The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, 277 pages

Oh, this is a well written, but sad, story.  Esme Lennox is a high strung young woman from a good family who does not conform easily to her parents wishes.  It is sometime in the early 1930's in Scotland and "difficult" women can be locked away in a mental institution for really no reason at all, with no prospect of release.

The story involves three women: Esme, her older sister Kitty, and Iris, the granddaughter of Kitty.  Sixty-one years after Esme is locked away and forgotten by her family her grandniece, Iris, learns of her existence.  The story of what really happened all those years ago unfolds slowly through the voices of Esme and Kitty, who now has Alzheimer's disease.  The book has a satisfying ending but I am unsure if it is a happy ending.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

"Zelda" is a selection this year for the library's book clubs.  We were interested to read it because we read "The Paris Wife" a fictionalized account of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife.

Zelda Fitzgerald was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, who famously wrote "The Great Gatsby" among many other things.  All I knew about Zelda prior to reading this book is that she died in an asylum.

I enjoyed the book and thought it was well written, but when reading even a fictionalized account of real person, I always hope that what I'm reading is based on truth.  Sadly, this book is truly a fictionalized account of Scott and Zelda's lives.

How to be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman 272 pages

You know within the first few pages there’s something not quite right about Marta. She smokes but didn’t know she was a smoker, she’s on medication for some sort of mental issue or at least she’s supposed to be but she won’t take her pills, she remembers very little about her early life, and she sees things that other people don’t see. You could put it down to her controlling husband Hector or her meddling mother-in-law—she gives Marta a book for a wedding present on how to be a good wife, or the fact that she suffers terribly when her only child moves out and in with another woman. But that’s not it either. The problem is that you can’t figure out if Marta’s crazy or if the people around her are. And the author doesn’t say; she leaves it up to the reader to figure out on their own.

If you are the type of reader who likes things tidied up at the end and an explanation for what you just read then you probably don’t want to read this book. But if you like to put your own spin on things then How to be a Good Wife is just the book for you.