Literary Fiction | Book Chatter

Burn
By Peter Heller
Knopf, 9780593801628, August 2024, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

A stark warning to a divided country.

The Rest of It:

I’ve read a few books by Heller and all of them have left me a little speechless. All powerful, all a bit unsettling but this one, wow, I gotta take a moment.

In Burn, Storey and Jess start their annual hunting trip as they always do, except as they hike through Maine, they come across some alarming things. Maine is in the throes of secession and as they come across each town, they see the horrible devastation of what’s left behind. Evidence of a burn, evidence of attack. None of it good. As they make their way across the country, they begin to wonder what has happened back at home. Are their families safe? Surely, help would have been sent.

They quickly realize that their goal is simply survival, and getting back home but the enemy is not clear cut. They can’t tell secessionists from the military and everyone is fighting for supplies. As the journey continues, food is scarce, and mechanisms for getting home are scarce too. Boats? Not in the greatest shape and too obvious on the water. By foot? Long. Too long. They witness horrible things. No one can be trusted. They are on their own.

Enter a lost little girl.

Still unsure if there is even anything to go back to, home seems like such an elusive thing but then here is this girl, only six years old, desperately wanting to be with her parents. Are they even alive? How has she survived so far? Worried about their own survival but unable to leave a child to fend for herself in this bombed-out world, they take her on and their mission changes.

This story is bleak. There is little hope and honestly, it felt a little exhausting to be on this journey with Storey and Jess. All of the “what ifs” kept going through my mind . What would happen today if something like this happened? Could it? I feel as if it absolutely can which made it even more difficult to read.

Heller’s writing here is a warning. A warning that a divided country cannot win. How do you feel about that? I read this alongside my 1984 (read-along) and man, it put me in a dark place. And I kid you not, as I was typing this out, I received a phone call from the UNITED STATES. Probably spam but chilling. Like, hello, your country is calling you!

Ahem, If you love Heller, you will also appreciate this book but it’s bleak. You should know that going in. Lots to consider here. Would make a good discussion book.

Source: Borrowed
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Like Mother, Like Mother
By Susan Rieger
Dial Press, 9780525512493, October 2024, 336 pp.

The Short of It:

Mothers and daughters and the hard places in between.

The Rest of It:

“Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has–brains, charm, talent, blond hair–Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind–until he does.” ~ from the publisher.

Like Mother, Like Mother is an amazing read. The first half of the book is mostly about Lila and her rise to editorial glory. She is a powerhouse. She knows how to ask a question, knows how to get the story and her energy seems endless. But being successful comes with a trade-off. She told her husband Joe early on that if they had kids, they would mostly be his. His to raise, his.

This is absolutely the case. Grace and her two sisters did okay without Lila in their lives, because Joe was an amazing father. As the girls grew into women, it became clear, especially to Grace that Lila was a different kind of person. Not exactly dismissive of her children, but that she didn’t really know HOW to be a mother to them. Look at her own childhood. Lila’s own mother, was committed to an asylum but then disappeared. Could she have intentionally left her children to that horrible abusive man? Yes.

The story unfolds slowly as Grace begins to dabble in DNA testing. As you can imagine, this uncovers a few surprises. I liked how the author set this book amidst political upheaval but used a different President to illustrate society on the cusp of falling apart. So there is constant tension as Lila must endure a brutal political season before retirement.

This book is absolutely about mothers and daughters but really it’s about relationships. Lila’s upbringing affects her marriage, it affects Grace’s opinion of marriage and motherhood. The people they interact with and befriend are also affected by these relationships. What’s interesting is that although Lila really does her children wrong, I still had empathy for her because she didn’t have it in her to be the mom they needed and she knew it right from the start.

To Grace though, attending White House dinners over dinner with your own kids just doesn’t sit right. She wanted the mom that baked cookies and attended parent teacher conferences. Not the glittering, multi-faceted Lila. But what can you do? You can’t choose your own mother.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a little high brow, but deep and with plenty of flawed characters. I was pulled right into the story from the first few pages. You can’t say that about too many books. It would be a wonderful book to discuss in book club.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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