interests into account.
I didn't like Maya and didn't feel a connection with her at all, something which tends to affect my enjoyment of a book.But this novel is very well-written and tells an interesting story.