Book (not) Bingo #11
How To Read A Book by Monica Wood
Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…
Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher.
Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest.
Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.
When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland-Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman-their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.
How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.
I noticed this book as I was scanning a list of Amazon “daily deals.” The blurb sounded interesting, and then I read a few reviews and was intrigued by readers’ comments on Oliver, an african gray parrot who plays a role in the story. I’ve mentioned in previous reviews that I often like books with animals, and I also have a soft spot for parrots.
The book, as indicated in the blurb, centers around three characters who are connected by a violent car accident. Violet, who was the driver responsible for the accident, is in prison serving a two year sentence for manslaughter. Harriet is a retired English teacher who volunteers at the prison, running a weekly book club. Frank, the husband of the woman killed in Violet’s accident, is a retired machinist who works part-time as a handyman in a local bookstore where Harriet searches for books for her book club.
The story opens in the prison, at a book club meeting, shortly before Violet’s release. That first chapter was well-written, but I was a little … intimidated? … by some of the conversation detailing the histories of the women in the book club. That conversation was dark and harsh enough that I thought the book might be too depressing for my taste.
I persevered, though, and I was glad I did. Monica Wood is a talented writer, and she truly excels at creating complex, empathetic and likeable characters. I was pulled in to the stories of each of the three poinf-of-view characters, particularly Violet - a young woman who feels deep remorse over her mistakes and the consequences of those mistakes. Violet faces tremendous obstacles when she’s released from prison: grief, guilt and low self-esteem; the general stigma of being an ex-convict; and the isolation of being disowned by her entire self-righteous family and left alone and friendless in an unfamiliar city to try to rebuild her life. Violet (who was a minor at the time of the accident) doesn’t even try to shift a portion of the blame onto her (manipulative) ex-boyfriend, which she legitimately could have done under the circumstances. She takes full responsibility, accepts her punishment, and resolves to be a good person moving forward.
So, as I said, I enjoyed a large portion of this book. I especially enjoyed Violet’s interactions with Oliver and the other parrots when she finally secures a job, in a university research lab where parrot intelligence and learning are being studied. I also liked the many and varied literary references as Harriet struggles to find books her book club members will enjoy and relate to.
But then, sigh, at about 80% of the way through the book, the story fell victim to the trend of “sex sells.” Not graphic sex, but extremely “icky” sex (strictly in my opinion, of course) where lonely, naive Violet - desperate for love and human contact - is coaxed into an affair with a much older married man with a cringy level of authority over her. I suppose many younger readers might be entertained by this sort of thing but, sorry, I’m not. At all.
From there, I didn’t enjoy the book. I particularly didn’t enjoy the last chapter, which tried to summarize the entire remainder of Violet’s life in just a few paragraphs. I know why the author did this (she was trying to tie it to one of the book club selections) but I found it awkward and trite.
So … here we have the unusual situation where, 75% through the book, I was thinking “Wow. I’d really recommend this one!” Yet, by the end, I was thinking “Wow. What a disappointment.” However, readers’ tastes vary, and others might not feel the same level of “ick” and disappointment. At least I can say the writing was good, the main characters were empathetic and well-developed, and the parrots were fun and interesting.