Sentimental Journey

Why would a successful New York lawyer leave his wife and daughter and vanish without a trace? That's the question that Jan-Philipp Sendker asks in The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. That's the mystery Julia Win is trying to solve when, four years after his disappearance, she discovers a love letter her father wrote many years earlier to a woman in Burma. He would never discuss the first twenty years of his life which he spent in Burma, so she reasons that the answers to her questions might lie there, perhaps with the woman addressed in the unsent letter, the mysterious Mi Mi in the tiny village of Kalaw.

Julia travels to Kalaw and meets a mysterious man named U Ba who seems to know all about her. The bulk of the book is a series of flashbacks in which U Ba tells Julia the story her father Tin's life. It's a story full of hardship, sadness, hope, endurance and love. It is frankly sentimental and I am frankly not, so the soap opera, 'if only', aspects of the story wore me down. Also, it's translated from German and seemed a little heavy on cliches.

Those who enjoy fairy tales about star-crossed lovers will be drawn to this book - there's a kind of operatic grandeur to the story.   And there are some beautiful descriptions of the natural world in the remote Burmese countryside. But I'm afraid my disbelief just refused to suspend itself.

Not My Genre

I guess you would classify Sizzle by Julie Garwood as a romance/thriller. It was recommended to me by a friend who guaranteed that I would laugh out loud. And she was right. The antics of a hapless hit man who seems to succeed in spite of himself are laughable.

It is the story of Lyra, a film student in Los Angeles who becomes targeted by unknown people for unknown reasons. She returns home to her apartment one day to find two men ransacking her apartment and assaulting her roommate. But Lyra manages to chase them off. Her roommate’s brother happens to be an FBI agent and sends 2 fellow agents to be the girls’ bodyguards. Did I mention that Lyra is drop-dead gorgeous with a body to match? By (no) coincidence her bodyguard Sam is also drop-dead gorgeous with a body to match and a Scottish accent. How long do you think it takes before this is more than a bodyguard-client relationship? I guess that is the “sizzle” of the title.

There are a few minor characters: Lyra’s social-climbing parents, her eccentric devoted grandmother and the above-mentioned hit-man Milo. A few comments on filmmaking, the requisite lovemaking scenes, a murder-suicide, a small-time mobster, a car bombing…that’s about it. The mystery is solved.
Do they live happily ever after? You would have to read the book to find out. But I think you can find something better. That's just my opinion. Lots of people seem to think otherwise as this book is in its second week on the NY Times hardcover best seller list. It's a mystery to me!

Reading can be fun!

It’s been a long time since I have had this much fun reading. If someone else were in the room with me, I had to cover my mouth to hide the big grin. And the reason for all this mirth? The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer.

Heyer is often compared to Jane Austen: they were writing about the same period of English history but Austen was writing contemporaneously whereas Heyer was writing historical fiction. Heyer was unbelievably prolific: more than 40 novels, a dozen short story collections and almost as many thrillers. I wonder if reading them all could still hold my interest; but this first one was an unmitigated delight. I guess I avoided reading Heyer because her novels are generally described as “romance novels” and I mistakenly thought that they would not be “literary” enough (whatever that may mean and however foolish a sentiment that may be).

There is a lot of historical detail in the book that I trust is accurate: clothes, food, manners, some passing references to the historical figures of the day, in this case Napoleon and Wellington. But by far the most memorable part of the book is the dialogue. It will have you smiling from ear to ear if not laughing out loud. The repartee between the imperturbable Lord Carlyon and Mrs. Cheviot is masterful.

I don’t want to spoil any aspect of the plot for you. But here’s my recommendation: take a break from “serious fiction” and treat yourself to this book. You don’t even have to tell anyone; but if you are like I am, you will want to share the fun.