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The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins (Post #1)

Although I definitely have a large stack of contemporary books to read, I still wanted to spend 2011 making at least a small dent in the massive amount of classics I have yet to read. Classics are naturally a bit intimidating for me, so my first readalong was the perfect opportunity to knock one off the list. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is being hosted as a readalong by Allie at A Literary Odyssey for the month of January and involves two blog posts- one halfway through the novel and one at the end of the book. I am reading The Woman in White as an ebook, available online through Dailylit.com, because of the convenience.  

The Woman in White is a mystery thriller which begins with an encounter between Walter Hartright and a strange woman dressed all in white. When Walter begins his job as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half-sister, the mannish but clever Marion Halcombe, he shares tells them what has happened and the three become determined to learn all they can about the woman in white, a task more dangerous than they could have imagined.

I admit I was hooked from the first sentence of this novel, which begins:

"This is the story of what a Woman’s patience can endure, and what a Man’s resolution can achieve."

In addition, the idea of unfolding a mystery like a courtroom drama, all the various voices which have their say, is extremely intriguing and original. Unfortunately so far I have found myself a bit impatient with the rate at which the mystery is unfolding, as enjoyable as Wilkie's rambles are, I often find myself wondering when the reader will finally begin to learn something more about the identity of the woman in white. That said, I have really been loving Wilkie's quirky comments and observations. For example:

"Women can resist a man’s love, a man’s fame, a man’s personal appearance, and a man’s money, but they cannot resist a man’s tongue when he knows how to talk to them."

Having made it just over halfway through The Woman in White I feel like the real action is just about to begin, and I am definitely excited for it. So far, I am finding myself indifferent to Laura who is repeatedly described as lovely and innocent but which basically just means she is boring. Similarly, Walter seems to be a pretty flat character, wanting to travel to the other side of the world if he can't be with Laura, but refusing to fight for her or even tell her how he feels. Marion on the other hand, is quite adamant that she is more like a man than a woman, which in this case actually means that she is a strong and stubborn character. Sir Percival Glyde has been expertly creepy from the beginning, and although I am conflicted over Count and Countess Fosco at the moment, I am certainly interested in what Collins has in store for them for the remainder of the novel.

Personally, I find Marion getting ill very suspicious and wonder if one of the other characters had a role in her sickness... Overall, The Woman in White has been off to a slow start but managed to keep my interest all the same and I am definitely anxious to see what the second half has in store, and especially curious about what exactly Sir Percival's terrible secret is and when the woman in white will show up again!

In My Mailbox (January 9th-15th 2011)

{For Review}

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon (ARC) (Amy Einhorn Books)
The Other Life by Ellen Meister (ARC) (TLC Tours)
Lonely: Learning to Live with Solitude by Emily White (TLC Tours)
The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer (Picador)
By Love Possessed by Lorna Goodison (Random House Canada)
The Gathering by Kelly Armstrong (ARC) (Two Copies) (Random House Canada)
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman (TLC Tours)

I was hoping to hold a giveaway for the second copy of The Gathering but after it costing me almost $8 to send a smaller book off to the US I'm not sure how practical that is. I really didn't remember postage being so expensive...

{Won}

A Thousand Tomorrows / Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury
Emma's River by Alison Hart  

I also got a lovely postcard by sending an e-mail off to Kristen Hubbard who's debut Like Mandarin is being released in March. A few months back I won some signed bookmarks from her, so now I just need the book to match!

How was your mailbox this week? 

Free Books (+ Shipping?)

Just a small question of curiosity, would anyone be interested if I had books for offer where the person just had to pay the cost of shipping? I'd love to share more of my books, especially ARCs, but the cost of shipping is prohibitive of me doing more giveaways as I'm a broke student. I'm in Canada so shipping isn't too bad for Canada and the US but more expensive internationally. It would be an eclectic collection of YA and Adult books. The books would be ones that had been read once and treated extremely gently as that is how I care for my books. I've put up a poll or you can answer in the comments. Thanks so much.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

"It remained the one image etched in her mind, perhaps because she did not have the film to refer back to. Once a picture was taken, the experience was purged of its power to haunt."

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli is the story of American combat photographer, Helen Adams, which takes place during the Vietnam War. The novel begins in 1975 with Saigon about to fall, as Helen and her lover Linh makes their way to way to safety. Linh is gravely injured and as they try to leave the city Helen holds onto her case of film, each photograph like a piece of herself. The Lotus Eaters floats back in time to when Helen first arrived in Vietnam, wanting to find some meaning or explanation after her brother was killed there. Instead Helen found Sam Darrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who keeps chasing after a slightly more dangerous shot, and she falls in love with both the man and his dangerous ways. Linh is Darrow's assistant, and beneath his silence and loyalty he harbours many secrets including his feelings for Helen.

At first glance, The Lotus Eaters seems like a conflicted love story and although Soli uses the men in Helen's life as a springboard for her novel, the fact is that it is so much more. Although the story itself is interesting especially considering the amount of research that must have gone into writing it, as well as the fact that it's told from a unique perspective- that of a photojournalist- which I have never read before, it is the writing of the novel which makes it so remarkable. Soli's imagery is graphic and haunting, she uses just the right amount to capture the reader's attention without overwhelming them, focusing on the vibrant details of the world. Her writing has an easy flow and lyrical melody to it as one sentence slides delicately into the next:

"This was the way one lost one’s homeland. The first things lost were the sights, then the smells. Touch disappeared, and, of course, taste was quick to follow. Even the sounds of one’s own language, in a foreign place, evoked only nostalgia."

The title of the novel also perfectly captures the core message. The Lotus Eaters refers to Homer's Odyssey where people ate lotus fruits on an island and fell into a peaceful sleepy apathy, never to return home. Similarly, once Helen gets a taste of Vietnam, she is unable to leave. Although The Lotus Eaters is not perfect- for example, there is quite a large chunk of time skipped about how exactly Helen and Linh pass the years which felt missing and incomplete- it is so incredibly beautiful that any flaws the reader may find can be easily forgiven. Although The Lotus Eaters may initially appeal to those already interested in the time period, as somebody who had never read about the Vietnam War before I was expertly drawn into the a different country and time. The novel is full of beautiful specifics, but what makes it so wonderful is that the larger themes like looking for love and trying to find where your home is, are completely universal. With The Lotus Eaters Tatjana Soli has written a debut which any reader should be compelled to pick up as they will effortlessly fall into the world Soli has created where the fictional and the real become blurred with complete beauty.

Release Date: March 30th 2010
Pages: 384
Overall: 5/5
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This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own.