Villainy and a Cat

It's about time for me to feature another Young Adult novel on the blog, so today's post will focus on Catherine Gilbert Murdock's recent release, Wisdom's Kiss.  As the covers declares, this book is a "Thrilling and Romantic Adventure Incorporating Magic, Villainy, and a Cat." The book fulfills that promise and more and is eminently suitable for its target teen audience, perhaps most especially girls.  Although, we all know that the black cat on the cover is what really attracted me to the book.

The Basics
Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Wisdom's Kiss. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. Print.

Murdock was born in South Carolina and grew up on a Christmas tree farm (Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I think that's pretty awesome).  She is the author of several young adult books, including the acclaimed Dairy Queen series.  She is also the sister of Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame.  Wisdom's Kiss is a sequel of sorts to Murdock's novel, Princess Ben. However, it's definitely a stand-alone story, set in Ben's world, but not really picking up any of the same story line. (I have not, yet, read Princess Ben, and I was just fine).  The story follows several characters, including the prescient tavern maid, Trudy; the miller's son turned "soldier," Tips; and the adventure-seeking, not-wise-at-all Princess Wisdom.  Wisdom hastily agrees to marry the Duke of Farina on the promise of adventure, only to realize too late that she is about to enter into a family of immoral schemers.  The novel is full of adventure and suspense with just a dash of romance and magic to help things along.

The Book
There are so many things to love about Wisdom's Kiss that it's hard to know where to start. (Seriously, I've been dreading having to write this post). But, perhaps the most striking feature of the novel is the variety of forms that Murdock uses to tell her story: epistolary (letters), diary entries, a play, encyclopedia entries, and first and third person narratives.  Knowing this before I went in, I was a little wary and worried that the book would seem disjointed, but I discovered that just the opposite was true.  Each form Murdock uses tells the story of Wisdom's Kiss (here I refer to the event rather than the novel) from the perspective of a different character, giving readers a fuller picture of the story than they would find by following only a few perspectives. (It also thrills my inner literary nerd to see all the different forms).

I also liked how Murdock managed to connect all the threads of her various characters into one cohesive story line. With characters from such disparate worlds as Trudy the village tavern maid and Princess Wisdom the spoiled thrill seeker, it was important for Murdock to convincingly pull all the characters together, which she does.  She does this in large part through the various mysteries swirling around the novel.  The mystery of the nature of Tips's true profession ultimately pulls Trudy (though she has no idea there's a mystery until it's solved) along in the story line, leading her to link up with Wisdom and the Queen Mother.  Then we have the mystery surrounding Wisdom's fiance's mother and her machinations, which drive the overarching plot of the book.  A clever reader can follow along and even anticipate the goings-on that so puzzle the characters, but Murdock still manages to slip in some twists that you won't see coming. (At least one even had me exclaiming aloud). 

In all this plotting and storytelling, we also find some really great characters.  Murdock develops these characters with ease through her use of literary forms.  Each one has a particular form in which his or her story is told. Trudy gets a 3rd person narrative memoir; Wisdom, a diary; the Queen Mother, letters to her granddaughter Queen Temperance ; Tips, letters to Trudy; Felis, pompous 1st person narrative accounts of the past; and more.  And if any character need fleshing out beyond first hand accounts, we get entries in the Encyclopedia of Lax.  The book largely focuses on movement through the plot as each character is inexorably drawn to the conclusion, but in telling the story through each character's perspective and voice, Murdock simultaneously creates a real sense of character that seems so much more effortless than other novel's lengthy character descriptions.  I get the feeling that each reader will form their own attachments and have their own favorite characters, since each of Murdock's creations are equally engaging. (Personally, I liked the Queen Mother).

Lastly, you'll love the book's light and witty sense of humor that permeates almost every page. For one thing, Murdock selects some truly hilarious names for things, such as the Empire of Lax, the Siege of Cheese, or the Magnanimous Goat Incident (which, really, I'd like to know more about).  Princess Wisdom is also a great source of humor.  She's constantly and irreverently poking fun at things, creating an interesting combination of insensitive and hilarious.  For example, she ridicules her own country's naming traditions after learning that Trudy's mother's name was Mindwell: "Which is extremely ugly & extremely virtuous & only someone from Montagne would ever inflict something that awful on a poor defenseless little baby girl!" (239-40). My favorite moment, though, comes after Wisdom's entire retinue grows violently ill after eating some bad oysters and Wisdom deems the subsequent trip to Trudy's village the "Puking Path" (47).

I loved every minute of Wisdom's Kiss and think it would make an excellent stocking stuffer for the teenage girl in your life (or am I the only weirdo who thinks books are great stocking stuffers?). I know I would have adored this book as a teen. I mean, come on, it features a black cat named Escoffier for crying out loud!

Extras

• Visit the author's website for an excellently written author bio and other neat features including some good advice for aspiring authors.
• While you're there check out the book's own site, which features some nifty extras, including the author's own insight into writing the book, and a set of questions for readers, which would be great for a book discussion.
• And don't forget to pay homage to Escoffier, modeled here by Murdock's cat Charcoal.

Just Like Chalky Valentine Candy

Well, isn't that just a ringing endorsement? While the candy sweethearts might be a little icky, today's book is not.  My Husband's Sweethearts by Bridget Asher first drew me in with it's unique title and premise.  Despite the shoes on the cover, this book is far and away from the fluffy chick lit genre (the girly, Sex and the City genre of the literary world).  Instead the book is a psychologically complex novel that dives into the emotional turmoil of its characters.  It is a book for and about women, but fluffy it is not. The book was not quite what I expected, which made for both a slightly disappointing and ultimately rewarding reading experience.

The Basics
Asher, Bridget. My Husband's Sweethearts. New York: Delacorte P., 2008. Print.

Bridget Asher is one of two pseudonyms employed by the author Julianna Baggott.  Baggott holds an M.F.A. in creative writing and teaches at Florida State University.  She's a fairly prolific author with seventeen novels under her belt. (That's not quite Danielle-Steel-level prolific, but it still sounds impressive to me). Oh, and she writes essay and poems, too; you know, for kicks.

My Husband's Sweethearts tells the story of Lucy, an auditor who has been separated from her husband for the last six months after discovering that he had been cheating on her with two "left over" girlfriends and one new one.  She returns home after she learns that Artie, the cheat, is dying a slow death from congestive heart failure.  The story really gets going once she drunkenly calls up some of the numbers in his little black book and invites them to take a turn at his death bed (ah, drunk dialing, your so Klassy).  The novel follows Lucy's journey toward coming to terms with her own emotions, her husband's infidelity and looming death, and the makeshift family she forms along the way.

The Book
When I first opened this book, I was expecting a novel in which plot was the most important feature. Instead, I wound up with a book about character where plot is only present to keep things moving.  At first, I had a difficult time getting into the novel; it had a bit of a slow start.  Looking back, I realize this had a lot to do with Lucy.  At the opening of the book, she's a little distant and we're in this prelude stage of the book before things really get going and we can see the characters interact.  But, by chapter two I'm hooked when we get a glimpse of Lucy's personality beyond the cheated upon spouse. As she boards the plane, she encounters her disgustingly cheery seat-mate, who is too oblivious to stand and let Lucy slip to her seat.  Lucy handles this by sliding in butt-to-face in a delightful moment of passive aggression.  Lucy is interesting to follow (thank goodness, since she's the main character), and the more I read the more I grew interested in her funny, sarcastic commentary and her emotional ups and downs as she learns to cope with Artie's actions and his death.

I also enjoyed the little family that is formed around Lucy.  Her own mother is a hoot with her velour track suits and her jock strap toting dachshund (just think about why that's necessary).  Eleanor, one of Artie's many wronged lovers, whose precise organization skills coordinate the parade of ex-lovers visiting Artie's deathbed is entertaining. John, Artie's faux son, helps Lucy's coping process by accompanying her on the "Tour d'Artie" that takes them through various stages of Artie's life.  And Elspa, my personal favorite, has the most compelling side-story as the others help her get her child back and become a mother in fact.

I do have a few bones to pick with the novel, however.  For one, I didn't care for the running theme of all men as dogs/ liars/ weak.  While the women of this book have been wronged, they have been wronged by only one man that we see.  Lucy's mother does come from an earlier generation that (according to the book) expected men to be weak willed and unfaithful. But the younger women's protests against the idea and demands that men be held accountable rather than excused as weak alos imply that men are naturally flawed.  The author does not seem to agree with this assessment, given her "about the author" that makes it clear her own husband has never given her reason to doubt him.  So, why not give us another option besides Elspa's mostly silent belief in the good in people? My more minor complaint centers on the little twist about John's origins, which seems like a cheap way out of the squickiness of he and Lucy potentially being in love.

But overall, Asher pulls a wealth of emotions from her readers during the course of the book.  We often encounter hilarious moments, such as Bogie the dachshund making advances at one of the sweetheart's cylindrical dachshund-esque handbags or the granny-like sweetheart who turns out to be Artie's highschool math teacher.  We have moments of intense hope when Lucy goes to convince John to visit his father's deathbed or Elspa finally confronts her parents and takes on the responsibility of mothering Rose. And, we have moments of heart wrenching sadness when Lucy finds herself initially torn between love and hate for Artie, unable to settle on one when he's so close to being gone forever. Poof!  To love someone as much as Lucy does him but be so angry with him when he's dying must be terrible.

Despite my small qualms, I found My Husband's Sweethearts to be a really interesting and enjoyable read.  I liked that it was unpredictable and able to surprise me rather than following a formula. By the end of the novel, I felt like everything had come to a suitable resolution and I was satisfied.

Extras

• Visit the author's website and learn more about Julianna Baggot and her more recent novels.
• Hey, you can visit her blogspot blog Baggott & Asher & Bode.
• She also has a charity, Kids in Need, Books in Deed, hosted on blogspot.
• Here are some alternate book covers, including the one I read on the left:

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