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The Tree Doctor by Marie Mitsuki Mockett
Our protagonist has come to Carmel to take care of her ailing mother’s property. Then Covid strikes and now she can’t even visit her mother who’s stuck in a care facility. Back in Hong Kong, her white husband says he can’t leave his job, and her young daughters miss her, but she’s made the commitment and besides, travel restrictions are in place. She teaches her one college literature class remotely, and the garden becomes her obsession and her solace. Enter the mysterious, eponymous figure who works at the local nursery. He ends up making frequent visits to the garden, doling out advice, and more. Their affair heats up and becomes another obsession. Issues of race (her mother is Japanese, she’s mixed-race) weigh on her constantly. Literature and climate change worries are woven into the story. It’s a fascinating tale of frustration, eroticism, and trying to sort out a true path amid life’s constant confusion.
Wait by Gabriella Burnham
Sisters Sophie and Elise live in Nantucket. Elise has just graduated from college when Sophia, 16, reports that Gilda, their mother who immigrated from Brazil, has disappeared. Turns out her papers weren’t in order, she got summarily deported, and the girls are on their own. Elise gives up her plans and tries to hold things together. She gets rehired for the job she did in high school, making notes on bird activity at an island wildlife preserve. When they get evicted, Sheba, a very rich friend from college, lets them stay in her family’s summer compound. Uncomfortable strains of class differences and arrogant entitled folk challenge the tenuous setup. What’s in store for them as Gilda settles back into her life in Brazil? For Elise, the contrast of the solitude at her work, the excesses of the milieu around them, and her constant concern about Sophie are tough but, in the end, I was relieved to get the sense that they’ll make it.
Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
A fat bonbon book with a very familiar setup. Rufus’s mother wants only the best for her son, which means marrying him off to another offspring of privilege. They live on an elegant baronial estate in England, but bad financial choices have depleted their fortune. They’re invited to a wedding in Hawaii which offers a rich hunting ground for possible mates. Rufus’s fierce mother rallies friends to manipulate him towards appropriate prospects but his heart lies with his childhood friend Eden, daughter of (gasp) their family doctor. Kwan makes marvelous satirical hay with the grossness and pretensions of the privileged class, including footnotes in case you’re not familiar with the pedigrees, brand names, and habits of the very very rich.
Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hull
This graphic memoir encompasses a family history that reflects that of the country from which they sprang, China. Tessa’s grandmother Sun Yi was a shell, beset by mental illness. Her mother Rose worried about Tessa constantly, dragging her to endless therapists as Tessa acted out. They live in West Marin; her father is white, and Tessa wants to be a cowboy. In working on this book, Tessa hoped to understand the intense, ongoing family pathology and hopefully heal the rift between her and Rose. They travel to China, retracing old territory, and Tessa recognizes the impossible strains her grandmother experienced that led to disassociation and madness. Not easy to read but crammed with rich material and a brave invitation to discover how societal craziness can radically distort lives.
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