A Bitter Veil by Libby Fischer HellmannMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a 5 star book, a work of literary fiction, political thriller, near-current historical fiction. It had everything, drama, young love, revolutionary changes, iconic characters, and a reign of terror. But why??? oh why??? did the ending include a hokey murder mystery, stereotyped Scooby-Doo-like reveal of the villain with the last minute gunshot and the finger of blame pointed at our protag???
I walked away feeling like the book was ruined. The young complicated character, the one I was interested in following to the next book, reduced to an "and if it hadn't been for you, I would have gotten away with it" stick figure.
Okay, back to the first 91% of the book and the last 6%. It was lyrical, sweet, tragic, and pulsing with a mixture of romance, fantasy, and tension.
Nouri was Anna's dream come true, a handsome, charming man she met at a Persian bookstore. Their torrid love affair ended in a fairy-tale wedding and inclusion into a wealthy, loving, and accepting family. Anna's own family was broken rather early, and in Nouri's family and country, pre-Khomeini Iran, she enjoyed a honeymoon with a culture, people, and land in transition.
The book documents the way ordinary people adapt and are affected by traumatic change. There is denial, anger, bargaining, and stultifying acquiescence. Eventually, Anna's life is reduced to that of a Islamic wife hidden behind a chador, a virtual prisoner to her increasingly moody and fanatic husband. Her trials and escape were dramatic and filled with poignant detail. If I ignore the murder mystery subplot, I come away with a great sense of tragedy, sadness for Nouri's family and people, and hope for Anna, in that surviving, she would be stronger and able to forgive her husband for his weaknesses.
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Great review! It's a shame when the last 6% of the book ruins it.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that a friend or crit partner told her the story wasn't exciting enough without a murder mystery so she tacked it in. But in the process, she ruined two characters readers came to know and love. She went back to stereotypical behavior without explanation or motivation, even though earlier she treated us to that character's Point of View, she shut us out of his thoughts to move the story toward the murder.
ReplyDeleteLiterary Fiction doesn't have to have the who-dun-it aspects of genre fiction. Open-ended endings create more a more realistic and deeper understanding for complex events that pull people apart. The reader could have left wondering if she'd ever ... [but now everything is nailed shut for a cheap thrill]. Just my opinion, but well, that's how disappointed I felt. I was so invested in the characters, not just the protag, and it makes me want to write my own ending... Crazy, huh?