Martha BrooksRecensioni

I read this for the "Set In Winter" part of my 2020 reading challenge. It was a cute book, I really enjoyed the artwork and the idea of rabbits gathering to sing.

Family Drama

Teenagers

[b:True Confessions|310146|The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle|Avi|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1200883701s/310146.jpg|997358] of a Heartless Girl was an amazingly poignant, well-written, and spare novel young adult novel. The arrival of a teenage stranger to a small town sets off a chain reaction of events that forces the towns introverted residents to reveal their deepest secrets and pains. The stranger, more troublemaker than saint, is also forced to let down her guard. She claims not to love anyone, but this turns out to be a misguided lie.

I thought this book was a slow read. I liked the imagery that the book provided. But overall, I wasn't all that impressed with the book.

I learned a great deal about how TB was treated back in the 1940s. I felt that this author developed her characters well, but she ended the book very abruptly. She needed to either increase the pace or lengthen the novel to make the story satisfactory.

A parcel of land is part of the lives of two young people: Alexandra inherits it from her father whom she never knew; Lonny grew up on it and never wanted it after his mother’s death. Real Indian-mystical, with both of them experiencing prophetic dreams and visions.

A pregnant Noreen runs away form her boyfriend Warren, taking his new truck and his money. She shows up in Plimino Bay and during her brief stay touches the lives of Lynda, the reluctant inheritor of the town cafe; Doreen, whose only daughter died of cancer; and Del, a dignified older gentleman still haunted by his brother's drowning years ago. This book seems to have more appeal for adults as it is written in the third person and we are privvy to the ponderings of the adult characters.

Imagine, as a teenager, being confined to a sanatorium, or any confinement for that matter. Marie-Claire, a willful Canadian teenager stricken with tuberculosis, must confront her own mortality as she struggles to maintain her strength - both physical and emotional - inside the confines of her ward. She attempts a friendship with a frail girl, Signy, who despite her wealth is desperately lonely and in need of a friend. And she catches the attention of another patient, Jack, and wonders if it could be love.

This was a terrific book and I can't believe that the author is the same Martha Brooks as the jazz performer that I have seen many times. How does one person combine such different talents and excel at them all?

Noreen is a 17 year old who doesn't get along with her mother or her stepfather but who does have a stepsister who cares for her. However, Noreen runs away from her stepsister's home in Winnipeg with a boyfriend who then abandons her in Saskatoon. Hitching back to Winnipeg Noreen she is picked up by Wesley Cuthand, a labourer in Brandon. Wesley takes her back to Winnipeg but Noreen decides to move in with him and live in Brandon. They have some blissful times but Noreen manages to demolish that relationship. She takes Wesley's truck and drives into a small town called Pembina Lake. She parks outside of the town's only cafe and goes in for a coffee. Lynda, the owner of the cafe, is barely making ends meet but she offers Noreen a bed for the night when it is obvious she has no place to go. Lynda and the other residents of the town try to help Noreen but at every turn Noreen manages to rebuff their friendship and help. Oh yes, and she also finds out she is pregnant.

For such a small book there is a lot packed into it. Noreen's story is just part of it; almost every character has some tragedy or loss to overcome. I absolutely loved Dolores, the wise old woman who knows just how to help everyone else, but she has also suffered loss and is still grieving.

Martha Brooks was raised at the Manitoba Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Ninette Manitoba. Ninette is a small town located on Pelican Lake and I'm sure Pembina Lake is based upon Ninette. I see Brooks has written a book called Queen of Hearts which is set in a tuberculosis sanatorium. I think I am going to have to get my hands on it soon.½

Great historical fiction/coming of age entry by Martha Brooks. Marie-Claire and her younger brother contract tuberculosis during World War II in Manitoba, Canada. Sent to a sanitarium to heal, they are separated from their family and even each other. In those days, antibiotics had not been discovered which could cure TB, so treatments like sleeping outdoors in the bitter cold and collapsing a lung to rest it were common. Marie-Claire is sick, angry with her father for his emotional distance, and determined not to become friends with long time patient Signy, her roommate. This story is about her journey to health, to friendship, and to first love, all in a hospital bed or not far from it.

Marie-Claire’s emotions ring true. She is dealing with very challenging circumstances we readers feel all of her sadness, despair, excitement and hope. This book provides a window into what TB sufferers faced, and a greater understanding of the disease itself – that it is not as quickly contagious as one might think, and that healing from it is not always a fixed and clear path. Sadly, TB is on the rise again as drug resistant strains take hold, which the author explains in her Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. She provides detail about her sources in the Acknowledgements, noting that she lived near one herself as a child.

A very sweet book about a period of history that is all but forgotten - when tuberculosis almost always meant a lingering death. Interestingly, while this coming-of-age narrative brings in the expected elements of young love, it also places an emphasis on friendship over the impermanent thrill of romance - something not often seen in YA literature, and especially not in books directed at girls. While many references might be lost on non-Canadians and people who don't live in the American communities near the Northern border, it is still a good read for teen girls, and an excellent book for the summer.

Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks is about a Canadian teenage girl who is trying to cope with a myriad of issues. One of Odella’s parents struggles with alcoholism and abandons the family. Odella, the oldest of her siblings, tries to maintain order for the rest of her household while also dealing with the typical trials of the teenage years.

While I did enjoy certain aspects of the story, particularly the discussions on the characters’ Icelandic heritage, I’m afraid this book suffers from what I call ‘everything AND the kitchen sink’ syndrome. With themes of guilt, identity, alcoholism, abandonment, and h*mos*xu*ality — just to name a few, this book just had too much going on with the story in order for it not to feel a bit contrived. I just really believe that young adult novels, particularly short ones, are more effective when they deal with only one or two major issues. That is probably just a personal preference, though. Your mileage may vary.

2007, 224 pp.

Despite the terrible cover (I don't know why Canadian books do this- it is like they want to shoot themselves in the foot) Brooks is a well-known author in the Canadian YA scene. I had read her book Mistik Lake and had been impressed. She deals with complicated family lives, young love and growing up with nuance and subtlety as well as economical and lyrical writing.

So I was hopeful about True Confessions. Did it live up to my expectations?

Expectations are always traitorous things. Though it did not, I suspect it wasn't as much the book as it was me. True Confessions follows the contrail of destruction of young Noreen. Pregnant, alone and having stolen her boyfriend's truck and money, she ends up in Pembina Lake. There she is taken in by Lynda, the owner of the local cafe. Lynda herself is broken, having run away from her abusive husband and her life as a teacher a couple of years before. They are watched over by Dolores, an elderly lady who works part-time at the cafe and is herself dealing with the loss of her adult daughter the year before. Although Noreen screws up at every turn, she is able to find redemption through the unconditional kindness of these women. And in the end, Lynda and Dolores find redemption by discovering their own strength and capacity to love.

I liked it , but not more than that. It took me a moment to figure out who we were following at the beginning- the first two paragraphs of chapter one follow Dolores then changed without warning to Lynda at the cafe. I am not sure why, but the book fell a little flat for me. Dolores too wise, Lynda too broken, Noreen to selfish and angry. It was a novel of toos. However Noreen's constant screwing up as well as her gradual ascent from the abyss of selfishness she had been wallowing in was well done. In the end it is a hopeful novel, one with no pat endings, or loose ends tied up, but hopeful.

Marie-Claire is the oldest of her siblings. And the strongest. And the most independent. (And one may also argue the most stubborn.) She is used to having her freedom and being in control. But after taking these things for granted for 15 years, they are abruptly torn from her--along with her parents and siblings--when she is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Set against the backdrop of the Canadian plains in 1942, most of the action in this book takes place in the sanatorium near Marie-Claire’s hometown, where TB patients come to either get healthy or die. In a time when TB was often a death sentence and a war was waging across the ocean, we follow Marie-Claire as she struggles to regain her health, save her family, forge friendships, and fall in love. This book is achingly lovely in its simplicity and truly unique in its subject matter. It’s a quick read that will stay with you long after the final page is turned.

http://tatalonline.blogspot.com/2011/12/katies-top-5-historical-fiction-for.html

I don’t know when the last time I read a book set in Canada. Honestly, the only thing that comes to mind is Anne of Green Gables. So when these book called to me from the shelf I gladly picked it up.

I felt that the book started a little slowly and that there seemed to be some superfluous information, but it really picked up after a few chapters. I’m really glad that I stuck with it. I didn’t really like Marie-Claire as a protagonist intially; her character kind of confused me. But as her illness progesses and she gets angrier about it, the more I liked her. (Which is a very odd sentence to write.)

I really adored the character Signy. She was my favorite, even though when you first meet her character, she comes off as a little annoying and eager to please. I just loved her, and thought that her character was a great juxaposition to Marie-Claire’s.

The love story was really great too. I loved that it grew and evolved. Ultimately, this book wasn’t so much about an illness, or “chasing the cure” it was about hope and the importance of having people who care for you in your life.

It was a short book, and it was easy for me to get through in an afternoon. It was a great book to start with coming off my reading hiatus.

My only real complaint, is an odd one. I wasn’t crazy about the cover. It’s cute, and goes well with the title, but I didn’t really make a connection with the book itself until near the end. It’s very scene specific. I greatly prefer to paperback edition’s cover

Queen of Hearts is an honest and touching account of life in a sanatorium as seen through the eyes of a French-Canadian teenage girl during the World War II years. Marie-Claire and her two younger siblings are put into a sanatorium in southern Manitoba after contracting tuberculosis from their uncle, who had succumbed to the illness. Marie Claire must deal with worry and fear for her sister and brother, despair about her own situation, and anger with her parents’ inability to cope with the tragic situation.

In the sanatorium, Marie Claire’s constant companion is Signy, a needy girl that she befriends with great difficulty. In the development of this relationship, Brooks examines the obligations, pains and awkwardness of friendship as well as the joys. In an environment where people are slowing dying, friendship necessarily encompasses a range of emotions, including not so pleasant ones like pity, revulsion and guilt. Yet, in this bleak environment, there is also happiness, love, and even hope for a future life outside this tiny enclosed world.

A moving portrait of a young Canadian girl who falls ill with tuberculosis in the early 20th century. Compelling, thoughtful and in some ways a quiet novel.

very nice writing.

Marie-Claire contracts TB in 1940. She and her younger brother and sister, who also contract the disease, are confined to a sanitarium. Through Marie-Claire's story, you find out about the 'cures' that they had for a disease that had no cure.

Brooks has put together a great story.½

Book Giveaway!
When Queen of Hearts begins, twenty-five-year-old Oncle Gerard has come to visit his brother, Henri Cote, his sister-in-law and their family in Manitoba in Spring 1940. Fifteen-year-old Marie Claire, 10-year-old Luc and six-year-old Josie love his visits because he always has wonderful stories to tell about the Shadow Man and his hobo travels. Gerard stays with them most of the summer, except when he hops a train to go drinking. Read the rest of my review and enter the book giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=1432

Reviewed in CM magazine; October, 2002.

http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol9/no3/trueconfessions.html

This teen paperback book is full of history, family secrets and mixed up emotions. With this book, each chapter comes from another member of the family. It begins with the death of young teenage people in Mistik Lake. It had happened along time ago but one girl survived the accident and this story is about her and her family.

The writer does an exciting way as slowly letting the reader know a little more as each page is turned. Not read fast but slowly. It gives this book an excitement and the reader knows that they can't put the book down until you read it all.

Another item that this book has is to show the reader how a feeling comes about and how the feeling is expressed. Not from the reader's point of view but a husband, a daughter, a cousin, or a past boyfriend twenty years ago. The reaader allows many new feeling nouns or verbs to flow into their heart and allow that reader an opportunity to feel it like the person inside the book.

In this world, the birth of a new born baby is very, very special but a death is a hard part in let go of the realationship that a character has with the person. This book shows that realationship, before and after, to help readers understand what it is all about.

YRCA 2010 Nominee

Odella is the oldest daughter of Sally, a depressed alcoholic with secrets. The story centers around Odella from age 9 to 18, as she navigates life assuming the role as caretaker of her two sisters and father. Odella's mother Sally has never gotten over the tragedy of being the sole survivor of a fatal accident, that took place on Mistik Lake the winter she was 16. Mistik Lake is a small town in Manitoba where Sally grew up. Sally has a close relationship with her Aunt Gloria who was also from Mistik Lake. Gloria owns the family cottage at the lake but never uses it. Odella and her family have been going to the cottage for summers since she was little. Sally eventually leaves the family to move to Iceland with another man. Odella and her family try to cope, but feel lost and alone. Odella reaches out to Aunt Gloria who has a secret of her own. Life goes on and the family tries to keep it together as their mother communicates with them less and less. Shockingly, as the family is settling in to a new life without their mother, they learn she has died in Iceland. Odella who feels suffocated by her family, reaches out to a boy named Jimmy whom she met at Mistik Lake. A sweet romance between Odella and Jimmy begins, and is the uplifting highlight of the book. The story is gripping and heartbreaking at times, but shows the strength of love and perseverance. The story delves into the pasts of Odella, Sally and Gloria giving insights into the three generations of this family, with women who are complicated and misunderstood.

When I scan the audio book shelves at the library, I usually look for something I'd heard of one way or another (either from seeing it in a bookstore, recommended by a friend, or having read a review of it by a blogger.) I'd never heard of "Mistik Lake," but something about it caught my eye and I checked it out.

I'm glad I did. Only four discs long, and there was a lot of story jammed in here. Only it didn't feel jammed at all. The writing flowed in and out, beautiful and highly enjoyable. The story switched from teenage Odella's first person narrative, to the third person account of her great-aunt Gloria, and perspective of Odella's boyfriend Jimmy. Normally a strange choice of switching point of view like that would throw me off, but Brooks worked it and it payed off. (I also wanted to mention that as an American reader, I was fascinated by the bits about characters' Icelandic lineage.)

"Mistik Lake" is a story about a lot of things. It's about love, family, regret, loss, hope, sexuality, danger, secrets, guilt, abandonment, pain, death, growing up, coming to terms. For a story that was only 4 discs long (or about 200 pages), there's a lot covered and it never felt overwrought. One of my favorite reads of the year so far.