The Paris Wife - Historical Fiction

Author: Paula McLain   Publication Date: 2011   Number of Pages: 318

Geographical Setting/Time Period: 1920-25, the jazz age in Paris

Main Characters:

Hadley Hemingway - the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. She is deeply in love with Ernest, supportive of his vision to be a great writer. but dependent on him to give her life purpose.

Ernest Hemingway - a charming, moody, selfish young man. He is driven by demons to write. His community of friends allow a patron supported lifestyle that seems unrealistic by today's standards.

Plot Summary: Friends of friends, two young people meet in Chicago and fall in love. They marry and move to Paris, pursuing the young man's dream to become a writer. The young woman, a musician of some talent, allows her skill to remain only a peripheral part her life, choosing to support her husband in his efforts. Their circle of friends supports a lifestyle that seems unrealistic by today's standards. The young man is a philanderer and eventually is forced to choose fidelity or divorce

Appeal: Character driven, the tone of the book is romantic. Based on historical fact, there is an inevitability to the narrative. There is a small sense of world-building as the culture of the Paris group in the 1920s is hinted at.

Brief quote: "I closed my eyes and let meyself fall, barreling down over the hard bumps. I'd had so much to drink I couldn't feel a thing -- nothing but a thrilling sense of wildness and freedom. It was a kind of euphoria, really, and fear was a key part of it." (p. 21)

Prizes or Awards: Starred reviews in Kirkus and Library Journal

Similar Works: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan,

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Reader’ Advisory Service in the Public Library 2nd. Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Inés of My Soul - Historical fiction

Author: Isabel Allende (trans. Margaret Sayers Peden)

Title: Inés of My Soul/ Inés del Alma Mia

Publication Date: 2006

Number of Pages: 313

Part of a Series:   No

Subject Heading(s

• 16th century
• Biographical Novels
• Chile
• Conquistadors
• Cultured Warrior
• Historical Fiction
• Imperialism
• Independence in Women
• Ines Suarez
• Lady of War
• Pedro de Valdivia
• Spanish Fiction

Geographical Setting/ Time Period: 16^th century Spain and the Americas (Chile)  

Main Character(s):

• Doña Inés Suárez: An intelligent and passionate woman, as well as a fierce and unmerciful conquistadora, she is capable of both charity and murder.
• Pedro de Valdivia: Inés’s lover and the first royal governor of Chile, who struggles with his sense of honor and his lust for glory.

Plot Summary: This memoir is a fictional account of the life of Inés Suárez, who was a conquistadora and a national heroine.  In rich detail, Allende portrays how Inés rose from a “widow of the Americas” in a small city in Spain to become an influential figure in the conquering of Chile and the founding and defending of Santiago.  Join Inés as she travels a vast expanse of ocean and battles numerous perils and challenges in search of freedom, power, and love.

Appeal: With rich historical detail, this novel unfolds leisurely, yet it features many exciting passages of the dangers the conquistadors and those they conquered faced.  Although it is from the perspective of a conquistadora, it is written with an understanding of the impact the conquistadors had on the inhabitants of the Americas.  The story is character-centered and the language features Spanish terms, yet it is not difficult to understand.  The novel tackles issues of feminism, class, race, and religion.

Brief quote: pg. 43

The line that divides reality from imagination is very thin, and at my age is no longer interesting, for now everything is subjective.  Memory is also colored by vanity. Even with Death sitting in a chair near my table, waiting, I still am influenced by vanity, not just when I rouge my cheeks if visitors are coming, but when I am writing my story. Is there anything more vain than an autobiography?

Prizes or Awards: This work won Booklist’s Editor’s Choice award as one of the Best Fiction Books of 2006.  Isabel Allende has received a number of awards, including the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1998 and the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 2010.

Similar Works:

Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies/En el Tiempo de las Mariposas, historical novel set in the last days of the Trujillo regime of the Dominican Republic, about the lives of Las Mariposas, three sisters who became revolutionaries and martyrs.

Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon/La Casa de la Laguna, fictional novel about a woman writing an historical novel about her and her husband’s families in the history of Puerto Rico, which her husband then finds and writes his own interpretation of events, feminist and tackles issues of class and race.

Reviewer’s Name: Natalie Garner

Form adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Shanghai Girls - Historical

Author: Lisa See

Title: Shanghai Girls

Publication Date: 2009 

Number of Pages: 342 (eBook)

Part of a Series: No

Subject Heading(s):  

• Abuse- Fiction
• Immigrants- United States- Fiction
• China- Fiction
• Los Angeles- Chinatown-Fiction
• Chinese- United States- Fiction
• Rape victims- Fiction
• Discrimination - Fiction
• Sisters- Fiction
• Family Secrets- Fiction
• War Crimes- Fiction

Geographical Setting/ Time Period: 1937 Shanghai, 1937-57 Los Angeles  

Main Character(s):

• Pearl- Older sister, considered the smarter and plainer sister, Dragon
• May- Younger, prettier sister, works in Hollywood, Sheep

Plot Summary: When their Baba gambles away everything and the Japanese invade, May and Pearl’s middle class happiness is shattered as they must escape China only to live in arranged marriages in LA in a controlling and cruel household.  They struggle to find happiness amid turbulent times (WWII and Korean War) in racist America as their loyalty and lives are challenged during the Red Scare.

Appeal: Historical details of Shanghai and LA’s Chinatown; detailed and introspective; incorporation of Chinese sayings and beliefs; family dynamics

Brief quote: “Your sister is a Dragon.  The Dragon and the Tiger will always fight for dominance.  She must hope for a son- and what mother doesn’t wish for this thing?- because then their deeper positions will be clear.  Every mother must obey her son, even if she is a Dragon.  If your sister was a Sheep, I would be concerned.” Pg 117-118 (in eBook)

Prizes or Awards: nominated for the 2010 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature

Similar Works:

• Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan- details, setting, and family relationships (JC)
• The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck- details, setting, culture (JC)
• The Rape of Nanking: by Iris Chang- Nonfictional look at the Japanese invasion that See describes in Shanghai Girls (JC)

Reviewer’s Name: Jessica Conley

 

Form adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers= Advisory Service in the Public Library 2^nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.