A deluge of rain hit here this past week. In fact it’s been about three weeks of wet weather, and if I hadn’t had that trip to California earlier in July, I would’ve lost my mind by now. Where has summer gone? It’s got me gloomy beyond belief, along with the news out of Nice, France, and other places. Luckily the forecast says the sun should be out this coming week, and it’s supposed to be clear. Though I won’t hold my breath over it.
This week I’m half way through Steven Rowley’s debut novel “Lily and the Octopus” and so far I haven’t found it as entertaining or likable as apparently hordes of others on Goodreads have. It’s about a thirty-something gay man and his elderly Dachshund who’s facing health problems. I’m a dog lover, too, but so far the book seems like fairly thin, autobiographical stuff. I will try to hold on to see if more comes of it. Meanwhile, I’m still enjoying Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel “Eligible” on audiobook, which is good fun. It’s quite a lengthy book with short chapters –181 in all — oh my! But I’m in no hurry to be done with “Eligible” as it’s quite a hoot as a modern-day take on “Pride and Prejudice.”
Meanwhile when I was in California recently, I finished Emma Cline’s highly praised debut novel “The Girls,” which is about a 14-year-old girl named Evie who gets herself involved in a cult (based loosely on Charles Manson’s Family) in Northern California in the summer of 1969. Evie, a lonely child of divorced parents, finds herself drawn to the group’s feral female groupies out scavenging around town in their black bus. Evie is particularly enamored by the cult’s enigmatic Suzanne — who, along with the others and the cult leader Russell — eventually leads her down a path along the lines of the notorious Manson murders in Los Angeles.
Oh it’s eerie, spooky stuff, but luckily “The Girls” is not as graphic or explicit as I guess many of the books about Manson’s cult are. As a California kid, I was too scared to read the 1974 true crime book “Helter Skelter” about the Manson murders. Though some of the photos from the book were somehow etched in every kid’s head from those times. Later in life, an employer of mine who grew up in Los Angeles not far from where the crimes happened in Beverly Hills, told me a story that she was at home (alone?) one night during the time when the Manson Family was still on the loose, when all of the lights suddenly went out. She was terrified — as L.A. was gripped by the fear of the murders then. It turned out a car had hit a telephone pole nearby, which she didn’t know, and it took awhile to get the electricity back on. It’s an incident, which would’ve keeled me over, just sitting there in the dark, with the Manson clan on the loose.
“The Girls” does well replicating this creepiness. There were times when I thought: do I really want to read about these people or topic? Why dwell on these Manson-like groupies? The only reason I picked up the novel was because it received such positive hype. It’s been all over the blogosphere. Surprisingly to me, it turned out that the novel lived up to its hype. I had been skeptical too. But from the prose and style, I wouldn’t have guessed that Emma Cline was a young, first-time author. She completely envelopes the anxieties of adolescence, as well as the 1969 cult and era even though she wasn’t born till 1989. She expresses the young women, their dialogue, and particularly the naive Evie so well. You could see how a young person with self-esteem issues and a marginal home life could get sucked into a communal group that seems fairly harmless at first. The story feels visceral. Knowing the Manson history, you want to shake some sense and warning into Evie but there’s no use. She doesn’t seem to listen.
I liked how the novel alternates from chapters on Evie’s present life in middle age to her fateful past in 1969. The back and forth adds to how what happened hangs over Evie’s life, reverberating decades later. I might not have necessarily liked the topic, but I was impressed by Cline’s evocative novel. She’s a young author on a mission.
Meanwhile this week, my husband and I saw and liked the British spy thriller “Our Kind of Traitor,” which is at theaters now and is adapted from the John le Carre book. Simply put: it’s about a married couple who find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. While on travels they’re conned into helping a Russian oligarch planning to defect, and pretty soon they find themselves caught between the Russian Mafia and the British Secret Service. Ewan McGregor stars as the husband who helps the rich Russian, played by Stellan Skarsgard, and Damien Lewis plays the British agent. All are excellent. It’s a plot that kept me on edge from the get-go. If you like John le Carre’s books, or spy plots, you will likely relish “Our Kind of Traitor.” Apparently there’s been 11 films adapted from le Carre’s spy novels over the years. I think I’ve seen about 5 of them. “The Constant Gardener” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” are perhaps my favorites of those, but I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the other films.
What about you — have read Emma Cline’s novel “The Girls,” or seen any films based on le Carre’s novels, and if so what did you think?
