A Trick of the Light

By Lois Metzger

Balzer + Bray, 2013

196 p.      YA

A Trick of the Light is a disturbing, but ultimately redemptive, look at the debilitating condition of anorexia. Not through the eyes at a teenage girl but through the eyes of a teenage boy. The author, Lois Metzger, says that 10 percent of the cases of anorexia are boys, although it is usually girls that are portrayed in fiction. 

Mike is a seemingly typical teenage boy, good at school and good at baseball, with one really good friend and lots of casual friends as well. However, when his parent's marriage falls apart, his security begins to crumble. He begins to hear a voice in his head telling him how to be in control and how to create a "new" Mike. The voice becomes the narrator of the story just as it becomes the narrator of Mike's life--calling all the shots, as it were. Mike becomes drawn to a strange classmate, Amber, who seems to have it all together. She teaches Mike how to control his eating, and the narrative voice tells him how to control his behavior. Both of these influences, one internal and the other external, succeed in pushing Mike until he ends up in a treatment center for anorexic teenagers. It is only then that he is able to get some perspective and find ways to mature and move forward.

Reviewers have called A Trick of the Light "raw" and "honest." It is that and more. The teenage reader will see people he/she knows in the cast of characters and some teenagers will see themselves in the tormented portrayals of Mike and Amber. Teenagers often think that they are the "only ones" who have angry, or anxious, or distressful thoughts. It will be comforting to some teenagers to know that through therapy Mike is able to move beyond his distress and find his balance again. 

The author, Lois Metzger, mentions in an interview that she felt compelled to deal with anorexia very carefully and not glamorize it in any way. She says:  "There was something I was aware of the entire time I was writing A Trick of the Light (over what turned out to be almost ten years) -- a whole culture out there that glamorizes anorexia, complete with web sites that proudly call themselves "pro-Ana."  One of my characters, Amber, is someone who sees anorexia as "a lifestyle, a choice" and not a disease.  Writing Amber was tricky.  I didn't want her to be a "trigger" (something that sets off an eating disorder in people).  I wanted readers to find her sad and lost, certainly not a role model.  I omitted particular details about anorexia for fear that readers would copy them.  That balancing act was the hardest thing -- being true to Amber as a character and letting her be herself, while not making anything she does appear desirable."

I am not sure who the ideal audience will be for this book. My husband thought that the book was about gay teenagers. And frankly, when the book arrived and I looked at the cover, I thought so too. I envisioned a boy at the school library or the local bookstore, picking up the book and looking at the picture and putting it back down again. Or buying it thinking it was about being homosexual. It takes a lot of looking to realize that the cover is about body image. Once you know, you say, "Oh, yeah. Of course."  It would take a skilled librarian to put this book into the hands of the appropriate reader. But then, of course, there are always readers who love "problem fiction," and this is an ideal book for that market as well.

Interview with Lois Metzger: http://thehidingspot.blogspot.com/2013/06/interview-lois-metzger-author-of-trick.html

Lois Metzger's website: http://www.loismetzger.com/

Fierce With Age: Chasing God and Squirrels in Brooklyn

by Carol Orsborn

Turner Publishing, 2013

244 pages     Spiritual

Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. That's the case with Fierce with Age by Dr. Carol Osborn. I have been having a few hard months. First, I turned 70; then I was working way to hard; then a dear friend died quickly and abruptly. Then I read Orsborn's memoir of a hard year she had after she turned sixty, and I found sustenance and the will to move beyond the restlessness that has been plaguing my days and nights. Orsborn is an expert on the "baby boomer" generation and the author of several self-help books.

Orsborn describes a year in her life through entries much like a diary. She is on the "wild side" of sixty when a job change causes the couple to move from Los Angeles to New York. She left behind her work, which was waning anyway, and found herself at loose ends and feeling very old. At first she rages against the concept of "ageism" and loses her spiritual footing. Then slowly, she finds herself becoming spiritually whole again and ready to move on fiercely. She says that she is "surprisingly re-energized about who I am becoming, and fiercely curious about what lies ahead."

But becoming "fierce with age" doesn't come easily to Orsborn, and apparently it is not coming easily to me. We see Orsborn's progress through the year from a bout of self-pity to the moment when she rages against God and comes to the spiritual understanding that while she is not about to give up, she is at a new stage in her life's journey. And like most women, she feels like she is on this journey on her own with very little guidance.

The Publisher's Weekly reviewer suggests that this is not "naval gazing" but a rich description of what most thoughtful women of a certain age experience. Before her year is over, she has developed 11 spiritual truths of aging, some guiding principles that she wishes to convey to others moving past middle age. I particularly like number five which says, "We can dance with rather than struggle against the essence of who we are."

"But I now understood, not just intellectually nor even just emotionally, but in the very depths of my mortal soul, that it was not only my destiny but also everybody else's to die someday. I would not, could not, make peace with aging until I had come to terms with the finitude of existence, including the possibility of suffering and the guarantee of death, none of which were likely to be on my own terms."

Nearly everything Orsborn struggled with resonated with me. Last night my husband and I were discussing her book and we mentioned how people--like servers or store clerks--now view us as old, when, in fact, we forget that we look that way. It is always a shock to be treated with deference to our age.

A year ago, I had the opportunity to work with a major children's publisher on a large project, which lasted for four months. It was a very exciting gig for me and extremely satisfying. At one point I mentioned to the 30-something woman who was running the project that I hoped I was being useful. "Oh." she said. "It is wonderful to have you in the group! You know the backlist so well." meaning that I knew all the old books. A back-handed compliment if I ever heard one.

I was inspired when Orsborn detailed the moments when her focus changed from fighting against the aging process to being inspired by the process. She vividly describes the moment when she realized that "...life is mysterious, awe-some and awe-ful all at once. Can we be wise enough to embrace it all?" That is what I want to do. Embrace the mystery. Live to the fullest with grace and wisdom.

Carol Orsborn's website, aptly called "Fierce with Age." http://fiercewithage.com/

The Publishers Weekly review: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-62045-375-9

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce

 Random House  2012

343 pages     Fiction

About five years ago, a 65-year-old acquaintance of mine announced that he was going to walk home to Kalamazoo from Sneedville, Tennessee, where he had been on a mission trip. He proposed that he would write daily journal entries which he would email to friends, and then he would write a book when he got home. What he didn't anticipate was that his feet would become raw and bloody, and he would become so exhausted about two weeks into the 300+ mile journey that when someone offered  him a ride and dropped him off at home, he accepted the offer. It was a pilgrimage quite similar to that of Harold Fry. Unlike Harold, my friend's feet got the best of him. 

I thought often of my friend as I was reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Harold is the product of a loveless home and is in a loveless marriage. Newly retired, he doesn't know what to do with himself. His wife, bereft because their son has abandoned them, cleans the house incessantly. Life has become meaningless to both of them. When Harold receives a letter from a former co-worker Queenie announcing that she is dying of cancer, it is the culmination of all the ills in his life. He tries to mail her a letter but he can't bring himself to do it. He passes three post boxes until he finds himself at the edge of town. He begins to walk toward Queenie, in shirt, tie, and yacht shoes, and he doesn't stop. He calls the hospice where Queenie is spending her last days--600 miles from where he lives--and tells the nurse to tell Queenie not to die until he gets there. "I will keep walking, and she will just keep living." 

His walk, then, becomes a pilgrimage. He is on a journey to save, not just Queenie, but himself. It is the most audacious thing he has done in his life. As he journeys, he mulls over the choices he made in his life: the timidity with which he parented his son; the wedge that came between his wife and him; the fear that heralded his days and nights. He finds strength and joy in the mundane of "putting one foot in front of another," and in the final culminating moments of the book, the courage to make amends and find purpose for the rest of his life. In the end, Maureen, his wife, joins him as he visits Queenie, who has indeed stayed alive long enough for him to arrive. Maureen says, "You dear man. You got up, and you did something. And if trying to find a way when you don't even know you can get there isn't a small miracle; then I don't know what is."

In reading the reviews of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, I discovered a new word--twee. I had to look it up; it means something overly cute, delicate, small or corny. The reviewers in the New York Times and the Washington Post both used this word, but they used it to say that in describing the book, it sounds "twee," but in fact, the book is anything but twee. The Washington Post reviewer says that instead, the book is "steely, even inspiring, the kind of quirky book you want to shepherd into just the right hands." That may be why I liked it so much. It made me incredibly sad, because at this point in my life, I understand Harold's need to be and to do something profound. It also made me sad because it is so easy for long-term marriages to fall into the kind of monotony that assails Harold and Maureen. 

The Blog Critic reviewer mentions that Rachel Joyce is a screenwriter,

and she has an eye for character--a cast of characters who are all too realistic next to Harold’s quasi-spiritual pilgrimage. "While everyone else wants to sanctify him we begin to see him in a new light—a light which shows his human failings while only making him more endearing to the reader." The reviewer also reminds us that this is a quest novel in the tradition of the Odyssey or Huckleberry Finn, or Marilynn Robinson's Gilead, which I read a couple of years ago.

Most of us are on a pilgrimage to be true to ourselves and to the source of our hope. That was what my friend was trying to do when he journeyed home from a mission. That is what I do as I tell my grandchildren stories of my childhood, stories of my family. That is what we do when we "put one foot in front of the other" and keep moving through life as joyfully as we possibly can.

The review on Blog Critics: http://blogcritics.org/book-review-the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of/

The New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/books/the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry-by-rachel-joyce.html?_r=0

The Washington Post review: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-07-24/entertainment/35488867_1_harold-joyce-post-office

Rachel Joyce:s website: http://www.racheljoycebooks.com/

Blood Pressure Down

by Janet Bond Brill

 Three Rivers Press, 2013

338 pages     Nonfiction

The Shortlist

Blood Pressure Down is another book about losing five pounds, eating more valuable foods like bananas and spinach, and exercising, although this time the book is about lowering your blood pressure. High blood pressure is not one of my physical problems, although I am eating less, eating mineral-rich foods and exercising more for other ailments that happen at my age. I still found the book valuable. I didn't know as much as I should about magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Brill, who has a PhD in nutrition, has a personal stake in getting people's blood pressure down; several members of her family have died from ailments related to high blood pressure.

This is a very clearly written guide to lowering blood pressure. It talks a lot about vitamins and minerals that aid in lowering blood pressure--magnesium, potassium and calcium in particular. It encourages the reader to cut the salt out of his/her diet and take Vitamin D3, CoQ10, Omega 3 fish oil, and low-sodium vegetable juice. It suggests a blood pressure reducing diet, and an exercise plan. Included are several good recipes and meal plans.

The best advice, I think, is to drink one glass of red wine every day and eat one to two squares of dark chocolate. This I can do!  Everything in Blood Pressure Down is very clearly stated, logical, and relatively easy to follow. Her message is this: “High blood pressure is the most preventable cause of premature morbidity and mortality in the United States and the world, and that lifestyle therapy is the cornerstone of treatment of the disease.” Her simple message is this: 

 1. Lose five pounds
2. Cut the salt out of your diet
3. Eat bananas
4. Eat spinach
5. Eat yogurt

This book came to me from the publicist. I can recommend it to readers who are struggling with blood pressure.

A Case of Redemption

 by Adam Mitzner

Gallery Books    2013

322 pages     Fiction

We expect three things out of a legal thriller--twists, turns, and drama. We expect that the lawyer will be smart and intuitive, and that he will be compassionate and willing to take on the unwinnable case. We expect that the lawyer will be great in the courtroom. We also expect that the lawyer will not be living an ordinary life. Oh, and we also expect some beautiful woman will cause romantic problems for the lawyer. Those are some of the makings of a good legal thriller.

All of these are at play in Adam Mitzner's new novel, A Case of Redemption. Dan Sorenson had just become a partner in a prestigious New York Law firm, when his life is shattered by the death of his wife and young daughter in a car accident. He descends into a stupor of grief and alcohol from which he cannot seem to emerge, so he takes a leave of absence from the firm. He is drawn back to work by a young lawyer named Nina who wants him to defend a rapper named Legally Dead. LD, as he is known, is accused of killing his girlfriend, who is an up-and-coming pop star. The weapon seems to be a baseball bat given to the pop star when she sang the national anthem at a baseball game. 

Nina drags Dan out of his drunken state and they begin to create a defense for a man who from every standpoint appears to be guilty. Slowly Dan finds himself coming back to life. He also finds that his emotional recovery seems to be dependent upon a growing romance with Nina and the innocence of LD. Of course, all is not as it  seems, and the conclusion of A Case of Redemption is especially surprising and catastrophic.

Mitzner does a particularly good job of making us sympathize with Dan's emotional turmoil. The hell he descends into at the death of his family is laden with guilt because he feels that he had devoted himself too much to his work before the car accident and not given his family enough attention. Even the lure of the beautiful Nina doesn't completely assuage him of his grief. I like that Mitzner understands the nature of grief--its ability to come and go--and how often guilt gets mixed up in grief. Dan is a totally believable character; his grief is painful to read about. 

The other well-realized character in the book, Nina, is another story. We think that we know her, but there are parts of her that just don't ring true. I rather liked this element in the plot; it's like your doubts about her give you an inside track to the solution to the puzzle. She does a great job of motivating Dan to come back to his career, but you still have an uneasy feeling about the whole relationship thing. Something's just not right.

Do you have to be a lawyer to write a good legal thriller? I rather think so, because the pacing of the trial is crucial to the plot of a legal thriller. Mitzner is particularly adept at keeping the reader on edge during the trial. His other book, A Conflict of Interest, which came out in 2011, was equally well paced. I expect that we will see more books featuring Dan Sorenson, when he comes back from his self-imposed exile on the beautiful island of St. Martin.

A good review in Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/adam-mitzner/case-of-redemption/

The review in the New York Journal of Books: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/case-redemption

 Another lawyer thriller that you might like would be Defending Jacob by William Landay.