Neshama’s Choices for July 15

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A Better World by Sarah Lang

Plymouth Valley (PV) is a very special corporate enclave, offering safety and security as the world out there gets increasingly threatening. Russell, head of the household, gets a job offer and the family moves in, full of trepidation but it’s better than their current economic and environmental stresses. PV is very weird, with its highly regulated culture, mandatory festivals, and those huge stupid genetically engineered birds.  On the surface, people seem friendly but Russell’s wife Linda and their 16-year-old twins feel shut out. I forgot to mention what the company produces: Omnium, which is supposed to counteract pollution. Even though things improve socially for them, it comes at a high price and it soon becomes clear that something is wrong in PV. Is escape even possible? Chilling and entertaining simultaneously.

The Wives by Simone Gorrindo

In this memoir, we follow Simone and her husband Andrew.  They fell in love in 2007, the time of the war in Iraq.  She was an editor in New York; he’d been studying the classics. He told her he wanted to join the military. This countered everything she believed in, but she followed him to Georgia, and off he went into combat. An ultimate fish out of water and desperately lonely, she reached out to Rachel, an army wife across the street. Thus started an intense period of adjustment in which she began to recognize the common humanity among these women despite her initial resistance. Her portraits of the wives are vivid, drawn with humor and empathy. I have similar views as Gorrindo’s but was fascinated by how the power of love gave her the ability to adjust to a situation that might otherwise be anathema, and how she grew to appreciate the wives’ grit and candor.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

In a mythical time and place, Veris, a commoner, is summonsed by The Tyrant to retrieve his two children who’d disappeared into those treacherous woods. She was the only one of his subjects who made this journey and returned. Bizarre and dangerous creatures abound and some characters demand maddening games and ransoms before she can go further. To escape with the children, she must pay an agonizing emotional price. Failure would send her family and her village up in flames.  Within the action lies subtle commentary on the nature of tyranny. A slim, powerful tale.

The Vacation House by Jane Shemilt

That house in Greece seems idyllic, a good match for the “perfect” English family who comes there yearly.  But one summer two teenagers, Jay (short for James) and his friend Ginger do a dreadful thing to young Sofie, who is part of the family that serves the household.  The servants decamp, and that’s it for the vacation house. Ten years later in England Julia, married to James, is becoming increasingly anxious. He’s a headmaster and she’s trying to be the “perfect “wife but it’s not working. Of course, there’s a connection to what happened way back when and the effects of the tragic act play out in a convoluted, ingenious revenge plot. Chapters toggle between past and present as we witness the damage privilege can inflict. A combination of psychological insights and atmospheric settings makes for a very satisfying read.