Share Your Shelf-April

It's the first Thursday of the month which means it's time to share what we read the month prior. Between all the blogging and all the life-living, I didn't read as much as I would have liked. Here's how April looked-

The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

This was our book club selection for May and I mostly enjoyed it. The author normally writes contemporary romantic fiction, and she couldn't quite get away from that style as much as she needed to in this book. Overall though an interesting read about a historical figure previously unknown to me. Here's a bit of trivia for you-George Washington asked to be a pall bearer at her funeral. 

The Indigo Girl is a work of historical fiction based on real life horticulturalist Eliza Lucas, who learns  how to grow and extract dye from indigo plants on her family's South Carolina plantation. 

Eliza is sixteen when her father leaves her in charge of his three South Carolina plantations. Her father was mortgaging the properties to further his military career and soon her family is in danger of losing everything. When Eliza learns how much the French are willing to pay for indigo dye she thinks this might be the answer she's looking for. 

Eliza finds allies in an aging horticulturalist, a married gentleman lawyer and a slave with whom she makes a dangerous deal. He'll teach her how to make the 1000 year old dye and in return she'll break the law and teach him to read. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I continue to try for a classic each month and in April it was Jane Eyre. My favorite thing about reading these classic novels is the precision of the language and the deliberate word choice.  That alone usually makes me bump up my rating, and while this novel met that criteria the storyline here wasn't my favorite. My daughter told me she read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys which is something like a prequel to Jane Eyre and she liked that much better. 

The novel Jane Eyre follows an orphaned girl, Jane, who endures a harsh childhood before becoming a governess at Thornfield Hall. There she falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester, but discovers he's hiding a dark secret that upends their relationship. 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 

This is an older book (1989), one that was extremely popular when it was released, yet somehow I missed it. I had a one year old in 1989 so Goodnight Moon was likely more my speed. 

The Remains of the Day won The Booker Prize that same year, and was made into a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. This is also one of the books mentioned in The Correspondent and I'm working my way through that list this year. 

The story is told in the first-person narration of an English butler named Stevens. Stevens lives and has worked as a butler for more than thirty years in a stately home called Darlington Hall. In 1956 he takes a road trip from Darlington Hall to the west country of England, with his primary purpose being a visit to Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper who left twenty years earlier to get married. 

Stevens has received a letter from Miss Kenton, and believes it hints that her marriage is failing and she might like to return to her post as housekeeper. Though Stevens never says so outright, the reader knows without a doubt he has held on to repressed romantic feelings for Miss Kenton. 

Much of the novel is comprised of Stevens's memories of his work as a butler during and just after WWII.  He's an  unreliable narrator who lies to himself most of all, yet he's also a likable character which is not an easy balance for an author to achieve. 

Upon Lord Darlington's death the  house is sold to an American gentleman (Mr. Farraday) and Stevens realizes he is unable to interact with his new employer in the way  Mr. Farraday would like. He needs to learn to banter. 

"Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in-particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth." from The Remains of the Day 

The voice of the butler never wears on the reader and the writing is exquisite. Stevens is stoic and ever proper in word and deed, but it's what's left unsaid that feels so profound. Feelings of regret, of love lost or missed altogether are written about in a way that's subtle, but the reader feels them nonetheless.  

The novel is quiet and moves at a very gentle pace. I liked that. It's not anything like most of what we read today, and while not a lot actually happens, the story is poignant. When I turned that last page the emotion lingered. 

This won't be everyone's cup of tea (pun intended) but it's definitely mine. Five stars for me. 

'What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, it's own greatness, and feels no need to shout it." Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day 

Hop over to (Slices of Life) or (Not In Jersey) to see what others are reading.