Review: All Good Things

This book chronicles the author's move from Paris to French Polynesia When her husband is transferred to Tahiti, the couple moved to the island of Mo'orea, a real-world tropical paradise. Much of the culture shock that Turnbull experiences is the sort that one might expect: life is more colorful, time is looser. Turnbull's descriptions are vivid, and I learned a great deal about French Polynesia. Many islands comprise the country, and Turnbull travels quite a bit, exploring the various island groups. I found myself looking at maps and researching the places she visited on the internet, to see photos of the places she described. Some of the Polynesian islands are exceedingly remote- essentially skinny coral rings surrounding large lagoons. The geography is fascinating, and throughout the book I thought quite a bit about what it must be like to live on a small island, out in the middle of the ocean, so far away from large land masses.

Turnbull's time in Polynesia is heavily shaped by her desire to have children and her difficulties conceiving. Even before her move the author had been undergoing fertility treatments. Living on a island blooming with life and color and approaching her fortieth birthday, the desire to conceive looms large.

Location is everything in this book. While it covers three different places (Paris, Polynesia, and Australia), the most interesting parts were most definitely those on the islands. By the time the family had moved to Australia, I found myself getting somewhat bored. The descriptions of Tahiti and the surrounding islands are delightful. That's the reason to read this book.

Sarah Turnbull, All Good Things: From Paris to Tahiti, Life and Longing (Gotham, 2013) ISBN: 1592408680 

Review: The Lantern

The Lantern is a Gothic tale of Provence set in a looming old house complete with a moody and mysterious resident and a ghost. Eve and her boyfriend Dom purchase the atmospheric and remote Les Genevrieres, but once they move in their relationship seems to disintegrate. Dom refuses to talk about his previous marriage and becomes more and more isolated. Mysterious objects appear and disappear in the house. Then, when digging a new pool, builders find the bodies of two women on their property. Eve has no idea what relationship these bones might have to her boyfriend and his former wife, or to a college student who has recently gone missing from the area. At the same time as Eve and Dom try to live with each other and their house, the book tells the story of the house's former residents, a blind perfumier and her sister.

This book is full of beautiful descriptions of Provence, both in the well-known, sunny summers that produce the lavender harvest and in the colder, more desolate winters. Lawrenson does an excellent job of creating a suitably creepy atmosphere. I enjoyed the two stories she told, though I sometimes found Eve's naivete hard to believe- buying a house with a guy who literally will not say anything about his past is probably not the best idea.

Deborah Lawrenson, The Lantern (Harper, 2011) ISBN: 0062049690