Recollections

When I turned 12 or 13 my mom took me on a shopping spree that included picking out outfits at this outlet store and of course, a stop at Taylor’s bookstore. One book that made it into the bag that day, and still sits on my bookshelf, was a memoir by Jill Ker Conway. 

Conway, who would later become the first female president of Smith College, has written three memoirs. The Road from Coorain, a chronicle of a childhood spent in rural Australia, with no outlet stores in sight mind you, remains one of my favorites.

Conway died on June 1. She was 83.  This week, Fresh Air rebroadcast the interviews they’ve done with her over the years. It’s worth a listen. And her books, definitely worth a read.  

The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop

“Fine, she’d said. Fine. Then on a whim: If you find a job, I’ll go.” So sets off the events that take Charlotte and her family from the comforts of England to the sunny promises of Australia. Her husband Henry does find a job and soon Charlotte is tending to two small children in a strange land. Although she takes small delights in the smell of freshly line dried laundry, she misses her work as a painter. When a friend sees promise in a portrait she paints of Henry, she begins imagining a different life. Away.

Meanwhile, Henry, the son of an Indian mother and English father, faces prejudice at work as he is overlooked for a teaching position and relegated to a smaller office. Seeking to console Charlotte, he applies for a position in England. Before he can tell her, he is called to India to say goodbye to his dying mother. Charlotte is then left with the perfect opportunity to say her own goodbyes.

Bishop’s depicts the conflicts of marriage, the dissatisfaction of motherhood, and the impossibility of returning home. With her lyrical descriptions, she transports the reader to England, Australia, and India with poetic ease.

"tiger princess on her invisible skates"

Have you ever wondered what your new love interest is thinking about? Ellen, the protagonist of Liane Moriarty's newest novel, skips all that barking like a dog nonsense and goes straight for the good stuff when she hypnotizes her new boyfriend. 

Ellen is a professional hypnotherapist living in Sydney. She has a fulfilling practice, lives in a beautiful glass-walled house on the beach, and has a new boyfriend.  All is going along swimmingly until she discovers Patrick is being stalked by his ex. Ellen is more intrigued than freaked when she soon figures out the ex, Saskia, has been masquerading as one of her clients. 

Saskia has been following Patrick and his son Jake for the past three years. She met him soon after his wife died and became a de facto mother for the young Jake. When Patrick breaks up with her she is devastated. And determined to get him back. 

Told alternately by Saskia and Ellen, the novel paints a sympathetic picture of both. We feel sorry for Saskia and cringe with Ellen as she turns up again and again to invade their privacy. 

Moriarty has filled her novel with a full cast of witty, memorable characters from Ellen's aloof mother to Saskia's coworker's wife Kate.  The plot will keep you turning pages, but Moriarty's clever turn of phrase (see post title) will keep you on the page. The Hypnotist's Love Story - it's not an exaggeration to say it was mesmerizing.