The Healing by Jonathan Odell

"In the beginning God birthed these watchful stars and a quickening moon,
In the beginning God laid open this earth like a mother's womb,
In the beginning God gave his breath to the baby's borning cry.
In the beginning God gave his breath to the old one's last gasping sigh.
In the beginning is the home we are coming from,
In the beginning is the home we are going to."
                            -Polly Shine, from the novel

I certainly enjoy a good historical fiction, particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Healing is an excellent one from pre-Civil War era and beyond, since it is a story within a story. It begins in 1933 Mississippi with Gran Gran, a former slave, being given responsibility for Violet a newly-orphaned young girl. Violet is intentionally mute, perhaps from the shock of losing her mother. In the process of caring for Violet, Gran Gran begins to tell the girl her own story---of 1847 slavery on the plantation and the coming of Polly Shine.

Polly Shine was a slave with the gift of healing. The master of the plantation paid a large sum of money for her because of his problems keeping his slaves healthy and working. Polly is met by skepticism and rumors and some resentment but later becomes a heroine to her people as they begin to see her working her "magic." Called "Mother Polly" she treats each person, not just the physical problem. I compared her methods to the holistic medicine of today. Polly was able to make a personal connection to her patients and thus treat them much more successfully than even the educated white doctors. She explained to young Granada, chosen by Polly as her apprentice much to the girl's chagrin, and who later is called Gran Gran, "The magic weren't in the food. It was in the seeing."

I tend to enjoy books while I am reading them, only to forget so much about the plots and characters within weeks. (That is one reason I keep this blog!) I will not soon forget Polly Shine! She is such a bigger-than-life character, charismatic and spiritual and wise. She expressed so many profound thoughts, it was very difficult choosing a quote to begin this post. Parts of the one I selected were often repeated and very significant to the story.

One of the surprising things to me is how this author, a white male, is able to tell a story so adeptly from the points of view of two black women. In his "A Note to the Reader" he shares that his first book was reviewed by someone who described him as an African-American author, which he took as a compliment. Be sure to read the Note to find out about the inspiration for this book.

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I gave the book a rating of 5. I found it a bit confusing at the beginning but a true page turner by the middle. When the group met to discuss the novel, the average was 4.3. Some members who gave 3's or 4's did so because they felt that some parts of the story were not fleshed out enough, for example the Gran Gran-Violet portion; they just wanted to know more about what happened to the characters from the earlier time in the intervening 75 years. How about a sequel, Mr. Odell?

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
                                     -Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

A friend loaned me this book some time ago, so long that I can only guess who it was. It was someone who knew I was a fan of American history and very interested in both Revolutionary times and the Civil War. With my first trip to Gettysburg coming up in October, I decided it was high time I brushed up on the battle. The Killer Angels was not an easy read but it was transformative for me, giving me a real sense of what that fight meant to the actual people involved.

The story of the 4-day engagement at Gettysburg, arguably the most important battle of the Civil War, is told mostly by Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet and Lewis Armistead on the Confederate side and General John Buford and Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain of the Union, in alternating chapters. I would not profess to understand all the military strategies and maneuvers outlined in the book but I feel I came to know some of the characters intimately. Historic figures I had read about in history books became very human and very REAL. I found myself almost feeling Lee's chest pains and Longstreet's agony over the loss of his children. And though I am a GRITS (Girl Raised In The South) I was sympathetic to Buford and Chamberlain, as well.

The novel seems VERY well-researched, with many maps showing placements of regiments/units/brigades (I have no idea what the differences are!) at the various stages of the battle. I found the maps difficult to figure out but I think I will take the book along on my trip and see if they mean more after a visit to that hallowed ground. The writer's style is very descriptive, even poetic at times. Much of what the characters thought and said was so profound I couldn't choose just one to quote, so I went with Lincoln's famous speech of dedication.

There were some humorous parts, mostly provided by Fremantle, a British volunteer among the Confederates, who thinks the Southern fellows are so like the English and predicts eminent victory for the South. I was surprised when Armistead welcomed Fremantle to "Lee's Miserables," named by an officer who read Hugo's novel by a similar name. I had never heard that before.

Needless to say, the last part of the book was very intense. One did not have to understand all the military aspects to be emotionally involved in the action and horrified by the results. I will give this one a 5, not because I really enjoyed it but because I am so glad I read it!

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

"Before going to bed, she took a last peek out the front window. The street was quiet, so perhaps tonight was not the night. Perhaps she had been granted another reprieve. If so, it was only a temporary one, much like waking up every morning in a death row cell, not knowing if today was the day they would walk you to the scaffold. The uncertainty of one's appointment with doom is what can drive a condemned prisoner insane."
                             -from the novel

I have been an avid fan of the TV series "Rizzoli and Isles" since it began in 2010. Recently I actually paid attention to the credit I'd long ignored: "based on a series of novels by Tess Gerritsen." I decided on my next trip to the library I would check the shelves. I found several by the author, including this one. The Keepsake was a real page turner, in fact, for the first time in quite a while I was up an hour past my bedtime to finish it!

In this one Detective Jane Rizzoli is involved in a case that is stranger than strange! Boston PD is looking for a serial killer of women who seems fixated on Egyptology, to the point of preserving the corpses as mummies, tsantsas (shrunken heads) and bog bodies. The perp earns the nickname "the archaeology killer" as more and more of his "keepsakes" are found. Josephine Pulcillo is an archaeologist working in the Crispen Museum in Boston when the first victim is discovered there. It becomes clear very quickly that she has a secret past and before long the reader assumes she is a potential victim.

As the plot thickens there are a number of surprises along with fast-paced action, making this a quick, exciting read! I rate it a 5.

I couldn't help but compare the novel to the TV series. In the book Jane is married and has a young daughter while she and Maura Isles are both single in the show. Jane's partner, Detective Barry Frost. is married in the novel, as well, but I don't remember the mention of a wife on the show. The author describes Frost with blond hair but he was Afro-American on TV. There were some other differences but none quite as striking as these. I do love the humorous repartee among the TV characters but in the novel there was much less of that.

The word "confabulations" was a new one to me. I looked it up: a spontaneous production of false memories caused by brain trauma.

I found the mention of the Windover Burial Site (p.152) especially interesting because the Orange County Regional History Center where I am a docent has an exhibit and I have heard an archaeologist speak about that ancient burial site where bodies were preserved in a bog. The story also mentions a trash midden which I was familiar with since the term relates to native Floridians (ei. shell middens).

I was surprised when I realized that the final chapter was written in first person. Interestingly, the first chapter was, too, while the rest of the book is in third person. Read it and you will see why.

I will definitely read others in the Rizzoli and Isles series by this author. Ice Cold is in the queue.