Andria Williams

4.5 Stars

A slow-burner of a book with excellent characterization and satisfying conclusion. Novelist Andria Williams chooses a little-known and mostly covered-up piece of American history (the first and to-date, only, nuclear reactor accident with immediate fatalities) for her debut.

Set in the early 1960's in Idaho Falls, ID, Williams tells the story of a young Army specialist, Paul Collier, his wife, Nat, and their young daughters. This was the era when people married very young, had kids very young, and many scraped by without any of the "luxuries" common place today (a TV, a second car for the family, etc.)

Paul's boss is Master Sargent Mitch Richards -- an underworked, overprivileged excuse for a leader who not only thinks he is much smarter, charming and good looking than he really is, but who takes whatever amount of power his rank gives him and lords it over those beneath him. God, I hated this guy (probably because I've known I few just like him in real life!) Mitch's wife Jeannie, with her steely perfect exterior, knows her husband is a buffoon, but just tries to bide her time until his pension kicks in. Until then, she's the chief "mean girl" among the Army wives.

Some of my GR friends felt this book was a bit too slow, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. I found the pacing to be taut and loved the exploration of the characters' actions and motivations as the stories at work (and at home) unfolded.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Although I had a galley of the book, I opted to listened to the audio, which I can also recommend.… (altro)

In a surprising 180-degree turn from THE LONGEST NIGHT, her first novel about a nuclear accident at a remote military base, Andria Williams turns her attention to historical fiction in her second. Set largely in northern Maine of the 1920s and the start of the Great Depression, THE WAITING WORLD follows the fortunes or two young Irish immigrant women, Nessa and Aoife (EE-fa), who are employed as servants in the mansion of a grotesque, giant millionaire, Titus McAvoy. The two dream of a different, unindentured kind of life, but see no way forward, until one day, while digging clams on the beach for one of McAvoy's lavish parties, they discover a strange chunk of material, which turns out to be a byproduct of whale waste, or ambergris, a very precious substance used in the manufacture of perfumes. They enlist the help of John, a damaged British veteran of the Great War, who works as McAvoy's driver and confidante, and the three plan their 'escape' to a new and better life.

There are backstories to all of these characters which enrich and elaborate on what could have been a simple "rags-to-riches" tale, but instead becomes something much darker. John is biracial (his mother is from Barbados and his father was a British sailor), but has been "passing" for white since his enlistment into the British Army. His wartime experiences in the trenches have left him severely traumatized, but he shares his secret with Aoife and Nessa (with whom he is falling in love). And we learn something of the two women's earlier lives too, including Nessa's time in a "workhouse," and how Aoife came to be orphaned and alone, when her older sister died on the ship to America, and how Nessa became her protector. We learn too about how McAvoy came to be the bald, grotesque giant that he is, how it has affected him, and how he made his fortune.

I mean, there's a lot of 'stuff' in this novel - women sleeping with women, men with men, repressed homosexuality (and some unrepressed too), racial prejudice, women as possessions to be used and discarded. And there is an Upstairs-Downstairs element much in evidence too, as in the cramped, attic rooms of the servants, where the men slept two to a bed, as did the women in their separate quarters. The class system is prominently on display, for example -

"It was dimly lit down here in the labyrinth of the servants' areas, all heat and work-smells and steam like the furnace of some great ship, the hot, harsh vapor of lye and bleach dissipating into more pungent and savory scents of cooking: onions, mutton, the deep, lovely odor of burning wood. Chaos upstairs and yet down here life chugged on ..."

The story culminates in a nail-biting, desperate flight by John and the two Irish maids, pursued by the evil, murderous McAvoy that will keep readers turning pages deep into the night. I enjoyed this book. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (altro)

Avec un épigraphe pareil, on se dit bien que cette histoire va délicieusement partir en couilles et, ma foi, je n’ai pas été déçu.

Alors certes, dans ce roman basé sur des faits réels, il y a peut-être quelques longueurs et j’aurais apprécié un peu plus d’action, de sexe ou de manigances… Mais pourtant! Il s’en dégage subtilement bien cette mentalité bien penseuse et puritaine qui s’abreuve de cocktails pour oublier sa propre misère tout en médisant sur celle des voisins.

Le tout dans un contexte nucléaire militaire dangereusement dysfonctionnel et incompétent… (altro)