Moyes’ novel remarkably contemporary
Author crafts glimpse into future in ‘Synapse’
By Genine Babakian
a Novel” (Pamela Dorman Books), by
At the outset of Jojo Moyes’ “The Giver of Stars,” Alice Van Cleve has gone from the frying pan into the fire. An outspoken young woman who doesn’t quite fit in with polite English society, Alice jumps at the chance to leave her native England when a handsome American proposes. Imagining a different sort of life altogether, she ends up with Bennett Van Cleve and his overbearing father in a rural town in Depression-era Kentucky. She’s friendless, miserable and trapped.
Until, that is, the Pack Horse Library initiative comes to her town, offering her an escape from the lonely monotony of her days. Saddling up to bring books to remote families hungry for reading material, Alice and a cluster of local women join the initiative.
According to an article in Smithsonian magazine - which inspired Moyes to set her historical novel in eastern Kentucky - the Pack Horse Librarians were the bookmobiles of the Great Depression. Overcoming danger and discomfort, they traversed seasons, mountains and miles to bring books to homes and schools that would otherwise go without.
While her novel is set in the midst of the Great Depression, Moyes crafts a tale that’s remarkably contemporary. One timely theme that runs throughout the book is the importance of facts. The librarians represent knowledge - knowledge they wish to share not just to open people to new worlds and ideas but also to arm them with the facts they need to counter the disinformation campaigns promoted by the wealthy and powerful.
“Knowledge is so important, don’t you think? We all say at the library, without facts we really do have nothing,” Alice says. And when her father-in-law attacks Alice for reading a “filthy book,” he smugly informs her that the book has been banned. Her response? “Yes, and I know that a federal judge overturned that same ban. I know just as much as you do, Mr. Van Cleve. I read the facts.”
Environmental degradation is another recurring theme. And while Moyes never labels her character Margery O’Hare as an environmentalist, her love and respect for the mountains that she calls home fuels her efforts to protect it from the degradation inflicted by the coal mines. “A certain kind of man looked at God’s own land,” Margery thinks as she discovers newly desecrated forest, “and instead of beauty and wonder, all he saw was dollar signs.”
The fiercely independent Margery, “who would be owned by nobody, and told by nobody,” is the ringleader of the librarians and in many ways is Alice’s savior. “You’re like a prisoner sprung from jail most mornings,” she says to Alice, and allows her to see that she isn’t as trapped as she thinks she is.
Inspired by the history of the actual Pack Horse Librarians, Moyes depicts the courage and resourcefulness of these women in loving detail. “The Giver of Stars” is a tribute not just to the brave women who brought the light of knowledge in dark times, but also to the rejuvenating bond of
This cover image released by Penguin shows ‘Grand Union:
Stories’ by Zadie Smith. (AP) This cover image released by Pamela Dorman Books shows ‘The Giver of
Stars,’ a novel by Jojo Moyes. (AP)
women’s friendship.
“Synapse”
(Thomas Nelson), by
In “Synapse” by Steven James, it is 30 years into the future and artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where robots called Artificials can look human and can be programmed to experience pain and emotion. People pay for these companions for emotional support. The robots are indistinguishable from humans at a casual glance, and marriage laws have recently been passed allowing unions between humans and Artificials.
Kestrel Hathaway is devastated when she loses her baby during childbirth. On her way home from the hospital she witnesses a terrorist attack and is able to save the life of one of the bystanders. When she arrives home, she learns that her brother, who works for the company that creates the Artificials, has given her one as a gift. She returns it, but changes her mind when she realizes she needs to talk to someone about her grief.
The name of the Artificial is Jordan, and he’s not like the other ones of his kind. Once he’s activated, he begins to question what it means to exist. Is there a God? And does he have a soul? What constitutes a living being?
“Synapse” isn’t a retread of the Pinocchio story with the character wanting to be a real boy. It’s the story of a created being that asks hard existential questions. Jordan’s pursuit of answers makes the reader contemplate deep philosophical questions as well. What does it mean to be truly alive? What makes someone truly human?
The author has crafted a glimpse of a future when mankind and computer technology fully merge. He immerses the characters into a tense thriller, creating a unique and thought-provoking reading experience.
“Grand Union: by
Acclaimed author Zadie Smith’s
Stories,” Penguin, “Grand Union” is an enchanting collection that examines the complexity of contemporary life. This book of short stories, the author’s first, refuses to define itself as any one thing. Instead, Smith allows each story to take on a tone, genre and life of its own.
The book moves between narrative-driven stories and unique experimental pieces. In one, Smith takes readers on a journey through a metaphor masquerading as a lazy river. In another, she dissects a child’s “Narrative Techniques” worksheet in a way that will make readers begin to see meaning in places they never before thought to look.
In others still, readers meet a drag queen fighting for equal treatment inside a corset emporium, a couple in the throes of an addiction-triggered divorce, a jaded family watching the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and a train rider who contemplates the way headphones allow people to turn themselves off to the world.
The stories can be heavy, yet they also take on a tone of slight whimsy that makes them feel both real and fantastical all at once, the same way that these days, reality so often feels.
Throughout the book, there are moments when Smith seems to be talking directly to the readers, letting them know, for example, when she is using devices like metaphor or dramatic irony. While for some writers this tactic could risk a jarring effect, in Smith’s hands it feels appropriately playful and seems to create more intimacy between her and the readers. It’s as if she is reminding readers that she knows they are there, that the book is a conversation, that amid all of the real chaos and struggle that her stories reference, we’re in this together.
At times, this wild ride that Smith takes readers on is a delight to experience. Her characters are vivid and unique, as are her observations about the state of the world. At other times, the stories can get complex, and it’s not always easy to grasp their meaning. Still, it’s well worth spending time with Smith, examining and dissecting the way things are, the way things were and the way things could become. (AP)