The Taker

The Taker
Alma Katsu
Simon and Schuster- review copy from Book Expo
September 2011, $25.00 448 pages

This dark historical fiction, laced with magic, was not what I was expecting from the first scenes in a hospital in rural Maine. Not sure what I was expecting, as a young doctor meets a woman who reveals herself to be immortal. Outtakes from Highlander? A sleek, modern mystery?

The story veers from its beginnings into supernatural historical fiction, blending romance and erotica into flashbacks of the past.

The young woman, Lanny, tells her story of growing up in a rural Maine town, a Puritanical and stifling place in the 1800s. Her first love is Jonathan, a love that ends in the scandal of an unwanted child Lanny is sent away to have. And that's when the story careens into the above-mentioned erotica, as Lanny is appropriated, swept into a decadent life.

Appropriated is the only word for it. Alone and desperate, Lanny is trying to escape her fate. Enter Adair, making promises, offering decadent escape, only hinting at its price. To someone who's read a solid amount of supernatural fiction, it's easy to wonder if Adair and his crowd are vampires. The heavy decadence of Adair's house, ageless partygoers with heightened senses and easy morals in a repressive time of history, certainly seem to set up a vampire reference.

Katsu seems more interested in the psychological aspects of the mystical longevity. The way Adair and his cohorts bring Lanny in, how she reconciles her feelings for Jonathan, and the position she's in, anchored to present-day Maine and telling her story to a doctor. That's where The Taker starts to work for me best, as an exploration of the psychological factors of a vampiric-seeming life.

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For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library.

A Good Indian Wife: A Good, Culture-Clashing Read

A Good Indian Wife
Anne Cherian
W.W. Norton 320 Pages


Neel likes his life in San Francisco. He's an anesthesiologist at a busy hospital. His romance with Caroline, a secretary, is kept discreet and uncomplicated. He has a few Indian friends in his social circle, but mostly he's thrown himself into an American life: eating steak, dating a blonde woman, and ignoring his parents pleas that he should marry a nice Indian girl and settle down.
But, when a visit home to see his ailing grandfather turns into a chance for his family to bully/dupe him into an arranged marriage, he's furious, and saddled with Leila, his new bride. Leila, for her part, has to deal with her own innocent romantic notions, traveling to a new country with a husband who falls very short of her romantic ideals. She's been raised to be a good wife, and to expect a good husband in return.

I was uncomfortable reading some of the start of this book. Neel's a jerk. Granted, he's forced into a situation I can't even imagine- suddenly, he's married, against all his wishes, and the life he's created for himself is thrown all askew. But reading about his anger, however justified, and the pre-existing romance he tries to conceal from his wife and family... made me both uncomfortable and furious. I don't like reading about awkwardness or deception. And the situation created plenty of both.
But-- because the author spent plenty of time establishing Neel and Leila, both, as nuanced characters, I found I could stick with the book. (After, I confess, a slow start, and yes, I peeked to the very last few pages to see if things turned out romantically okay for the couple.)

Also, I appreciated the book for its brightly colored, tasty descriptions of Leila's Indian life and culture she grew up with. Spicy, fragrant food, and brightly colored silk saris. Spiced dosas fried in oil, hot pickled mango chutneys. Yum! Written so it's easy to visualize across all the senses, a tasty sort of literary tourism. That was another reason I felt so set against Neel as a character- here is Leila, beautiful and beautifully described, coming from a family life full of wonderful things, to an unwilling union with a bachelor in his surly silences and sparse bachelor pad. From the way Leila was described, I was half ready to fall in love with her myself, and kick Neel liberally in the shins.

Shag/Marry/Cliff: Shag. (But throw Neel off a cliff, or at least dangle him over it a bit to scare him.) Possibly shag after a date for Indian food. I'll be leaving this book here in Edinburgh, because I'm pretty sure I won't be reading it again, though it was fun.

---

For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library.

The Taker

The Taker
Alma Katsu
Simon and Schuster- review copy from Book Expo
September 2011, $25.00 448 pages

This dark historical fiction, laced with magic, was not what I was expecting from the first scenes in a hospital in rural Maine. Not sure what I was expecting, as a young doctor meets a woman who reveals herself to be immortal. Outtakes from Highlander? A sleek, modern mystery?

The story veers from its beginnings into supernatural historical fiction, blending romance and erotica into flashbacks of the past.

The young woman, Lanny, tells her story of growing up in a rural Maine town, a Puritanical and stifling place in the 1800s. Her first love is Jonathan, a love that ends in the scandal of an unwanted child Lanny is sent away to have. And that's when the story careens into the above-mentioned erotica, as Lanny is appropriated, swept into a decadent life.

Appropriated is the only word for it. Alone and desperate, Lanny is trying to escape her fate. Enter Adair, making promises, offering decadent escape, only hinting at its price. To someone who's read a solid amount of supernatural fiction, it's easy to wonder if Adair and his crowd are vampires. The heavy decadence of Adair's house, ageless partygoers with heightened senses and easy morals in a repressive time of history, certainly seem to set up a vampire reference.

Katsu seems more interested in the psychological aspects of the mystical longevity. The way Adair and his cohorts bring Lanny in, how she reconciles her feelings for Jonathan, and the position she's in, anchored to present-day Maine and telling her story to a doctor. That's where The Taker starts to work for me best, as an exploration of the psychological factors of a vampiric-seeming life.