Ann S. Epstein Writer

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Last House: The Age of Oil by Jessica Shattuck (Rated 5) – Who Pays for Progress? Jessica Shattuck’s sweeping novel, Last House, begins and ends with Big Oil, a geopolitical force that simultaneously fuels the world economy and ignites a family saga. Its title is the literal name of the family dwelling built by a man named John Last, a place to escape “when the world ends,” and a metaphor for decay. The narrative begins when the allied victory in WWII spurred well-intentioned progress and ends with the relentless pursuit of energy that today threatens the environment. As the world is torn apart, so are the generations in the Taylor family: Nick, the father, a veteran who is an idealistic lawyer for an oil company; Bet, the mother, who abandoned dreams of a career for suburbia; daughter Katherine, a rebellious child of the 60s; and son Harry, a “nature boy” before the term existed. In the background lurks Carter Weston, the amoral yet entertaining character who’s a fixture in spy novels. In the events of this finely plotted book, the peacemakers become suspect, their conciliatory motives perverted into their exact opposites. Meanwhile the fomenters of discord become heroes, the standard bearers of government and business. And beneath the national and worldwide drama, one family struggles to understand the generational rift that leads to tragedy and tears them apart. As a writer of 20th century historical fiction (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Shattuck’s ability to interweave meticulous research with an absorbing story. At the panoramic level, Last House is an indictment of corporate hypocrisy and political manipulation. At a granular level, it is a heartbreaking tale of parental and filial loss. It would appear that no one wins until subsequent generations rebuild trust from the ground up. The other winners are the readers who will emerge wiser and deeply moved by this thoughtful and compassionate book.

How big oil threatens one small family

Why writers read: “A good book is an event in my life.” – Stendhal

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson (Rated 5) – Portrait of the Artist as a Young Modern. Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is three volumes in one: the biography of the American fashion designer who created women’s sportswear; a survey of fashion personalities and practices from its preeminence in pre-WW2 Paris to its rising prominence in postwar New York; and a history of the emergence of second-wave feminism. This weighty and well-researched book nevertheless reads as breezily and comfortably as a McCardell wrap-around dress and pair of ballet flats. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I applaud Dickinson’s skill in seamlessly joining a multitude of facts with a flowing narrative. McCardell emerges as a modern designer with respect for the past, a woman at ease with her body who understands female anatomy. Above all, McCardell comes across as trusting her own instincts and respecting the desires of those she’s designing for. She believed that clothes should be a natural extension of the self and not, as male designers decreed, a means to reshape and even contort the body. I first learned about McCardell while researching my novel A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor who plays the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz and later (as I imagined), tired of having to shop in the children’s department, opens a clothing line labeled “Big People Clothes for Little People.” He too designs for his clients. McCardell was lauded in her era, but I was dismayed that, despite being a staunch second-wave feminist since its earliest days, I had never heard of her before. Hopefully, Dickinson’s engaging and informative book will patch that hole in the fabric of fashion history and introduce McCardell to a new generation.

A designer who understood what modern American women wanted to wear

Why writers read: “To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Rated 5) – Secrets Threaten Success. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is the fictionalized story of the real Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan and his heirs in the first half of the 20th century. Although vastly different in background and temperament, Morgan and Belle share an encyclopedic knowledge of, and passion for, old and rare manuscripts. Belle is not only the lone woman in charge of an acclaimed library, she is a consummate bidder against rich and powerful men when it comes to acquiring them. The novel, a trove of information about the treasured documents and the rarefied social world of the era’s elite, is ultimately about how those who collect and preserve the past simultaneously seek to hide their own personal history. In Belle’s case, she is passing for white. Others must hide their religion, sexual identity, or other characteristics that, if known, would make them outcasts in the society they are desperate to remain a part of. The authors do a masterful job balancing the tension between Belle’s inner and outer worlds as she relishes her accomplishments while living in constant fear of exposure. As a historical fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire their ability to keep readers immersed in the narrative moment while simultaneously painting a detailed backdrop of the times in which the events occur. So much in this book is “just right” – details about the rare manuscripts, characterization, pacing. And as a testament to the “colored” woman who, in reality, brought an amazing private collection into the public domain, The Personal Librarian is a worthy addition to any library.

Hiding her true identity, a woman achieves success and leaves a lasting legacy

Why writers read: “If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.” – Natalie Goldberg