The Rabbit's Paw Book Reviews

It's always exciting to hear about a new Haruki Murakami release, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to read his new short nonfiction book. Abandoning a Cat is Murakami's attempt to illuminate for us and himself the essence of his father's life. Though he spent many years almost estranged from his father, Chiaki Murakami, there was obviously much love between them. The author explores his father's tastes and life experiences, contrasting them with his own, in an attempt to understand their distant relationship.  Murakami's autobiographical exploration of his family's history and his father's accidental recruitment as a soldier in WWII are told in the author's signature style, which is always intriguing.  There is an undercurrent of sadness in this account, of course, since Chiaki Murakami is no longer here to help tell the parts of his life that his son will never know, though he has attempted to find out as much as possible.  Haruki Murakami h...

  Miss Archer , by Jordan Harrison, is an intriguing dystopian novel set sometime in the future when human beings are in rapid decline after being taken over by a mysterious entity. This reader assumed that this was a timely cautionary tale about the rise of AI, though that is never explicitly revealed. We meet a young woman named Dre Archer, born in an area known simply as The Squares, where life is poor and pointless. She and her generation have grown up with the knowledge that they are the last of the human beings. The girls have all been sterilized, everyone wears clothes handed down from previous generations, and for entertainment, they have old books and old movies.  One day, Dre is offered the opportunity to change her life and improve the lives of her family members by accepting a mysterious job in service of the unknown beings in power. Dre's life does indeed change: her challenges, discoveries, and adventures in pursuit of this mysterious new undertaking are riveting...

  Julie Orringer’s latest novel, Luna, Phoenix, Queen, is an extraordinary and heartbreaking story of love through time.  The most central character is Dava Pennington, an English literature professor at a Midwestern university. Her husband, Barr, is also a professor and novelist.  They do not have a very happy marriage, and eventually, Dava falls in love with Svetlana White, a colleague.  Dava’s character is gloriously well developed. She is a professor, writer, researcher, mother, wife, and lover. To Svetlana, a certain era of life with Dava was special and full of intense love. Over time, Dava drifts into a tragic form of dementia, but to Svetlana, Dava is still the love of her life, even as she is disappearing.  While Dava is deteriorating, life is happening around her, and there are other plots brewing, especially one important secret that the reader knows about early on. This becomes a riveting and bittersweet reveal later in this story.  There are m...

  The Last Mandarin is a thriller that starts with alarms going off all around the world, simultaneously. Who are the terrorists, and how have they achieved this?  Vivien Li and her American born daughter Alice have always had an icy relationship, but are thrown together in an odyssey of discovery that harkens back to the Tiananmen Square protests, when Vivien became a well-known freedom fighter. Alice knows this about her mother, but is very surprised when the two of them are immediately escorted to The White House. It seems the US president very much wants to consult with Vivien and her daughter.  The two of them travel to China, interpret impossible clues, reconcile with long lost family, and also save the world!   I found the main characters in this story to be mostly likeable but not very complex. Also, we never do find out much about the terrorists or how they've managed to wreck deadly havoc around the world.  The historical part of this story, regar...

 This is my first experience reading anything by this author, and I was pleased with her style. Her characters were mostly likeable and their motives and dialogue seem believable and natural.  This novel contains more than one story. It is a family saga, a historical novel, and a bit of a mysterious ghost story. The reader learns more about the ghostly narrator as the stories unfold.   Aubrey Lamb, a young woman who seems to have her hands full, emotionally and vocationally, is introduced to us by an unnamed, ghostly narrator. Aubrey's life is depicted in a way that I found to be quite engaging.  When Aubrey begins to get emails from relatives she was barely aware of, talking about a land inheritance in Tennessee, she embarks on a bit of an odyssey that will educate her about her roots and change her life. The history of the African American Lamb family, from the time Thomas Lamb first bought this farm and built his house, is fascinating. Thomas was resourceful,...

  The Frenzy, by Joyce Carol Oates, is a collection of short stories that are nuanced and memorable. I am fascinated both with the storytelling and the fact that this author can keep me engaged both in novel and short story forms.  The first three stories seem to focus on life decisions that have profound consequences. For instance, The Bicycle Accident introduces us to a mother who chooses not to examine the relationship she has with an older friend, or her daughter's feelings about him, in part because he has been financially generous. The consequences of this mother's neglect are tragic. The Fear is a story about a young woman who lives to regret the way she has treated a cousin, once so close and dear to her, in a time of need. The ending reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode: creepy and atmospheric.  And the title story, The Frenzy, ended with a satisfying and humorous comeuppance for a delusional, self-centered man. A story which appears later in this collection, R...

  This story drew me in with its intensity. Sarah, or Saoirse, is a very young woman with a  lot of history that is dark, abusive, and complicated. To escape a mortally dangerous situation, she needs to disappear. To that end, Sarah makes some desperate moves, makes decisions on the fly, and has mixed luck on the long, arduous road to claiming her own life and landing safely. I admired the way in which this story is told, as bits of Sarah's past life are revealed, bits at a time. As she is becoming Saoirse, a well-regarded artist in Ireland, she has various tense adventures and there are obstacles in her life, both emotional and practical, as her past eventually comes to light. Saoirse is as complicated as her life, but she is an admirable survivor. Saiorse's parents failed her miserably, but she is determined to find herself, be herself, and make her own way. A literary novel, a bit of a mystery, and a love story combined, Saoirse was an engaging read all the way through for ...

  The Memory Gardener, by Meg Donohue, is a charming story which contains a couple of intriguing mysteries and characters who seem believable and likeable. The writing style is pleasing and flows nicely, and I found the plot to be perfectly paced. The main protagonist, Lucy, has grown up in what sounds like a beautiful, idealic place close to the ocean called Bantam Bay. Lucy's special talent is gardening. Actually, it's more than a talent--it's actually a magical gift. Lucy's plants grow faster than anyone else's, but the most important power she has is the matching of particular scents to people, to bring out their best memories. Her gardens are wondrous, healing places for her clients. However, Lucy has not stayed in Bantam Bay. To the contrary, she's been a nomad for years, avoiding her hometown for reasons that will unfold as this novel progresses. When we meet Lucy, her mother has recently died, and she is returning to Bantam Bay to stay with her father be...

 When opening a John Irving book, I expect to meet lovable, eccentric characters living unconventional lives. The main plots in Irving's books are usually interwoven with colorful side plots as well, stories that vary in realisticness. Add to that a good message about social tolerance and some historical background, and it all comes together in his splendid novels.  John Irving's latest novel, Queen Esther, ticks all of those boxes, but this time, I found the plot a little too scattered, and did not get attached to any one character the way I usually do. One part of the story is about an orphan named Esther, but the most intriguing part of her life happens off stage. This novel spends more time following the life of Jimmy, the young man Esther gives birth to and then gives to her sister to raise. He does live in interesting times, and yet I didn't find his story to be compelling.  The author imparts quite a bit of history in this novel, which is mostly very topical, but ...

  Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches . So says Minerva's great-grandmother, Alba. Minerva will learn that witches are still around her. This is actually three stories, occurring in three different eras and features incredibly strong female protagonists.  We are introduced to Minerva first, in the year 1998, at a small New England university near Boston. She's traveled from her native Mexico to study at Stoneridge and to write a thesis focused on Beatrice Tremblay, who has authored of a novel based on the real-life disappearance of a young woman she knew who went missing from Stoneridge in 1934. The earliest story contained in this novel focuses on Alba, in 1908, in Mexico. I found Alba's account to be the most intriguing part of this book, though also the most triggering, in the creepiness and gore departments. It is she who has given Minerva the curiosity and fascination with witches and the horror genre, in general.  There are obvious parallel...

  When a handsome, youngish man named Francis Harlan Fox applied and auditioned for a job in a well-regarded prep school in a small town outside Atlantic City, the headmistress was bowled over. Despite her plans to hire someone other than another white male and her reasons for having misgivings about him, he charmed impressed, and astonished her with his charisma and knowledge. And they had so much in common, too. Headmistress P. Cady felt as though the two of them had a real connection, and could even be friends.  Unfortunately, Francis Fox is not the man anyone thinks he is. This is a dark story, a literary novel that is also a mystery, told in an irresistible nonlinear way. The reader's close attention is rewarded with pieces of information told in flashback and from narrators who differ in reliability.  Francis Fox has taught in different schools before, never staying long in the same place. This was a red flag, but Fox was ready with his answers. Why has he moved aro...

 Isabel Allende has written another captivating historical novel with a strong woman at its center. This time, the backdrop is the Chilean Civil war of 1891. It is also about one young woman's struggle to become an important story teller in her own right, under her own name. Emilia is an unusually smart and brave young woman, who must behave more assertively than most women of her time, to become a journalist in the San Francisco of the 1880s.  When war breaks out in Chile, she actually succeeds in becoming a war correspondent. It does help that she speaks Spanish.  There are multiple stories housed in this novel.  There is also the story of Molly Walsh, her mother, which will inform a large part of Emilia's life. After a loving childhood and an excellent education aided by her kind adopted father, Emilia is still not prepared to see war in a distant country, let alone be in the midst of battle.  The Chilean Civil War comes terrifyingly alive in these pages. It'...

  "Everything gets fixed, but we all stay broken."  This novel is thought-provoking, memorable, and beautifully written.  Twist is written in the style of a memoir, from the point of view of a writer who is going through some rough times in his personal life. In this narrative, Anthony Fennell is working as a free lance journalist, joining a crew at sea, repairing underwater cables that ensure Internet usage for large portions of the world. There is a strong metaphor running through this story about how this long trip helps Fennell to repair himself, as he watches the crew repair deeply buried cables. Before and during this voyage, Fennell develops an interesting relationship with the man in charge of the exhibition, John Conway. This man is at the heart of this story, an enigma who keeps Fennell focused outside of himself and searching for answers to the mystery of Conway's identity and motives.  One aspect I found fascinating about this story was free diving, and t...

 Finding Grace, by Loretta Rothschild, is a gripping debut novel that features some surprises. The story starts quickly, with an unexpected and tragic event.  Without spoiling the novel for future readers, I found the plot of this story original and complicated, not a typical love story at all. The character development is mostly adequate, though I still had some questions about Grace in the end. Also, there was one female character who I found to be comically ridiculous and strangely out of step with the others. The twisty plot and ending do have some extremely unlikely aspects, but it was a very interesting, enjoyable read that was creatively narrated.  I did enjoy this and would recommend it. It crossed my mind that it might make an intriguing movie.  Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book's description as a cross between The Virgin Suicides and The Crucible was a strong selling point for me. This fantastical  novel takes place in eighteenth century England.  The Hounding has a riveting plot that keeps the reader guessing. Told from different points of view, it illustrates how the local villagers view the five Mansfield sisters and what they believe to be true about these girls. This story also shines a light on how young women were viewed at that time and the way information and rumors spread within a small area.  Some of these villagers are well drawn, as characters, while the Mansfield girls never are. They remain mysterious, which forces the reader to get involved in the speculation about what is actually true, and what might be going on.  I found this novel to be well written, paced perfectly, and intriguing. Its haunting atmosphere is especially memorable, and I'd gladly read this author's work again. I'd recommend it to anyone, and wou...

  The Antidote , by Karen Russell, is a memorable historical novel with elements of mystery and magical realism. It takes place in the fictional farming town of Uz, Nebraska, during The Great Depression.  The characters in this story are richly drawn, with backstories that are well developed and intriguing. We meet a woman known as The Antidote, a prairie witch with the power to act as a repository for unwanted and burdensome memories for her clients, a local farmer who is mystified by something going on at his farm, his niece, who is an orphan and basketball star, a government photographer who might have found a haunted camera, and a bewildered scarecrow. There are more, but these are the main characters. The sheriff is also important, and there’s also a poor young man wrongly accused of murder, and a certain cat, but I shouldn’t let this review get out of hand.  Along with its riveting plot, this story is also a bit of a history lesson and makes statements that are alwa...

This is a beautifully written first novel. The way this author explores relationships and emotions in this story is exceptional. The narrative focuses on the bond between two girls in a family, Genevieve and Arin, from its unusual and intense beginnings into its tortured and anguished future. The main protagonist is Genevieve, who starts life as the only child of hard-working parents, both with complex and tough backgrounds. They are living with Genevieve’s paternal grandmother in a modest apartment. Then one day, Arin comes into their lives, a child relation of theirs who was unknown to them beforehand. Arin and Genevieve form a strong sister bond, both determined to do their best in school to achieve academic success in the competitive small country of Singapore. However, their futures unfold in ways neither of them had predicted, and the differences in their personalities and the ways they each work toward success lead to a serious rift between them. Arin, who was abandoned by her f...

This story follows the life of David Winn, an English boy living with his single mother, a gifted dressmaker. Dave has never met his Burmese father or been to Burma, but the fact that he is half Burmese informs his life in various ways that are illustrated in Holinghurst’s beautifully nuanced story telling style. The main focus of this novel is Dave’s biracial appearance, and the effect this has on his life in English society through the years. The author follows Dave starting in his school years in the 1960s until the COVID pandemic. Hollinghurst expertly demonstrates, through conversation and events,  the backdrop that Dave must navigate to chase his dream of being a serious actor.  The author has also created a realistic cast of characters who influence and interact with David in this memorable, fictional biography. I felt very invested in this story, and missed some of the characters when it was over. This is not an action packed novel, but one more about emotions, beliefs...

The Monsters in Our Shadows, by Edward J. Cembal, is a dystopian, paranormal horror novel set sometime in the not too distant future. This story is a creative plot about the extinction of humanity caused by predation of what people come to call “shivers.”  Indeed, these creatures, or entities, do make one shiver in fear. Shivers are a mystery that people try to shun and avoid talking about. Some people are afflicted with shivers, and it is a bad stigma, as though the afflicted somehow deserve their fate.  The cover of this book may have affected my perception of this novel, because it looks like a Rorschach test. I felt that the plot contained symbolism for confronting mental fears, such as fear of the unknown, and finding a way forward when life gets depressing and scary. Incidentally, the afflicted people in this novel did not have identical shivers.  This story is a memorable one for me, even though I felt that the character development and background information were ...

Haruki Murakami’s latest novel is one of the most thought-provoking I’ve read. In these pages, we meet a man whose name we never get to know, which seems fitting, since this character feels that he does not know who he is.  As a teenager, this main protagonist meets and falls in love with a girl, who is also never named. Together, they dream up a town that is surrounded by a high wall and populated with people who have been permanently separated from their shadows. His girlfriend informs him that she herself is just a shadow of her real self, who lives inside that walled town.  At this point, I started to expect a fairy tale infused with magical realism. However, the narrative  became something more complicated. There are many issues to mull over here, and it’s hard to know where to begin.  Eventually, when the main character finds his way into this walled town, he experiences its many quirks. For instance, there are the town walls themselves: they do not...