Category: 20th Century

+Blog Book Tour+ Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman

Posted Thursday, 3 July, 2014 by jorielov , , , , 3 Comments

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Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman

Published By: Alfred A. Knopf (),
an imprint of DoubleDay and part of Random House Publishing Group 1 April, 2014
Official Author Websites: Site | Twitter | Facebook
Available Formats: Hardcover, Audiobook, Ebook Page Count: 334

Converse on Twitter: #LoveandTreasure & #LoveandTreasureBlogTour

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Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Love & Treasure” virtual book tour through HFVBT: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary hardback copy of the book direct from the publisher Alfred A. Knof, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comBook Synopsis:

A spellbinding new novel of contraband masterpieces, tragic love, and the unexpected legacies of forgotten crimes, Ayelet Waldman’s Love and Treasure weaves a tale around the fascinating, true history of the Hungarian Gold Train in the Second World War.

In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg, victorious American soldiers capture a train filled with unspeakable riches: piles of fine gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, silver picture frames, family heirlooms, and Shabbat candlesticks passed down through generations. Jack Wiseman, a tough, smart New York Jew, is the lieutenant charged with guarding this treasure—a responsibility that grows more complicated when he meets Ilona, a fierce, beautiful Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, amid the shadowy world of art dealers who profit off the sins of previous generations, Jack gives a necklace to his granddaughter, Natalie Stein, and charges her with searching for an unknown woman—a woman whose portrait and fate come to haunt Natalie, a woman whose secret may help Natalie to understand the guilt her grandfather will take to his grave and to find a way out of the mess she has made of her own life.

A story of brilliantly drawn characters—a suave and shady art historian, a delusive and infatuated Freudian, a family of singing circus dwarfs fallen into the clutches of Josef Mengele, and desperate lovers facing choices that will tear them apart—Love and Treasure is Ayelet Waldman’s finest novel to date: a sad, funny, richly detailed work that poses hard questions about the value of precious things in a time when life itself has no value, and about the slenderest of chains that can bind us to the griefs and passions of the past.


Praise on behalf of the novel:

“Love and Treasure is something of a treasure trove of a novel. Its beautifully integrated parts fit inside one another like the talismanic pendant/ locket at the heart of several love stories. Where the opening chapters evoke the nightmare of Europe in the aftermath of World War II with the hallucinatory vividness of Anselm Kiefer’s disturbing canvases, the concluding chapters, set decades before, in a more seemingly innocent time in the early 20th century, are a bittersweet evocation, in miniature, of thwarted personal destinies that yet yield to something like cultural triumph. Ayelet Waldman is not afraid to create characters for whom we feel an urgency of emotion, and she does not resolve what is unresolvable in this ambitious, absorbing and poignantly moving work of fiction.”
—Joyce Carol Oates

Author Biography:

Ayelet Waldman Photo Credit: Reenie Raschke
Photo Credit: Reenie Raschke

Ayelet Waldman is the author of the newly released Love and Treasure (Knopf, January 2014), Red Hook Road and The New York Times bestseller Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace. Her novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was made into a film starring Natalie Portman. Her personal essays and profiles of such public figures as Hillary Clinton have been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Her radio commentaries have appeared on “All Things Considered” and “The California Report.”

For more information please visit Ayelet’s website . Her missives also appear on Facebook and Twitter.

Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as disparate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China, Russia and Israel, Korea and Italy.

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My Review of Love & Treasure:

Of all the ways in which I had an illusion of how this novel would open and begin, I think the first paragraph for me was an eye opener, as it did not quite match where my mind felt this novel would start. The rest of the first page was a bit jolting as well, as I found I had trouble finding my feet in the narrative. Where I thought the narrative voice would be empathic and soft, I found myself reading a sharpened edge of sound and vision. When Waldman starts to focus on the heart of the story centered around the lost possessions and valuable heirlooms of the Jewish families from World War II, her writing finds its clarity and knits together in a way that is a bit more fluid for me than the opening bits of dialogue being exchanged between a grand-daughter and her grand-father. She writes more into the historical bits than the everyday moments, which lends me to thinking her writing voice is hitched inside the historical elements to where she could write full-on historicals without the modern era attached.

The most tender scenes were exchanged between Jack Wiseman and Ilona Jakab, as each of them during the war were attempting to keep their sanity intact by not losing their humanity. Wiseman deferred to showing kindness during the rehousing of those who were returning from internment camps, and Ilona was electing to show her true strength and spirit, but deflecting her fears as she interacted with Wiseman. I appreciated how they met quite accidentally due to the train Wiseman was in charge of shifting its cargo to a warehouse. It reminded me a bit of a ‘meet cute’ in motion picture, despite the tragedy of their paths crossing during the Allied Occupation of Hungry. They each took each other by a surprise which refreshed their spirits and gave a kind grace to their situations.

I kept finding myself falling in and out of step with this story, because I am not one for crude humour nor crude expressions, and as I tried to continue to read the story with an open mind towards the time and era the story is set, I kept finding myself wishing Waldman had chosen different ways to express what was happening. I have read plenty of stories set during both World Wars, and the writers were not buckling down to this level of bare boned narration. The bits and bobbles I appreciated were starting to grow pale against the increasing tide of what either made me flinch or had my eyes adverting reading the paragraphs completely.

For me the story is told in a bit of a gritty and stark reality vein of dialogue and narrative voice; which made this difficult to read for my own readings tend to be towards a different vein of tact. I appreciate stories set during the wars, as war dramas and war romances are ones I tend to gravitate towards, but there is something different inside this one. I felt there was an undertone that I could not quite put my finger on but it wasn’t something that I felt I wanted to continue to read. I left the story fully intact without reaching the middle because to do so would have not proved enjoyable. I believe this story is best for readers who can appreciate the tone and dictation of action with a language presence that would not affect someone as much as it did me. I was truly disappointed as I was hoping to discover a historical mystery inside of a war drama; leading me through passages of research and provenance of personal property and giving me a historical epic of humanity.

Fly in the Ointment:

There are times where I give a pass on vulgarity but in this particular instance, the inclusion of strong language does not sit well with me because I could think of at least a handful of expressions or phrases to elicit the same manner of empathsis as found on page 6. The most obvious word instead is ‘muddled’. I am not an advocate for vulgarity in literature, and the few times I have given leeway to an author’s choice of inclusion is few and far between; the reasons were valid and if you go through the “Topics, Subjects, & Genres” cloud in the lower sidebar area of my blog, you will discover the reasons why I find strong language offensive and why in certain instances I did not wrinkle a brow over them. This novel kept pushing my envelope for tolerance.

I happen to know a bit about the setting of the story (the state of Maine) and what disrupted me a bit were the observations knitted into the backdrop, most especially about Bangor. I found myself with conflicting information, to where I was thinking to myself, that’s not true! The way in which Maine is represented in the book and specifics such as only one restaurant is open in Bangor during the long Winter months, in all honesty surprised me? I felt like there was a ‘fictional’ representation of Maine happening in this book, rather than an honest window into life in Maine.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comThis book review is courtesy of: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

Virtual Road Map of “Love & Treasure” Blog Tour:

Love & Treasure Virtual Tour with HFVBTs

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comas I am happily honoured to be a blog tour hostess for:

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours - HFVBTPlease visit my

Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva

to stay in the know for upcoming events!

Previously I  hosted Ms. Waldman in an interview attached to this tour!

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Love and Treasure (book trailer) by Ayelet Waldman via KnopfDoubleday

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{SOURCES: Book cover for “Love & Treasure”, Author Biography, Book Synopsis, and the quoted praise by Joyce Carol Oates  were provided by HFVBT – Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. Author Interview badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.   Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. The book trailer for “Love & Treasure” via KnopfDoubleday had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Thursday, 3 July, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Aftermath of World War II, Art, Blog Tour Host, Book Trailer, Fly in the Ointment, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, History, Judaism in Fiction, Maine, The World Wars, Vulgarity in Literature

+Blog Book Tour+ Bee Summers by Melanie Dugan

Posted Wednesday, 18 June, 2014 by jorielov , , 5 Comments

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Bee Summers by Melanie Dugan

Bee Summers by Melanie Dugan

Published By: UpStart Press (), 15 May, 2014
Official Publisher Sites: Press on Etsy | Blog | Founder  
Official Author Websites Site | Facebook | GoodReads
Available Formats: Softcover & Ebook
Page Count: 191

Converse on Twitter via: #BeeSummers

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Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Bee Summers” virtual book tour through TLC  Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Melanie Dugan, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

This particular book spoke to me when I first signed up to participate on the blog tour, there was something about the premise of the story and the way in which the story ‘sounded’ to me off the page; inspired my interest in reading the book. There are times when books whisper a thought of interest inside me, and those are the books I am always striving to discover because they tend to unlock a new way of story-telling and/or they create an individual experience of story craft that is not quite like other books you might pick up. I like delving outside my regular reading adventures, always seeking to not only expand my literary horizons, but to enjoy the bliss of discovery of new authors I might not have had the pleasure of knowing otherwise. Bee Summers is the kind of story that settles into your heart and your whet with anxious anticipation to read once the book is alighted in your hands!

I am always so happily curious about how a book will arrive in the Post, as oft-times I receive books for review direct from publishers, but evenso, there are sometimes a surprise of two in store for me! When I opened the book parcel for Bee Summers, a lovely little postcard featuring the cover art and the synopsis on the reverse side smiled up at me as I discovered it inside the novel itself! On the reverse side, a lovely handwritten note from the author graced the open space which reminded me of a postcard! I did not want to have the ink bleed or smudge whilst reading the novel, which is why I used one of the lovely double-sided bookmarks Ms. Astie sent me with her novels French Twist & French Toast! I never expect little extras with the books I receive, but oh! How my heart is filt with joy when I find something the author has tucked into the book! I appreciate their words enscribed on the postcard / notecards as much as words inked directly onto the books themselves! Little pieces of whispered joy ahead of reading their stories!

I must confess, part of my interest in Bee Summers lies within the fact beekeeping is included as part of the story’s arc! I have been an appreciator of bees for quite a long while, but when their fate and ours as a whole became entwined to the other, I daresay, I rally behind anyone who will have the kind grace to place a shining light on their culture and their significance of worth. The bees need us more than ever, and I am thankful to find their essence is still being included in fiction in a positive way.

Book Synopsis:

The spring she is eleven years old, Melissa Singer’s mother walks out of the house and never returns. That summer her father, a migratory beekeeper, takes her along with him on his travels. The trip and the people she meets change her life. Over the years that follow, Melissa tries to unlock the mystery of her mother’s disappearance and struggles to come to terms with her loss.

Author Biography:

Melanie DuganMelanie Dugan is the author of Dead Beautiful (“the writing is gorgeous,” A Soul Unsung), Revising Romance, and Sometime Daughter.

Born in San Francisco, Dugan has lived in Boston, Toronto, and London, England, and has worked in almost every part of the book world: in libraries and bookstores, as a book reviewer; she was Associate Publisher at Quarry Press, where she also served as managing editor of Poetry Canada Review and Quarry Magazine. She has worked in journalism, as a freelancer, and as visual arts columnist. Dugan studied at the University of Toronto Writers Workshop and the Banff Centre for the Arts, and has a post-graduate degree in Creative Writing from Humber College. She has done numerous public readings.

Her short stories have been shortlisted for several awards. She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her partner and their two sons.

 

The voice of Melissa Singer reminds me of Calpurnia Tate:

As I opened the first page into Chapter One, I was acutely aware of the voice of Melissa Singer reminding me of one of my most earnestly beloved re-reads this year, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate! A novel I discovered through my local library and had in effect read whilst I had a journal off-line yet never had the chance to properly stitch my thoughts together after reading its mirth of gentle wisdom. As soon as you step inside the first paragraph of Bee Summers you know in your heart your settling in for a gentle whisper of a story which is going to tug at your heart-strings and be as gentle as sitting on a gliding swing on a Southern front porch whilst the fireflies dance in front of your eyes. I loved seeing the grace of acknowledging the intimate details of her surroundings through the eyes of an innocent young girl who still could see the beauty in the ordinary and how the ordinary can be quite extraordinary.

I also felt a kinship of her intuitiveness stemming out of the character of Opal from Because of Winn-Dixie. Although mind you, dear hearts, I have only seen the motion picture and am bent on reading the lovely hardback copy I have at some point in the future! It was simply one of those things where the film dropped ahead of my ability to read the novel, but within the motion picture I found a setting, a towne, and a unconventional family that all of us can appreciate wanting to curate in our own lives. The film had a heart pulse all of its own, and whose essence I am sure mirrored the story within the novel.

My review of Bee Summers:

It is not often that a story starts off by placing you full center on the plight of little house guests who are growing in numbers each day they visit the central lead character! The bees in the kitchen had me wondering about the larger scope of the story gently unfolding in front of my heart. Dugan has the grace of acknowledging how you can be a caretaker of a species but also how you have to take care of yourself if the species you are looking after starts to take up residence in a place that is not conducive to communal living. She does not shy away from showing how even those who protect bees sometimes have to make choices where you have to divide the territory between the bees and their beekeepers.

The eccentrically loveable Aunt Hetty is quite the charming character who not only entered Melissa’s life at a crucial moment of her eleventh summer, but she helped changed the direction of the family’s life. I appreciated seeing how the care and concern of a widow the father knew, strengthened the father’s resolve to relocate to the small towne she lived in. A towne that gave his daughter Melissa a new freedom of living outside of a city and the joy of exploring the bliss of childhood outside the confines of a city block. Aunt Hetty has the classic house which is overflowing in life spilt into corners, nooks, and crannies to where stepping through her house is a bit of a labyrinth of a maze! The amassed collection of items were not only a wonderment to Melissa but to the reader who reads the story! Such a diverse collection of knickknacks and odd objects!

On the fringes of understanding her world is about to change Lissy (Melissa’s pet name by her father), decides to embrace the changes a bit at a time, and take her father up on his suggestion of an adventure. Travel as he takes the bees on their pollination runs and study on the road instead of finishing out the school year at home. In her own quiet way, Lissy is fusing together the pieces of what is and what is not yet said aloud to her. She is growing in her awareness of the world outside the sphere of her childhood, as much as she is not yet ready to accept the reality of where her Mom has walked off too. The story yields to her sense of direction and of her ability to adapt to how life evolves as she greets each day anew.

Once out on the road, Lissy’s world starts to expand in new ways, as she starts to meet the customers her father is hired to help with his bees. My favourite of all the stops was actually her first encounter at Earl’s house. He had this beautiful laid back manner about him which made you feel warm and comfortable in his presence. His house was on the modest side, but his farm meant the world to him, which you could tell from the passages where Lissy and her father spent helping him about the place. They encountered a lonely husband longing for his wife to return from being away on the second leg, and by the time they reached the farm for Opal and Les, Lissy was starting to realise just how different each family in the world could be. Her first impression of Opal was of a woman who was trying a bit too hard to be friends, but as time eased throughout the week of her stay it is what she observed that changed her opinion about her. I liked how each transition on the road trip provided keen insights into the ways of the world as much as the juxtaposition of how Lissy was raised by her parents. She was starting to put the pieces together on how she viewed life and the world around her; which is why the trip was having such an effect on her thought processes.

By the time I reached Chapter 12, my heart’s emotional keel was eclipsed as the truth of the distances which had spread between Lissy and her father came to startling reality of truth. As the tears slipped through my eyes, I realised that the jutting punch of the story is held within the in-between hours of the character’s lives. Those little moments where as they are lived feel indifferent to the whole of what they mean to the person who is living them, yet when reflected upon later are full of warmth and remembrance. The little moments of each of our lives are what gives our tapestry its glistening edge. The foundation of every family is communication and within Lissy’s years of maturing youth, the fragmented hours where her ability to communicate with her father broke down the wall of love which used to encase them with a fierce grip of strength.

Her mother’s absence in her life and the years of silent questionings therein, left a chasm of indifference and swelling anguish intermixed with anger towards her father’s lack of explanations. Her choice was to mirror her mother’s, exiting her father’s life as easily and as seamlessly as her mother had many years before her to the brink that she quite literally managed to erase him out of her mind and heart. And, like real life’s counterpart to the story, by the time Lissy is a married wife and mother herself, learnt all to late how ill-comforting it is to realise the mistakes you’ve made in the past cannot be easily mended in the future. Regrets fuse together, and lost hours stack against the timeclock of your life. It is only how you can choose to accept the path you’ve walked and the lessons you’ve learnt along the corridor of your life, that can truly set you free. Allowing you to let go of your past ghosts and step into the light of the morning with a sense of renewal for where you’ve been.

The bees | secondary characters:

One of the pure delights of the novel are the bees themselves, as they take on the role as secondary characters and in some places, nearly felt as a narrator as to precognitively alert the reader of where the story might head next. I like the subtle inclusions of their hive’s presence, as much as their bee attributes being quite stellar in showcasing their bee qualities of personality! I enjoyed learning a bit about their flying patterns, walking statures of dance, and how in effect, the bees take to their keepers as much as their keepers enjoy watching over their bees! They were a delightful inclusion, and perhaps a bit of a metaphoric undertone to the key bits of the story as well. Bees by nature align and live by a certain code of curious ambiguity as for as much as we know about their culture within the hive and their interactions with the natural environment, there is a larger number of unknowns. Perhaps in this way, the bees were as much as a viewing of transitions in the seasons of life that are not readily explained nor understood could occupy the backdrop of a young girl whose growing-up realising her mother left her without the blessing of an explanation.

I liked how the sequences with the bees were as innocent and lovely as the observations of Lissy inside the narrative of her younger years. Each of them were a bit in tune with the innocent side of life, as the bees went about their duties as pollinators to encourage the growth of the fruit and veg that needed their assistance. Likewise, Lissy looked out at her road adventure with a fresh pair of eyes ready to embrace what came her way with a joyful heart, if a tender one full of concern for her mother.

Ms. Dugan’s gift for story-telling within notes of grace:

In the back of the novel, there is a stamp of acknowledgement from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, as the author received Creative Writing Grant from the Ontario Arts Council and a Work in Progress Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Two grants I had not known about previously, and felt were given to a writer who deserved the recognition of what the awarding of them could gain her writing. I have heard of writing grants previously, but as far as I’m aware of, I have not yet read a writer who used them to finish a novel I’ve read. How wonderful there are creative ways to pursue one’s love of writing and of setting one’s stories free to fly into the world, where readers like I feel not only blessed but honoured to have made their acquaintance!

She gave the father a wicked sense of logic in the story, such as resolving the issue of a ‘suitcase’ for their impromptu adventure on the road by using brown paper bags! I had a good chucklement on this scene, because it showed how the father wanted to solve the issue at hand but not show his uncertainty in how to go about it. She etched into Bee Summers an honest impression of how a father deals with the sudden exit of a wife and how he must choose how to face the reality of being a single father without a net of protection to see them both through to the next tomorrow. She guides the reader through the motions of their lives with such a flickerment of subtle acknowledgements of seasons and life moments, that by the time you alight in a harder hitting moment of clarity, the emotional conviction hits you front and center, and you feel appreciative that you were being guided by a steady hand and keen observer of the way in which an emotional drama can be told with a deft eye for grace.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comThis Blog Tour Stop is courtesy of TLC Book Tours:

Bee Summers
by Melanie Dugan
Source: Direct from Author

Genres: Literary Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Published by Upstart Press

on 15th May, 2014

Format: Paperback

Pages: 191

TLC Book Tours | Tour HostFun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comVirtual Road Map of “Bee Summers” Blog Tour:

Monday, May 19th: Review @ Sara’s Organized Chaos

Tuesday, May 20th: Review @ BookNAround

Thursday, May 22nd: Review @ Book Dilettante

Friday, May 23rd: Review @ Open Book Society

Tuesday, May 27th: Review @ A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, May 28th: Review @ Literally Jen

Monday, June 2nd: Review @ Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Tuesday, June 3rd: Review @ Forever Obsession

Wednesday, June 4th: Review @ Karen’s Korner Blog

Tuesday, June 10th: Review @ Bibliotica

Monday, June 16th: The Most Happy Reader

Tuesday, June 17th: Review @ Every Free Chance Book Reviews

Wednesday, June 18th: Jorie Loves a Story

Wednesday, June 25th: She’s God Books On Her Mind

Thursday, June 26th: The Road to Here

TBD: Karen’s Korner

TBD: Giraffe Days

Please visit my Bookish Events page to stay in the know for upcoming events!

{SOURCES: Book cover for “Bee Summers”, Author Biography, Author Photograph, and Book Synopsis  were provided by TLC Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Comments via Twitter:

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • Go Indie
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Posted Wednesday, 18 June, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Animals in Fiction & Non-Fiction, Apiculture, Blog Tour Host, Coming-Of Age, Family Life, Father-Daughter Relationships, Honeybees, Indie Art, Indie Author, Life Shift, Literary Fiction, Philosophical Intuitiveness, Small Towne Fiction, Sudden Absence of Parent, The Natural World, The Sixties, TLC Book Tours

+Blog Book Tour+ City of Promises by D. Grant Fitter

Posted Friday, 9 May, 2014 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

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City of Promises by D. Grant Fitter

City of Promises Virtual Tour by Historical Fiction Virtual Tours

Published By: Self-Published, 22 January, 2013
Official Author Websites: Site | Twitter | Facebook
Available Formats: Paperback & E-Book
Page Count: 370

Converse on Twitter: #CityOfPromisesTour

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Acquired Book By:

I was selected to be a tour stop on the “City of Promises” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author D. Grant Fitter, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

When City of Promises came available to tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, I must confess, I was teetering on the edge of saying ‘yes’ to accept this book for review. My only hesitation was due to the fact that I have been to Mexico City and therefore, was uncertain if I could return to a fictional account of the city and maintain my memories of her in the ensuing decades since this particular sliver of the city’s history takes place. In the end, I decided that if I can handle reading about the Jazz Age in America as much as Prohibition and the upturnt tides of Chicago & New York City’s histories, can I can surely handle reading what happened in Mexico City! After all, when I was there the city was undergoing a bit of a Renaissance, in an attempt to re-strengthen the city’s identity as much as to re-define the city itself. It was the heart of the story given inside the premise that pulled at me, and for which I am most anxious to see where the corridors of this particular historical fiction will take me! I am always eager to traverse into the passageways of history that might not always lend a happy ending but will lend itself a portal glimpse into a part of history that needs to be told.

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City of Promises by D. Grant Fitter}: Book Synopsis :{

Is there an economic value of one’s soul? “By divine good fortune I live in the most glamorous era of a famously enticing city. By obscene misfortune I’m shut out by its ruling elite.” Daring ways to make it big are on offer in Mexico City in the 1940s, but best watch your back! If Arturo Fuentes barters virtue to maneuver in on the action, will the consequence of his choices be too much to bear?

The rebirth of one of the world’s most colorful cities forms the rich backdrop for this historically discerning tale of treachery, intrigue and political corruption.

“My entire family was stuck for generations in that isolated village south of Veracruz where I was born. When you’re fourteen, know you are a dreamer and learn to be a schemer, you can’t stay and so you start planning for the day.”

In 1941, 21-year-old Arturo Fuentes followed the beat to Mexico City.

Bottles of rum in smoke filled bars, sultry women and impassioned conversation, music and bright show lights calling. Murder and corruption.

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D. Grant FitterAuthor Biography:

D. Grant Fitter is a citizen of North America. Born in Ontario, Canada and educated in Colorado, USA, he is convinced he was Mexican in his previous life. How else to explain such a strong attraction to Mexico and all things Mexican, including his wife.

His business career includes long stints of work in Mexico before yielding to a pesky urge to pursue freelance journalism for seventeen years. Meanwhile, Fitter’s Mexican roots continued to call. City of Promises is the product of his curiosity to understand why the culture of our close neighbors is so distant from our own.

He lives in Toronto and whenever possible, in a sunny hillside casita in the colonial town of Taxco, Guerrero.

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Mexico & Mexico City in the 1940s:

By all accounts of how Fitter paints the view of Mexico City in the 1940s, there is not much of a difference between life south of the border than it was being lived north of it. A lot of similarities run deep between both countries need for fast living and alcoholic numbing of entertainment exploits. There is a sinister undertone due to how the city is run and how the pulse of who is keeping track of what everyone is up too arcs into a deeper cognition that freedom can become a price too high to pay if your not willing to play by the game already set in motion.

My Review of City of Promises:

I believe what surprised me the most (outside of the style of how the story is told) is how explosive the action occurs with nearly only a faint whisper of acknowledgement. Normally when I am reading a crime centered novel, the action of the crime takes precedence over the character’s journey. In this novel, what I found interesting is that it is the journey of Arturo’s character which is weighted to have more girth to draw a light around than the actual loss of his girlfriend in such a manner as to be repulsive and malicious yet delicate and withdrawn of emotion.

Arturo is a man who wants to become self-made and influential on his own terms, but he is caught inside how territorial his objectives interfere with others who plan to work against his best intentions. We are jettisoned out of the immediate action in the first Chapters and alighted in step with his motivations to offset the instability of his glass company which took a setback when murder arrived at his company’s door. Each step he takes forward, he is inadvertently withdrawing backwards as his actions are thwarted and abated by forces yet known.

The insertion of travel by rails excited me, as I was always attracted to the old fashioned ways of transportation, including having ridden on railways myself as time allowed. The pace of life for Arturo shifts between relaxed enjoyment and bustling vigor when he moves between the world of business and personal comfort. I appreciated the well of history interwoven into the story as much as the necessary ordinary details of placing my mind’s eye in the setting of where City of Promises is set. Fitter gives you enough of a pause to question the motives of most of the characters you are being introduced too, as how to know which character possesses an honest heart and which one has desires that could be less than sincere? Arturo is a man who follows his instincts and does not all0w himself to dawdle in worry or vexation on any blight of woe that crosses his path. He’s forthright and determined to create his own future and his own way of commerce sustainability.

The nightlife in Mexico during the 1940s had as much flair and passion as they had whilst I was visiting in the 1990s, although I took in a tamer version of the dancing offerings as I enjoyed the Flamingo dancers whose eloquence transfixed my eyes and heart. City of Promises illuminates the Rumba and the sensuality of its dancers in comparison to its observers who are caught in the bewitching allure of its dance. Life was lived large in the 1940s where carefree attitude was equally matched with entertainment to cure desire.

In conflict with sorting out his business affairs and following his pursuit of indulgence by way of sultry company, Arturo always came across to me as a man in a proper conflict between the life he dreamt of as a boy and the life he was living as a man. Part of him wanted to live the life of comfort, where desire superseded necessity of work, and the other half of his soul lended itself to being focused on acquisition of prosperity. His classic misstep was not in realising what his own heart desired most for himself. In realising what could provide him with true happiness outside of the scheme of acquiring more wealth and more status. How he could spend his days and hours, fully content and achieve a measure of joy which did not have to be bought, bartered, or exchanged. This is a story of one man’s quest to understand how life is meant to be lived.

Fly in the Ointment:

At first my footing in the novel was a bit off-center, as the flashback is the story itself and the present is taking place in a sort of interrogation between the main protagonist and an investigator. What throw me for a bit of a loop is the insertion of the dialogue exchange between the two gentlemen and the narration of the story being overlayed and cross-sected into each other without a definitive breaking to denote one setting from the other outside of the text being in italics. Once you get a bit further along, you start to see the reasoning for the interruptions as the story is unfolding out of Arturo’s memory and encompassing how he wants to relay what knowledge he has to the police. It’s a unique perspective and one that started to take on its own rhythm. I am unsure if a prompt of a paragraph ahead of Chapter 1 would have eased this for a reader who unsuspecting of the slippings of present time and remembered action would have felt less unsettling. Such as you might find in a Prologue ahead of delving into the heart of the story itself.

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Blog Book Tour Stop, courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

City of Promises Virtual Tour via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

Previously I showcased an Author’s Guest Post by Mr. Fitter

on his inspiration behind the story!

Check out my upcoming bookish events to see what I will be hosting next for

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours - HFVBTand mark your calendars!

{SOURCES: “City of Promises” Book Cover, synopsis, tour badge, author photograph and HFVBT badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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Posted Friday, 9 May, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Crime Fiction, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Equality In Literature, Fly in the Ointment, Geographically Specific, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Mexico City, Suspense, the Forties

+Author Guest Post+ The author of “City of Promises” examines what implored him to write about Mexico City in the 1940s!

Posted Wednesday, 7 May, 2014 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

Guest Post by Parajunkee

D. Grant Fitter

Proposed Topic: I am most curious how the Mexico City of the 1940s captured your imagination to bring it bustling to life in “City of Promises” as much as the undercurrent of the story led you to create Arturo? Were you inspired to resurrect this particular age of Mexico City’s history from your research pursuits or was it due to spending time in the city itself? How did “City of Promises” alight in your mind’s eye and how did it change you after you wrote its story? 

I elected to enquire about City of Promises originally as I have fond memories of my week in Mexico, where I not only discovered the delights of the Federal District of Mexico City, but I found a lifeblood and infusion of culture, food, and a diverse collection of Mayan artifacts and architectural history etched into the legacy of their ruins. I fell in love with the ambiance of how relaxed the Mexicans approach life and how enthused they are to live each day not only to the fullest, but enriched by community, family, and food. They remind me a bit of Tuscany and Sicily, where families center their lives around the dinner table and/or thereto otherwise where food plays a center role in the gathering. There are others of course who believe in this as most of Europe approaches life in a similar vein, but I wanted to highlight Italy as like Mexico, there is such a passionate vibe towards earthen foods rooted in their local environment and in the stitchings of passed down recipes from one generation to another. The fusion of herbs in mixtures different than their European counterparts was nothing short of divine consumption on my part! I loved seeing how they would gather together their flavours and how elements like pink onions add dimension to open-faced grilled chicken fajitas and a root vegetable which tastes like a sweet potato can be transformed into a delish offering for breakfast!

I might not have been a cook when I was in Mexico, but I exited the country with a heart full of Mexican cuisine and a distinct taste for true Mexicali cooking!! I have not once since my travels there found a chef or restaurant who understands the local produce and infusions of Mexican cookery to whet my palette like the places I ate whilst I was there. Aside from the ready allure of food, what struck me was the remnants of living history in each street and historical site you visited, because modern Mexicans live amongst the ruins and the historical artifacts which have withstood time and weather. When I write my post about this novel for review on Friday, I shall include a bit of an antidote about being in the Yucatán and my first impression of Uxmal!

For you could say, part of me has remained curious about Mexico and about the legacies of the Mayans since my wanderings in the mid-1990s. My attachment to the 1940s in America and France grew out of my love of the Jazz Age and Flappers in pre & post war eras where life was set to a different beat and mindset. I was then further curious about how Mr. Fitter was inspired to enchant us with this tale!

City of Promises by D. Grant Fitter}: Book Synopsis :{

Is there an economic value of one’s soul? “By divine good fortune I live in the most glamorous era of a famously enticing city. By obscene misfortune I’m shut out by its ruling elite.” Daring ways to make it big are on offer in Mexico City in the 1940s, but best watch your back! If Arturo Fuentes barters virtue to maneuver in on the action, will the consequence of his choices be too much to bear?

The rebirth of one of the world’s most colorful cities forms the rich backdrop for this historically discerning tale of treachery, intrigue and political corruption.

“My entire family was stuck for generations in that isolated village south of Veracruz where I was born. When you’re fourteen, know you are a dreamer and learn to be a schemer, you can’t stay and so you start planning for the day.”

In 1941, 21-year-old Arturo Fuentes followed the beat to Mexico City.

Bottles of rum in smoke-filled bars, sultry women and impassioned conversation, music and bright show lights calling. Murder and corruption.

 

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How Mexico & the 1940s inspired this story from the author 

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comI am so glad to be invited to post on Jorie’s blog as part of my Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour. So far, there has been great reviews from bloggers who have read City of Promises on this tour and today I welcome the opportunity to talk briefly about the background behind what reviewers have been calling unique, dazzling, vivid and captivating.

As blogger/reviewer Ashley LaMar of Close the Cover said earlier this week, “The 1940’s Mexico City setting is fantastic! It’s unique, mesmerizing and vibrant allowing readers to easily fall in love with the locale and understand the excitement of young Arturo who left the country behind in order to seek his fortune under the lights of the big city”, as quoted from her book review of “City of Promises”.

So how is it that such an unusual place as 1940s Mexico City captured my imagination in such a way that I could bring it bustling to life in my novel?

Mexico City is so many things, but most of all it is an intriguing city of contradictions moved along by the amazing personalities that the Mexican people truly are. Just like their city, they can revel in a festival or stare down the barrel of despair with a smile, and it was my good fortune to work in Mexico City for years enough to find the people and the place irresistible. It is a huge, modern, iconic city of some twenty-two million with a contagious pulse and eclecticism that begs description.

I have strolled the finest of her streets, walked some of the worst and battled choking traffic. I have taken in the architectural delights of 900 years of history, enjoyed the artistic and cultural achievements on view even where one least expects, and the constant of music everywhere. Daily meals at sidewalk cafes, the art of conversation, business meetings surrounded by the influential at a chic restaurant or tradition steeped hacienda, or the magic of a street vendor taco have all contributed to and influenced my perception.

So, of course I had to at least try to understand it and with some good fortune, describe it. Get to know Mexico well and it becomes obvious the current incarnation of this place is connected through an almost suspended animation of the 1940s. That decade was in so many ways Mexico’s “Golden Years’ and the cultural, artistic, and sentimental attachment that lingers is much more, much different than a nostalgic one. The 1940s through its dance, its music, its film, its promise, is very much alive today.

It is the decade that defined a nation.

That is the feeling and the perception I knew I wanted to get across and it wasn’t very difficult to dive into the research of actual events leading to a storyline that would accomplish my goal. True to the ever-present contradictions of life here, the tale absolutely had to involve the darkly sinister undercurrent tugging and gnawing away at a peaceful existence. The overwhelming majority of locals and characters introduced in my story are true and the few that aren’t are an amalgamation of actual identities living in the novel under assumed names. My protagonist Arturo and his two girlfriends, Mercedes and Ana are the main ones and yes they are modeled after actual personalities, but they developed their persona as they dealt with situations history presented and they grew on me as the story progressed. I think their lives were mostly admirable and I became attached to them as they sorted out their future.

But I am probably rambling on here in a non-conformist style for the rapid-fire statement of an electronic blog post. Guess it happens when one loves the subject matter.

There, I said it. That is the essence of a living novel right there. I was inspired to resurrect this particular age of Mexico City’s history because of a love affair with the topic.

And that is why I enjoyed writing City of Promises so much.

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Author Connections: Site | Twitter | Facebook
Converse on Twitter: #CityOfPromisesTour

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As Mr. Fitter was describing his memories of being in Mexico City, so too, did my own flit to life in front of my eyes of memory! The congested city streets where pedestrians never had the right away, and where there were more 1960s Beetles on the streets than I dare thought possible to have room to breathe! The pulse the author is speaking about was everywhere you walked and explored: as even though I was a teenager participating in an educational tour of Mexico, soaking up as much history as I attempted to soak up the everyday culture, being in Mexico is a life-changing experience. You see things through a different pair of eyes whilst your down there, as the dichotomy of those with and without is living out in stark contrast inasmuch as the raw beauty of their culture befit for admiration. You can walk a lifetime simply by moving from street to street, and stumbling across one neighbourhood after another or rather even, an excavation of the streets can reveal hidden mysteries of the past which had not yet been told. I loved the Square as well, a bit smaller than Red Square in Moscow, but with the presence that leaves you breathless. For all the splendors and beauty, even I could feel a sense of history yet told whilst I allowed my eyes to observe what was not yet readily known to mind. The street vendors were my best allies as well as little shoppes on corners as that is how I staid hydrated in the sweltering heat which was a switch of severity from my home state on the opposite side of the Gulf of Mexico! I always felt I *knew!* heat, but Mexico proved that I only had a hinting of what true heat can be! Oh, how I could have read more on behalf of Mr. Fitter’s reasons for digging into the past and finding himself engaged in the history of a country I shall always fondly remember as I had my own adventure there which shall never be anything but a joyous expedition of youth! Like Mr. Fitter, as he will soon realise if he visits my blog both after this goes live and on Friday when I post my book review, I am not the modern-age book blogger who writes with an absence of length, but rather a book blogger who harnesses the true joy of her designation as a blogger by allowing the breadth of a topic or subject a fitting well of unfiltered and unmonitored freedom of words! I never limit a Guest Post by an author anymore than I limit myself. There are times when words can falter to express how we feel, but in most cases, I find that I am a bubbly book blogger eagerly awaiting conversations to alight in her comment threads! May this keep you dear hearts until Friday, as I start my journey soon into “City of Promises”!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Blog Book Tour Stop, courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

City of Promises Virtual Tour via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

Return on Friday when I review “City of Promises”!

Check out my upcoming bookish events to see what I will be hosting next for

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours - HFVBTand mark your calendars!

Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.

{SOURCES: City of Promises Book Cover, synopsis, tour badge, author photograph and HFVBT badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Wednesday, 7 May, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Equality In Literature, Geographically Specific, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Mexico City, Reader Submitted Guest Post (Topic) for Author, Self-Published Author, the Forties