Book Review Club - November 2019 (Finding Dorothy)

I've been borrowing a lot of books from the library lately and I recently logged in to find a book and saw that they were hosting a book club and the book they would be discussing was Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts.  I must've read a little about it and found it interesting because I put a hold on the book for myself.  I did get the book before the book club met and had I read the book (or remembered about the meeting) I might have participated.  As it was, I started reading it after the group would've met.

On Amazon it's listed as biographical fiction and that seems fitting.  I loved the "disclaimer" at the beginning of the work because it says "Finding Dorothy is a work of fiction.  All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.  Where real-life historical persons appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work.  In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental."  I can't think of any characters in the book that weren't well-known historical figures.

In any event, the story is about Maud Baum's life.  Maud is the real life wife of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  There are records regarding where they lived and what businesses and jobs they had and the author takes all that and expands on it, which is why it is a book of fiction.  There are incidents and conversations that there would be no way of knowing about but in some instances it fits a pattern of certain individuals.  Such as Arthur Freed who was a part of the production of the movie based on the book.  He is known to have exposed himself to a young Shirley Temple and the author has him be inappropriate with Judy Garland.  It's not known for a fact that he was inappropriate with Judy but it fits a pattern for Arthur Freed.

Maud's mother was Matilda Joslyn Gage, a woman who fought hard trying to get women rights, including the vote, and Susan B. Anthony was considered a friend and a frequent visitor to the Gage home (although she's only referenced a few times in the book and according to the story, Maud called her Auntie Susan).  As I was reading these names and actions of these leaders in history (and considering the disclaimer at the start of the book), I wondered if any of it was true.  So I looked up Maud Baum on wikipedia and it lines up.  Which made me question wikipedia and which came first the wikipedia entry or the book.  😃

On wikipedia Maud has a sister not mentioned in the book which added to my confusion.  But, at the end of the book the author has an Afterword which explains a few things.  First of all she did EXTENSIVE research (and lists some recommended reading) on the matter, reading several biographies and even the diaries of the sister who was mentioned in the book!  So basically, the author stuck pretty much to the truth of events as they relate to Maud and her husband and added her own take as to conversations and events that lead to Frank writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and her part in the filming of the movie.

The story is told in a way that suggests events in their lives inspired the book and as it does so there will be a chapter from the making of the movie.  What I'm trying to say is that in alternating chapters it goes back and forth between telling the story of Maud and Frank's lives and 1939 when the movie was filmed after Frank's death.

It didn't read like a biography and would've been an interesting story even if it had been 100% fiction.  It had stories about Maud growing up with a mother who was a leader in the women's movement.  It told stories about Maud going to Cornell University and meeting and marrying Frank and where their life took them after that.  It's a work of fiction, based on facts.

I really enjoyed the book and wish I had participated in the book club, but at least I got to read the book and that's the important thing.  I would highly recommend it, particularly to anyone who read Frank's books or enjoyed the movie based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

To read more book reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - November 2019 (The Secrets We Kept)

I decided to review a second book this month because, like the first review I wrote, this book is a historical fiction story.  It's based on facts obtained through extensive research, including reading declassified CIA reports on the matter.  It's considered a work of fiction because things like personal conversations that cannot be known (although, per the author, some are pulled directly from the CIA reports and included in this work).

The book is The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott.  The story is about the efforts made to make public the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak from the perspective of his mistress and CIA operatives.  Pasternak worked on the book for 10+ years and the Russian government did not want it to see the light of day as it was considered anti-government, something that was punishable by death.  People who were perceived to even have anti-government thoughts would go missing, never to be seen again.  So despite this potential threat hovering over him, Pasternak continued his work.

Like the other book I reviewed, this would be a great story even if it wasn't based on known facts.  It was primarily told from the perspective of Olga - Boris' mistress, Irina - a new CIA employee and Sally - a veteran of CIA missions.  I say primarily because we do get into the heads of other characters but those are the main three.  I don't know if these were real names of people involved other than I do know that Boris Pasternak did have a mistress who went through and endured the hardships described as a result of her relationship with Boris, including being put in a hard labor camp simply because she was Boris' mistress.  The intent was to hurt Boris so that he would stop working on the book.

The book also explores the lives of the people involved in getting Doctor Zhivago published.  Russia didn't want it published but the US took steps to ensure that not only did it get published, that it was widely distributed within Russia.

Personally I've never read the book or seen the movie (Doctor Zhivago that is) but reading this book definitely made me want to read the book AND see the movie!

The story was well told and well written.  The only problem I had with it was it was not clear to me initially that the story was being told from the perspective of different people.  The prologue was titled "Typists".  Chapter one was titled "The Mistress".  Chapter two was "The Applicant".  Those were three different perspectives but I didn't realize those were the character identifiers until around page 80 because each chapter was told in first person perspective and there was no change in writing style to easily identify the character.  For example, in The Help (a book I LOVED, by the way) each chapter was labeled with the character name but the writing style changed to encompass the character's personality so even without the character name to identify who was "talking", it was easy to tell whose perspective was being presented and that wasn't the case in The Secrets We Kept.  At least in my opinion.  I think the author thought it would be cute to have "covert" names for the characters but it just confused me - at least initially.  I remember around page 200 I went back to the table of contents to confirm what happened to which character.  This was partly my fault because I jumped into reading the book without having any idea what it was about but I do also fault the author for not making clear character distinctions with her writing.  It was still a good book though.

Bottom line, it was a good story, and a good book worth reading.  I would highly recommend it.

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.