I have only two books yet to read to meet the 2014 Century of Books goal – one for 1933 and one for 1983 – so it looks like (fates allowing) I will be finishing it under my personal deadline of December 31st – for a bit there I had my doubts! Then it’ll be back to reading-at-random, and I have a rather nice must-find/must-read list developing. Loads of memoirs and biographies, and of course a goodly smattering of mid-20th Century middlebrow fiction, as well as some promising 19th Century things.
Without further ado, here’s another assortment of opinions and summations on Century books needing reviews to qualify them for the project. Abandoning all attempts at themed presentation, and in no particular order, just as they come off the pile. The scanner is on for cover pictures, and here we go.
The Motive on Record by Dell Shannon ~ 1982. This edition: William Morrow & Co., 1982. Hardcover. 189 pages.
My rating: 7/10
A fairly standard police procedural by the prolific Elizabeth Linington, who penned something like 40 murder investigation novels featuring Lieutenant Luis Mendoza of the Los Angeles Police Department. She started with these in 1960; The Motive on Record is (I believe) number 33 or thereabouts. (She also wrote numerous murder/suspense novels under her own name, as well as under a second pseudonym, Lesley Egan.)
The books follow a sequential, chronological pattern, though it seems to me as though time perhaps works a bit differently in Shannon’s fictional world, for though 22 years of “real time” have passed between Mendoza’s first appearance and this book, he seems to have aged hardly at all, and his wee children whom I remember from much earlier books are still very young. If I really cared I would investigate further as to whether this tale was supposed to be set in the 1980s when it was published, or if it is meant to be set back in the 1960s. It reads like a book from an earlier era than the 80s, though some of the slang the author uses seems to place it later. For example, much offhand talk about “f*gs” in reference to homosexual men. Curious and repellant from a 2014 standard, I found, much as I like this writer in a general way.
Anyway, Mendoza and his fellow LAPD investigators tackle an ambitious number of suspicious deaths and other criminal activities. A murderous child rapist stalks a peaceful neighbourhood, an elderly woman and two children are found slumped dead in a church pew, an elderly fortune teller catches a knife to the chest, a missing drug dealer shows up on (not in) an elevator, a quiet postal worker turns up naked and dead behind a warehouse though his half-empty letter basket has been neatly returned to the mail hub, Vietnamese immigrants fall fatally afoul of their neighbours due to different dietary customs, and a clever pair of robbers successfully scoop several theatres’ door receipts on their busiest nights. And more.
All of the problems are eventually solved; just another few weeks down at the station…
Mendoza’s “quirks” include a customized Ferrari which he drives to work, and a quartet of Siamese cats, as well as a palatial dwelling outside of the city, complete with a small flock of grass-controlling sheep (the Five Graces) and ponies for the children.
Nasty murders aside, this is a mild sort of thing for the genre. Probably most appealing to those who’ve started out at the beginning of the sequence; much of the narrative assumes a prior acquaintance with the main characters.
The Silk Vendetta by Victoria Holt ~ 1987. This edition: Doubleday, 1987. Hardcover. 345 pages.
My rating: 5.5/10
An utterly stereotypical gothic romance concerning a young woman with mysterious antecedents living in a stately English home.
Beautiful Lenore lives with her grandmother in a separate suite of rooms in Silk House, home base of the wealthy silk manufacturer-merchant family, the Sallongers. Grandmother designs dresses, while Lenore shares a schoolroom and meals with the Sallonger daughters, though the servants sneer at her relentlessly, and the family matriarch obviously despises her. She’s definitely not viewed as an equal to the “young ladies”, but neither is she a servant. What’s it all about, I’m sure we’re meant to wonder. No points for figuring out that “someone” was begotten on the wrong side of the blankets, as it were. Or is she really legitimate? A fortune may ride on the answer…
Both Sallonger sons are attracted to beautiful Lenore, with very different motives towards her. The obligatory near-rape scene pays homage to the gothic novel tradition, as does the doomed marriage Lenore undertakes, before finding herself a safe haven enclosed by muscular manly arms.
I’m rather ashamed to say I read this with no qualms at all; it’s utter crap but also acceptably diverting, for those times when one doesn’t want to have one’s intellect or emotions ruffled. The writing is quite decent for this sort of thing, though the plot is completely standard issue. To be read on auto-pilot, while sipping a soothing cup of tea after a tiresome day. If all else fails, you can claim you’re reading it ironically, or perhaps just doing “research” for your book blog…
The honest verdict? Not particularly recommended. There’s better out there. (But in a pinch it would suffice.)
Love by Elizabeth von Arnim ~ 1925. This edition: Virago, 1988. Softcover. ISBN: 0-86068-941-7. 408 pages.
My rating: 9.75/10
One of von Arnim’s “serious” novels, and one which deserves a much more detailed discussion. I suspect I’ll be returning to it in future.
Middle-aged widow Catherine attracts the besotted notice of much-younger Christopher. He proposes marriage, to the dismay of everyone in their joint circles, and Catherine eventually accepts.
The question at the heart of the novel why is it completely acceptable for a very young woman to be married to a much older man (vis-à-vis Catherine’s own 19-year-old daughter’s recent marriage to a 49-year-old clergyman) and so socially dire for the opposite to be true.
Catherine’s second marriage soon encounters rocky ground, and, as she desperately tries to keep up a youthful appearance both for her husband’s and her own sake, much deep discussion on the nature of “Love” itself ensues. A favourite topic of von Arnim’s, and as seriously treated here as it was frivolously mauled about in The Enchanted April.
The ending is one of the best I’ve yet read by this particular writer; she doesn’t let us down as she sometimes does with her romantically tidy conclusions, but gives us something to consider most thoughtfully.
Jalna by Mazo de la Roche ~ 1927. This edition: Macmillan, 1977. Hardcover. ISBN: 333-02528-8. 290 pages.
My rating: 5.5/10
This dramatically romantic novel by a young Canadian writer won a literary prize of $10,000 upon its publication nearly a century ago: an astonishing amount for the time, equivalent to something like $132,000 in today’s currency. (I looked that bit up using a handy-dandy inflation-indexed currency converter I found online.)
Spurred on by her success, Mazo de la Roche went on to write another fifteen Ontario-set installments in the Whiteoaks family saga, creating something of a literary cottage industry of sequential books, assorted editions and collections, and theatrical, radio and filmed productions for the next fifty years.
I was well aware of this novel and its reputation as an iconic bit of literary Canadiana, but I hadn’t actually read it until this year.
My verdict: I’m not stacking up the other 15 on my night table for essential reading, though I might possibly poke my nose into another one if the mood feels right. I do have a number of them stashed away, found at a library book sale some years ago. I gave them to my mother, and she returned them with not much comment, which should have been a bit of a tip-off.
No hurry on the others, though. Jalna was not particularly compelling. In fact, only okayish is as far as I’m willing to commit myself on this one.
The plot in a nutshell: Wealthy matriarch Adeline Whiteoak is approaching her 100th birthday, and her various offspring and descendants circle round her angling for her slightly senile blessing.
One grandson unpopularily marries a local girl, by-blow of the man who once unsuccessfully courted one of Adeline’s daughters, while another brings home an American bluestocking. Both brides soon come to think that perhaps they have chosen the wrong brothers. The eldest of Adeline’s grandsons, broodingly charismatic, ceaselessly womanizing and still-single Renny, catches the eye of the American wife, while her spouse in turn dallies with his brother’s bride. Much chewing of the scenery ensues, helped along by the unmarried members of the family, Adeline’s two elderly sons and her much-past-her-prime passive-aggressive daughter.
Absolute soap opera. Think a low-rent Gone With the Wind, sans Civil War and southern drawls and a horribly likeable heroine, but with similar over-the-top romantic heart-throbbings and dirty little secrets. (Perhaps not really the best comparison, but it was what popped into my mind. It’s not really like GWTW at all. Perhaps Mazo de la Roche does stand alone.)
And there’s an elderly parrot, and a cheeky young boy, to provide much-needed levity, though not enough to ultimately save this overwrought thing from itself.
Leaves & Pages 
Okay, a couple of comments (because I should really befinishing the Christmas baking).
Jalna… did we talk about this earlier, or was it some other blog? As a teenager and in early 20s, I read, loved and bought (many were quite old editons) every single one. Read them several times. In order. Adored them then. But I know they belong to the past, and I’d rather remember them than reread them (though they are still on the quilting room shelves). And though I spent some part of my life living not very far from the original inspiration for the house, I had to admit the set-up was more English than Canadian.
Victoria Holt. I read a LOT of her, until one book (don’t know which one) where the hero and the rapist were one and the same person. (May this one?) Apparently we were supposed to accept that because he drugged her before engaging in non-consensual sex, that made it All Right.
That was the end of her for me.
🙂 Ah, yes. Christmas baking. I was going to finish up today, but we went to town instead. Luckily the lebkuchen dough can wait in the fridge until tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day we will finish everything we meant to do today. Or so my family assures me. Not quite sure when everything I meant to do tomorrow will get done. So here I am instead “just checking for a minute” on the computer!
So – Jalna. It might have been here that we discussed these – I seem to recall us talking about Mazo de la Roche at one point. I previously thought that I had read it (Jalna) way back when, but when I *did* read it just recently, it was all new to me, and I usually remember these things, so perhaps it was one of the other books in the series.Or possibly an excerpt? An anthology of Canadian fiction is seeming to ring a bell – excerpts from novels and so forth – I’ll bet that was it.
I’ve heard that Jalna, despite its enthusiastic reception, is not the best of this series. Doesn’t it fall in place midway in the sequence, with M de la R writing prequels and sequels as she further developed the saga?
A very “English” set-up – you’re right. Though the Canadian “gentlemen” do on occasion engage in the physical labour of the estate alongside their hired help, so perhaps that is a “colonial” trait.
I can see the appeal of the Jalna books, for at one time at a younger age I might well have thought this marvelous too. But maybe I’ve now read so much, and have raised the bar a bit? Or maybe not, considering some of the schlock I quite happily consume.
Like Victoria Holt.
This wasn’t the one where the rapist was the hero – very much the opposite. And it was only attempted rape in this novel, but it was very explicit that if the hero hadn’t happened by that the worst would have happened. The whole romance/sex thing in these books is decidedly off kilter from the real world. The least appealing part, really. I most enjoyed the growing-up-on-the-grand-estate bits, and the interaction between Lenore and her companions, and the working out of the “mystery” of her origins.
The scenario you describe is awful. But I can see Holt tweaking things so it would “work” for her purposes. And you’re right – that is going beyond the acceptable, even for this genre. Even the threatened rape in The Silk Vendetta put the story into another category – no longer a “cozy” gothic, but into actual “bodice ripper” territory – a real distinction as one can have a perfectly good gothic romance *without* actual events of sexual danger. (Though those possibilities are usually implied, aren’t they? Hmmm…)
I have never met anyone else who reads Dell Shannon! My parents had a lot of her novels I think from a mystery of the month club or something like that. I loved them as a teenager, they were the first books I read that featured a Latino character, and I really enjoyed the interweaving stories of the officers’ families (all the stay at home wives 😉 I started collecting them again a few years ago and was more troubled by some of the elements like as you as say the homophobia. But I guess because I read these so many years ago and so often they really are part of my literary DNA.
I have a great big stack of Dell Shannons which I’ve accumulated over the years – they are reasonably easy to come by and I quite like them in limited quantities – I can read two or three at most in a row and then need to step aside. They were definitely book club favourites.
It’s one great big story, really, as you say very interwoven. The actual crime detection is very matter-of-factly portrayed, and Mendoza has a certain amount of “Wait! I have a hunch!” in his technique which is sometimes too good to be true, but all in all these are well thought out and rather appealing.
They are somewhat dated. The stay-at-home wives, the whole his world/her world/constant friction between the expectations of the sexes, though to be fair some of the marriages are strong and equal. And it’s not so much “homophobia”, I think, as it is a reflection of the language of the day. Much description of people’s ethnicity, including the shades of darkness of the skin of non-Caucasians, but of course in a police sense these sorts of things are crucial – descriptions need to be hyper-detailed. And the homosexual references are very matter of fact, and fit in with the inquiry at hand – *could* the character in question have been murdered by a male lover etc etc? – which is as valid as the inquiry about a female corpse as to if she could have been killed by her sexual partner.
These aren’t “great” books, but they are definitely “good” ones, especially for their strong sense of place and the interplay between the various long-term characters. Like those Siamese cats a lot, too! (Another period reference – weren’t Siamese very trendy pets in the 1960s & 70s?)
Edited to add that the Caucasian characters are described in detail regarding skin colour, hair and so on – not just the non-“white” people. Everyone gets the once-over equally. 🙂
Growing up in a small town, I found the ethnic diversity fascinating and as you say, the “once over equality.” she’s quite insistent that there are good people of every color and nationality. Though she has very little toleration for the hippies of the 1960s! I reread the Christmas ones around this time of year, when I feel drawn to Christmas-themed mysteries.
She’s remarkably fair-minded, with, as you say, a few exceptions. I go through stages in my life of binge-reading mysteries; haven’t done this for some time, as there are so many other books coming at me from every direction, but I’m sure it will all come around again, and I’m very happy to have my shelf of Dell Shannon waiting for the right time for re-reading.
Great review, as always. Really made me chuckle. I haven’t read any of these, though I’ve always meant to read Mazo de la Roche. Sounds like I don’t need to bother. Phew. Congratulations on completing the challenge and good luck with the baking etc.
I think you could safely pass these by. 🙂
Well done you on the century! I have decided to give myself a leisurely 2 years, so will start properly filling in the blanks and hunting out publication years in Jan. The Jalna books used to be a feature of every 2nd hand bookshop or charity shop in the UK, always a row of them. Never looked at them, must try one day.
Two years is probably much more sensible. One could easily spend a year on each decade, really, which would give loads of scope to really explore books-by-era as well as leave leeway for other reading. So ten years would complete the century. Hmmm…probably shouldn’t even start to think of that possibility!
I remember the Jalna books being everywhere for years, but come to think of it the supply may be drying up as the last of the libraries purge their shelves. I’m starting to notice them in the “collectible” sections here and there, with the prices climbing exponentially. I seem to remember getting my stack for 10 cents each at a library discard sale, because I took the whole box full. I believe a few in the series are missing, but I have most of them in the same edition as the one pictured. Very tattered, most of them; they were definitely in demand by library patrons of the past. Including my mother, as her name is on the cards of all of the ones I acquired!
Hi Barb,
I recently came across your blog via the Persephone Biannually and am fascinated by the variety of tittles you’ve dug up and got through, as well as the snapshots of BC which is on my travel wish-list.. I have just started a review blog, Wandering Pen Reviews, inspired by my Creative Writing degree course at Edge Hill Uni. in England. So far it’s mostly contemporary things but I’m going to branch out soon into others of my choice, beginning with Persephone re-print ‘The Happy Tree’. Have you read it? I strongly recommend it for its quiet beauty and understatement. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Thank you for the kind words. I do hope you make it to BC one day – it is indeed a wonderful place.
I’ve been reading your blog posts – very nice! – and look forward to reading more of your reviews in the future.
I have not yet read ‘The Happy Tree’, but your recommendation intrigues me. One to search out. 🙂
Happy Christmas to you as well, and may the new year bring you much joy!
Thank you for the encouragement, I’m looking forward to writing more in the coming months. The year will surely have lots of stories in store for us both!
I was amused by Moira’s comment. Almost from the start the series did much better in England than Canada, a curious fact that Lovat Dickson sought to explain:
“The Whiteoak books represent the idealized portrait of Canada, which all English people have. Life is hardly ever painful at Jalna. It’s comfortable, it’s exciting, there are domestic dramas going on. I think that Englishmen like to believe that anywhere abroad life goes on as it used to go on in England. We always like to think that life for our parents must have been wonderful and life for us is horrid. Englishmen reading about the Whiteoaks think that life is lived that way now, and we know that life is not lived that way in England – or in Canada.”
A decade or two ago I found a nice first edition of Jalna (sans jacket) for a dollar at a church bazar. I’ve been moving it around, unread, ever since. I’ll read it one day, I suppose, but I can’t see that day coming soon.
I think Lovat Dickson may have nailed it. Life is (was) not lived that way anywhere! Pure fantasy, if of a slightly plodding sort.
You should read Jalna, Brian, if only to be then able to re-shelve it forevermore, mild curiosity satisfied. I would love to read your review of it, by the way.
I hugely enjoy your blog, so am thrilled to see a comment over here on mine. 🙂 I would comment more on yours, but Blogger tends to have a hard time with my comments – they too often disappear into the ether so I now tend to mutter “Later, later…” to myself when moved to add something and then of course “later” finds me elsewhere, with the moment completely lost.
Thank you for the many smiles you have provided this past year. And I’m curious: how did the Vancouver Aquarium cookbook salmon casserole actually turn out? Shades of tuna-noodle casserole in high school Home Ec class back in the late 1970s – that was the day we all inexplicably had to rush away at noon hour when we were invited to stay and partake of our cooking project. I was the slowest out the door so was forced to sample some, which I did out of sheer politeness only. Similar recipes bring back old memories , and I commend you for your bravery. 😉 (But perhaps I’ve been missing out on a secret gourmet delight all these years?)
Thank you for the very kind words; it’s nice to know I’ve raised a smile or two. I promise to read Jalna sometime in the New Year and report back.
Regarding that casserole, my wife would caution that I’m not the best cook. That said, I did follow the instructions to a T, so will let my advice on improving the dish stand. It was easy enough – and for me, sadly, ease is the key factor when it comes to cooking.
Looking forward to reading more of your blog in 2015!
Brian: thanks for that explanation of why the books were so much a feature of Brit life…. raised a smile or 2 with me too….
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