Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey #1949Club

 

🧩 After having finished Brat Farrar, I realized that had I read this book before Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree, I might have appreciated this book more. The main plot of both books are the same - one member of a family was missing or disappeared without explanation. And then, years later, someone came claiming to be the missing person. It is the question of 'was he or was he not' is the central element behind the mystery/thriller. In this aspect, The Ivy Tree is superior than Brat Farrar, since we are never sure whether the 'prodigal child' was genuine or an impostor, until near the end. And that was what made The Ivy Tree such a gripping thriller. Unfortunately, in Brat Farrar, we know from the beginning that Brat Farrar is not Patrick Ashby. Hence, the book only deals with what has become of Patrick Ashby, who everyone had assumed he's committed suicide - was it suicide or....?

🧩 The Ashbys are an English country-squire family in a village called Clare. Resided in the family estate of Latchetts are Beatrice "Bee" Ashby (Aunt Bee), a spinster of fifties, Simon Ashby - the twin brother of Patrick, Eleanor - Simon and Patrick's sister, and two twin siblings. Patrick Ashby disappeared when the twins were teenagers; leaving a note that could be assumed as suicide note. Fast forward to present time, enter Brat Farrar. Brat is a foundling, who had just come back to England from America, when a stranger called him: Simon! He was an Alec Loding, old friend of Simon and Patrick Ashby. Brat's resemblance with the twin was uncanny, and that gave Loding a crazy idea, and in turn he presented Brat with a crazy proposition - that of being an impersonator. Patrick Ashby - had he been alive, would very soon be coming of age, and would inherit Latchetts. Loding, a poor second-rate actor, saw it as a chance to enrich himself by half of the proceeds.
🧩 Of course, Brat Farrar succumbed to temptation and agreed to the scheme. I won't reveal what happened next, since the process is half of the book's attraction. Suffice to say, that the whole plot is between 'is he going to fool them all?' and 'what's really happened to Patrick?' Of course, there should be crime committed, and to be honest, it's not a mystery at all. We could see from the beginning what's what. It's just fun to follow what would happen next, and how it would all resolve to at the end. 🧩 Like I said earlier, the idea is brilliant. But I wished the plot twist is more twisting and shocking than that. Like, I have been guessing that from the beginning, and just needed to know the way it had been accomplished. Entertaining? Very; but gripping? Well, maybe only twenty percent.... Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

The 1949 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, translated by Robert van Gulik #1949Club

 

💛 Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, or Dee Goong An, was Robert van Gulik's first attempt to bring an 18th century Chinese detective novel by Anonymous writer, to Western canon. The main character in the detective novel (Judge Dee) was actually inspired by a real Dynasty Tang's statesman and detective in 7th century called Di Renjie. Why did van Gulik chose this novel in particular to be translated, while there were a lot of other Chinese detective novels? It's because, unlike Western detective novel readers, who loved fast-paced mystery while keep wondering whodunnit until near the end, ancient Chinese readers liked their detective novels to be long and full of detailed facts and technical procedure of the laws and detection. Moreover, they also devoured the gruesome details of the brutal punishment to the criminal - something that we won't have stomach to read through. These would result in a boring and distasteful read when translated. Judge Dee, meanwhile, was the shortest and most nicely-paced that van Gulik had found. He would, later on, continue writing his own historical mysteries about Judge Dee in a series (which I plan to read through).

💛 Celebrated Cases opened with Judge Dee starting his duty as new magistrate in a small town. He was always accompanied by his four faithful and trusted assistants. The magistrate was like a father of the people in a district, thus Judge Dee's duty stretched to not only solving lawful cases, but also imparting justice to the wronged. On his first court, an innkeeper reported the accusation from his rival that he had murdered two silk merchants who had been staying at his inn. This was the first case in this book, which is called "The Double Murder at Dawn". There were three cases in total; however, interestingly, the investigations were running simultaneously by Judge Dee. Thus, when Judge Dee, during investigation of the Double Murder, put a disguise as a doctor, his first "patient" was an old woman who sought medicine for her dumb granddaughter - the case of which happened after the rather mysterious death of her husband (no foul play detected; no blood, no injury, but for his bulging eyes). Judge Dee's suspicion made it a case number two: "The Strange Corpse". During court session for the second case (or was it the first? I forgot), another case was brought in front the judge: a bride who had been poisoned on her wedding day; hence the case was titled "The Poisoned Bride". 

💛 I won't go into details of each case, but only want to highlight the different approach of investigation and detection in Celebrated Cases from the usual detective novels of Western canon. First of all, we (the Judge and us readers) know or highly suspected the murderers from quite early stage (at least for the first and third cases - the second was the most puzzling, though the solution was ingeniously simple); therefore, Judge Dee's main tasks were to, a) force a confession from the criminals, and b) deduct how the murder had been committed. The first he achieved by either threat, or persuasion, or - and here is an aspect we never find in Western canon detective novels, but highly liked by Chinese readers - physical tortures. The latter provides gruesome aspect to the book.
💛 The second feature that we might never find in Western detective novels, is the punishment of the criminals. The crime novels we read are mostly ended when the crime was solved - a few might mention that the criminal is about to be hanged, or imprisoned. For us, justice has been administrated. But Chinese readers at that time liked to "watch" - albeit from reading the story - how the punishment was performed in detail, and how the criminal suffered from it; as if that was the climax - the avenging of the crime - rather than the solving of a mystery. The third aspect is maybe typical of Asian culture (and literature) - and we have found the same in 18th century Western crime novels - the involvement of supernatural element during the investigation. What annoyed me most about the first case, The Double Murder at Dawn, is the way Judge Dee "consulted" with supernatural beings in solving the murder - he even "ask" the deceased's ghost to help or lighten him about his unnatural death. And that made this case to be my least favorite.

💛 The best mystery in this book is undoubtedly The Strange Corpse; that is a brilliantly plotted murder that would baffles many inferior investigators. Although that's also the case with most gruesome torture of the stories. The Poisoned Bride, however, is my favorite. It is simple, but with genius solution that will reminded you to one of Agatha Christie's short stories - you know, when she's playfully pulling your leg. All in all, this was an interesting, rather than entertaining, read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

The 1949 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker #1949Club

✨ My knowledge of Josephine Baker had been hitherto, that she was a famous dancer in the Roaring Twenties era. In Midnight in Paris movie - which I have watched at least three times), she was portrayed (though in a glimpse) sensuously and glamorously dancing in a club. But the real Josephine Baker was not only that sensuous dancer; she was much more than that. And thanks to the #1949Club, I have found this memoir of hers, where I learned much about the really talented artist, an ardent supporter of France Resisttance, and a wonderful human being.

✨ Josephine Baker (née McDonald) was an American girl, born in 1886 in the poverty-stricken home at St. Louis, Missouri - a mixed race of black (from her mother) and white - presumably- from her biological father). She also revealed that her aunt was in fact an Indian. Little Josephine loved to dance and perform, and at the age of thirteen she had started career as street-corner dancing. Her stars started shining when she performed in revues until she joined the Folies Bergère. Her breakthrough happened when Josephine was only 19, dancing in a feather skirt in La Revue Nègre at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She was further more mostly famous as banana dancer - dancing in her iconic banana skirt.

✨ By 1925, Josephine Baker had been a household name, not only in France, but from aother European countries to Middle East. She was famous with her erotic dance, but more than that, by her free and passionate dance style, coupled with lively expression of her face; she loved doing silly faces during dances, which made her unique and original. Her memoir, wrote by a French journalist Marcel Sauvage, was written in her characteristic of fearless and free. It was told just as Josephine told her own story to Sauvage; you would find a lot of sentence-openings like: "You know Monsieur Sauvage...." And that gave us a glimpse to Josephine Baker's genuine personality: warm, spontaneous, cheerful, passionate. Maybe these quotes would give you an idea of who or what kind of person Josephine Baker was:

About her love of Paris:

"Have we said enough about Paris's place in the world and life in Paris? Paris is elegance, mayhem, love, champagne and pretty trinkets, the Eiffel Tower. Spirit, and heart, wouldn't you say? And thousands of other adjectives. [...] Paris is women, sun, midnight sun. The Bois, tea, dance halls, shopping, cabaret. [...] I love Paris, how it moves, how it sounds, its mystery - its mysteries - all its mysteries. [...] Night-time, champagne, joy, frenzy, more dancing, flowers, women. Never horrid, never stupid, never ordinary... Vive Paris!"

Josephine's view of performing v. money:

"I don't ever want to dance, sing, perform or shoot just because of my name."

✨ Josephine Baker's passion stretched out not only to dancing - and later on also singing and acting - but also to people, especially children (she adopted not less than twelve during her lifetime), and the poor and afflicted. Josephine also adored animals; she kept exotic pets, gifted by her many admirers around the world. But maybe, the most interesting aspect of Josephine Baker which not many people realized, is her love of France - the country that had adopted her into her bosom. Josephine volunteered to be a secret agent during World War II due to her international fame, and thus had heard many hush-hush information from many influential people first hand. Later on, she became the Second Lieutenant during the French Resistant movement, and did acted in several dangerous situation (not only in the comfort of cabarets or boudoirs). ✨ After being entertained with Josephine's early career - with dances, performance on the stages, her tour around the world, describing each country from her point of views; the tone of the memoir was shifting to a darker tone when she criticized the racial injustice the Black people received after World War II. She was aghast that during the war everyone mixed happily together despite of different races, but why was it that after war, they hated each other? She was furious especially to how the Jews and the mixed race (half white and half black) treated Black people with even more severe racial discrimination than the pure White. An irony, indeed. And that later part of the memoir was enough for me to change my view on Josephine Baker. She's now, to me, not only a sensuous dancer who performed with funny-silly faces (which I disliked); Josephine Baker was a tremendously generous and affectionate human being who, during her lifetime, truly and actively practiced Christianity, despite what many Christians (and the Church) had accused her of. What a remarkable way of starting the #1949Club week! Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

The 1949 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

Vittoria Cottage (1949) by D.E. Stevenson #DeanStreetDecember

💚 In this quiet domestic post-war novel, we get acquainted with Caroline Dering, a forty something widow who lives in a rural village of Ashbridge, and the owner of the titular Vittoria Cottage. She is a simple, quiet, and charming woman, doting mother of two daughters and one son.

💚 Caroline's son is in Malaya, serving the British military. Her older daughter, Leda, is nineteen, and in love with Derek, son of the local squire. In this peaceful atmosphere, Caroline's life is suddenly stirred by the arrival of a Robert Shepperton, a widower who is recuperating from war and the loss of his wife and bombed London house. Reluctant at first to accept the fact, Caroline realizes that she is in love with Mr. Shepperton.

💚 Complication arises in the form of Caroline's sister Harriet, a vivacious actress from London, who, soon after her arrival to stay at Vittoria Cottage, falls in love with Mr. Shepperton. It is with anguish that Caroline watches them comfortable in each other's presence. But whom does Robert Shepperton - who always have reasons to visit Vittoria Cottage - really love?

💚 In contrast with these middle-age triangle-love, is Leda and Derek turmoil relationship. Leda is a spoilt girl who must get what she wants, while Derek a lazy chap. They want to get married, but Derek's father and Caroline advise them to wait until Derek finishes his law school (which he hates), and get settled.

💚 My favorite character, excepting Caroline and Mr. Shepperton, is Caroline's son James, who comes home from war midway through the book. He's Caroline dearest offspring, and James is so care and tender towards his mother. I love their relationship. If only every man in the world can treat his mother like James to Caroline, I believe our world would be much better to live in.

💚 All in all, this is a charming and comforting story of domestic life in a rural village after WWII. A perfect vehicle to catch a glimpse of post-war life - the peacefulness of the middle-ages, as well as the restlessness of the youths, all interwoven in one beautiful canvas, skillfully crafted by D.E. Stevenson. A very soothing read for the hustle-bustle of life during the end of year.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

I read this book for:

Dean Street December

Hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home