Review: News From Heaven by Jennifer Haigh

News From Heaven
Author: Jennifer Haigh
Published: January 29, 2013
Genre: fiction
Hardcover: 224 pages
Source: received a copy from the publisher

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis (from GoodReads): When her iconic novel Baker Towers was published in 2005, it was hailed as a modern classic--"compassionate and powerful . . . a song of praise for a too-little-praised part of America, for the working families whose toils and constancy have done so much to make the country great" (Chicago Tribune). Its young author, Jennifer Haigh, was "an expert natural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity" (New York Times).

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding--sometimes cruelly--succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming. A solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. With a revolving cast of characters--many familiar to fans of Baker Towers--these stories explore how our roots, the families and places in which we are raised, shape the people we eventually become.

My Thoughts: This collection of short stories has Jennifer Haigh revisiting the town of Bakerton, site of her wonderful novel, Baker Towers (which I read a few years ago). I loved the novel and how well Haigh wrote about small town life in a company town. While this collection of stories is based upon that novel, it is in no way necessary to read that one before picking up this book. In fact, I remembered the basic point of Baker Towers, but not much else, and was able to pick up this book and get lost with these character and their stories.

 

Since this is a collection of short stories, each chapter is devoted to one person, with all of them being linked together in some way (it becomes apparent in each chapter how they relate to other people in the book). While the times that these chapters take place in varies (some following WWII, some into the present day), there is one theme that shapes this novel: how where we come from defines us as a person. Reading about each of these individuals and the paths that they have chosen in their life, it's easy to see that our hometown can shape our view of the world, our friends, even our families. It is something that defines how we see things and respond to them, and it's not something that people realize all the time. As I read each chapter, I couldn't help but marvel at Haigh's ability to keep on hitting this theme home, making you realize how different these characters are, but how their small mining town defines them as a person.

 

Haigh is a wonderful writer and it is showcased, yet again, in this wonderful book. If I have a complaint about this book, it's that it was too short! I could have used a few more stories following the people of Bakerton, seeing how their lives played out. If you haven't read any of Jennifer Haigh's work, I insist that you do so. She is a modern author who has a way with words, never being too overextended in how she approaches subjects, yet pulling you in and making you think about things in ways that you hadn't thought of before. While this collection might not be the place to start, she has many other wonderful novels to choose from.

** This novel is participating in a TLC Book Tour. I was provided a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Please make sure to check out TLC Book Tours to see others who are hosting this book.**

Waiting On Wednesday (1-9-13)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week, you highlight an upcoming release that you are eagerly anticipating. This week, I'm looking forward to News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh (release date: January 29, 2013).

Synopsis (from GoodReads): When her iconic novel Baker Towers was published in 2005, it was hailed as a modern classic--"compassionate and powerful . . . a song of praise for a too-little-praised part of America, for the working families whose toils and constancy have done so much to make the country great" (Chicago Tribune). Its young author, Jennifer Haigh, was "an expert natural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity" (New York Times).

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding--sometimes cruelly--succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming. A solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. With a revolving cast of characters--many familiar to fans of Baker Towers--these stories explore how our roots, the families and places in which we are raised, shape the people we eventually become.News from Heaven looks unflinchingly at the conflicting human desires for escape and for connection, and explores the enduring hold of home.

I loved Baker Towers so I cannot wait to get my hands on this one! I love Haigh's writing and look forward to curling up with this one. So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Follow Friday and TGIF (3-9-12)

Happy Friday, everybody! Hope you are having a great March and that winter is gone (or nearly gone) where ever you live. Now for some Friday fun ...

Parajunkee asks:

Have you ever looked at a book's cover and thought, this is going to be horrible? But, was instead presently surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

Well, I recently finished The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It was an amazing book (I gave it 5 stars!) but the cover did nothing for me. I didn't even really want to read the book because it seemed to mostly be about baseball, and the cover didn't really grab my attention, but after hearing so much praise, I just had to pick it up.

GReads asks:

Promote An Author: Is there a particular author you wish got more recognition? Pick one author & tell us why we should read their work.

Jennifer Haigh. I read Faith and Baker Towers this summer and loved them both. I think she is a fantastic writer who covers family issues so well.

So, have you ever read a book even though the cover didn't draw you in? Which author do you think deserves more recognition? Let me know, and have a great weekend!

Faith: A Novel by Jennifer Haigh

Faith: A Novel
Author: Jennifer Haigh
Publisher: Harper
Published: May 1 2011
Hardcover: 304 pages
Source: purchased at Borders


My Rating: 4 stars


Synopsis (from amazon.com): It is the spring of 2002 and a perfect storm has hit Boston. Across the city's archdiocese, trusted priests have been accused of the worst possible betrayal of the souls in their care. In Faith, Jennifer Haigh explores the fallout for one devout family, the McGanns.
Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding relatives, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation. What she discovers is more complicated than she imagined. Her strict, lace-curtain-Irish mother is living in a state of angry denial. Sheila's younger brother Mike, to her horror, has already convicted his brother in his heart. But most disturbing of all is Art himself, who persistently dodges Sheila's questions and refuses to defend himself.
As the scandal forces long-buried secrets to surface, Faith explores the corrosive consequences of one family's history of silence—and the resilience its members ultimately find in forgiveness. Throughout, Haigh demonstrates how the truth can shatter our deepest beliefs—and restore them. A gripping, suspenseful tale of one woman's quest for the truth, Faith is a haunting meditation on loyalty and family, doubt and belief. Elegantly crafted, sharply observed, this is Jennifer Haigh's most ambitious novel to date.

My Thoughts: Dealing with one of the tough issues that plagued our nation a few years ago, Jennifer Haigh writes a novel dealing with the priest molestations that were rampant a few years ago. With such a heavy topic, it would be easy for the book to become depressing but Haigh makes it more of a mystery, leaving the reader to decide for themselves what happened between her brother Art (the priest) and Aidan (the young boy). The story is narrated by Art's sister Sheila, who gives you a little family history and then fast-forwards to the present day and follows Art's tribulations as he deals with the accusations.

Instead of focusing on whether Art is guilty or not, Sheila spends most the novel detailing how her family is affected by the events. Their brother handles it differently than their mother, who handles it differently than Sheila. It isn't so much Art's story as the McGann family story. I don't want to go into too much detail because it was such a good book. Haigh's writing is clear, her characters alive and real, the topic relevant. It's something that I think anybody would enjoy. It is not accusing the Catholic church of wrongdoing or saying that all priests are bad. But it does show how a scandal such as this can rock not only the country, but the individual families. After finishing this book and Baker Towers (link to my review), I cannot wait to read more of Haigh's work.

Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

Baker Towers
Author: Jennifer Haigh
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: January 2006
Paperback: 368 pages
Source: purchased at used book sale


My Rating: 3.5 stars


Synopsis (from goodreads.com): Bakerton is a company town built on coal, a town of church festivals and ethnic neighborhoods, hunters' breakfasts and firemen's parades. Its children are raised in company houses - three rooms upstairs, three rooms downstairs. Its ball club leads the coal company league. The twelve Baker mines offer good union jobs, and the looming black piles of mine dirt don't bother anyone. Called Baker Towers, they are local landmarks, clear evidence that the mines are booming. Baker Towers mean good wages and meat on the table, two weeks' paid vacation and presents under the Christmas tree. Born and raised on Bakerton's Polish Hill, the five Novak children come of age during wartime, a thrilling era when the world seems on the verge of changing forever. The oldest, Georgie, serves on a minesweeper in the South Pacific and glimpses life beyond Bakerton, a promising future he is determined to secure at all costs. His sister Dorothy, a fragile beauty, takes a job in Washington, D.C., and finds she is unprepared for city life. Brilliant Joyce longs to devote herself to something of consequence but instead becomes the family's keystone, bitterly aware of the opportunities she might have had elsewhere. Sandy sails through life on looks and charm, and Lucy, the volatile baby, devour's the family's attention and develops a bottomless appetite for love.


My Thoughts: I was drawn to this book because I really wanted to read Jennifer Haigh's latest novel, Faith, but since I didn't want to buy a book that I wasn't sure I would like, I thought this would be a good way to see if I liked Haigh's writing style. Well, the good news is that I really enjoyed Baker Towers and Haigh's writing style. The bad news is that I want to read more of her books!


This book is set during World War II, which really drew me to the book. It follows the 5 children of the Novak family as they grow and mature during the 1940s. With their father dead from year's of work in the local mines, the Novak children without a strong male presence in their lives and an Italian mother who married a Polish man and doesn't fit in with the rest of the Polish women in their neighborhood. The children all experience their small-town life in different yet similar ways. They all recognize that there must be something more out there, but they all all inexplicably drawn back to their home. Haigh's writing is clear and lets the story move quickly. It's descriptive without being too heavy. If there was one thing that I didn't like, it would be that towards the end, I felt like there was too much jumping around between the siblings. Instead of focusing on one sibling, each chapter would feature several of the siblings, which got to be a bit confusing. Also, Sandy was not in the book that much. I kept on wondering what was happening with him, where he was, but I guess we will never know.


If you are looking for a book set in a different time and that moves quickly, I would really recommend this book. Haigh's writing is clear and moves the story along at an enjoyable pace. After reading this, I will definitely be on the look out for more books by this author.

Waiting on Wednesday (5-4-11)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a way to highlight upcoming releases and maybe even find some more books to add to your TBR pile! My choice this week is Faith by Jennifer Haigh

Synopsis (from goodreads.com): When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself. Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows her critically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimble and The Condition with a captivating, vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief and devotion, in Faith.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?