Dr. Brinkley’s Tower finds charm in a tough town

When things get snowy, my brain starts to wander to sunnier places where people aren’t miserably shovelling snow off their driveways. It’s hard to remember that some places get sun all year round. And that’s why I picked up Dr. Brinkley’s Tower by Robert Hough.

Dr. Brinkley’s Tower takes place in a fictional Mexican town named Corazon de la Fuente which is situated just along the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Much of the town’s misfortunes are blamed on the fact that it is on the “wrong” side of the border.

After being ravaged by mindless civil wars, Corazon is a pretty grim place. But everyone in the town has their respect, their dignity — right from the mayor to the town’s prostitutes (hilariously, they’re all named Maria). I loved this book simply because you knew the characters so well. You felt for them when things didn’t go their way. As the reader, you too become part of this town.

And along comes Dr. Brinkley, an American doctor who wants to build a radio tower in their little town. This doctor’s specialty is curing impotence by implanting goat glands. Suddenly, the town is full of opportunities. But like a famous rapper once said, “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems”.

As first glance, Dr. Brinkley’s Tower sounds like a pretty sad story but it’s also hilariously funny. Hough has managed to describe the misery of poverty in a “c’est la vie” manner. In that the inhabitants of this poor Mexican town make do with what they have and that’s what their children will do, and their children’s children will do.

Dr. Brinkley’s story is based on a true one but he is a relatively minor character. If anything, he’s the catalyst for what happens to the town and all its inhabitants. In the e-book bonus content, Hough writes about his love for Mexico and it definitely shows throughout the story. I also loved all the Spanish words thrown in. I had a lot of fun trying to pronounce them out loud but also had to look some up (my Spanish vocab doesn’t stretch past Ola and banos)”.

Dr. Brinkley’s Tower is a bit of a cautionary tale but with lines like “…it was often said that when you are no longer moved by the last stages of dusk in the Mexican desert, it is time to shake the hand of your maker”, it’s mostly a celebration of beautiful people and places.

Photo credits: chrisdelorenzo.com, pinterest.com & blackteryjr.deviantart.com

Related articles:

• Governor General’s Literary Award Shortlist: Fiction 2012
• Mexican Holiday Adventure
• Dangerous Times in Mexico
• Swoon-Worthy Sundays: A Year of Travels

Canoes Full of Canada in Sussex Drive

Thank you to Random House Canada for sending me a copy of Sussex Drive: A (satirical!) novel in exchange for an honest review.

When the American elections finally ended, I realized two things: 1) I now know more about Ohio that I ever cared to know. 2) Canadian politics seem even duller now.

Linda Svendsen’s Sussex Drive taps in the world of Canadian politics and attempts to add emotion, drama and humour. There are moments of genius in Svendsen’s satirical novel which follow some curiously familiar characters and events: a Conservative Prime Minister and his wife who dream of a majority government, an African-Canadian Governor General and the inevitable proroguing of Parliament.

But as clever as Svendsen is with peppering Canadianisms throughout Sussex Drive, I just couldn’t finish it. There’s a frantic pace to the novel but not much of a plot. The characters are strangely annoying.

Sussex Drive is worth a flip through if not just for some of the hilarious references to Canadian culture. All the major players on Parliament Hill get a jab from the CBC to the Real Housewives of Hockey Players. But even Canadians get bored of making fun of themselves, eh?

Related articles:

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• Recap: Ontario Blogger Meet-Up 2012
• ‘Sussex Drive’: A Very Canadian Coup (in Tyee Books)
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• An Interview: Miranda Hill

Women go rabid in Emily Schultz’s The Blondes

I thought The Blondes would be a different story when I started it. I thought it’d be some lighthearted comedy featuring a tough, fast talking character because of how the synopsis was written. While The Blondes was a different read from the expected, I still really enjoyed it. The story is a bit slow but I would recommend it if you can overlook that and enjoy Schultz’s beautiful writing.

The Blondes is about a grad student named Hazel Hayes who arrives fresh in New York City and discovers that she is pregnant. She’s not just pregnant, she’s pregnant with her professor’s child and her professor is married. Whoops. But that’s when an outbreak of Blonde Rabies starts. Blonde women across cities quickly become infected by a strange form of rabies and start attacking strangers. Hysteria ensues.

I loved the social commentary around the outbreak. Everyone reacts to it differently. Some characters are petrified, some move away to places with fewer blondes, others pretend it’s not happening at all – while the media plays it up to no end. I guess I was disappointed that Hazel doesn’t have much of a reaction but then, what is a pregnant single mother-to-be to do?

Hazel is no hero but I think her role in The Blondes says a lot about the complicated relationships between women. There is often sense of competition, jealousy and fear between us that makes us all seem a little rabid. But there’s always this underlying desire to belong – to have a sisterhood and that’s most apparent when Hazel finds a friend where she would least expect it.

The Blondes is available August 14, 2012.

Related Penguins: Waiting on Wednesday: The Blondes

Photo credits: blog.globalstreetsnap.com & thunderinourhearts.tumblr.com

Canadian Reading

It’s Canada Day weekend! Enjoy the long weekend. Here’s some of my favourite books by Canadian authors as reviewed on Broken Penguins. For more Canadian goodness, see my list of incredible things Canadians  managed to do this year below.

• Alone in the Classroom
• It’s Your Money Honey
• This Cake is For the Party
• The Imperfectionists 

Incredible things Canadians manage to do this year:

1. Romanticize French Canadians.

Jessica Pare as the lovely (but crazy) Megan on Mad Men has managed to make French Canadians tres, tres sexy. Anyone that has spent enough time in Quebec will tell you that this could not be further from the truth. But I can’t deny that Montreal is perhaps one of the best looking cities in the country.

2. Get a song stuck in your head.

Hey, I just met you. And this is crazy. But here’s my number. Stop singing. You can’t, can you? And now Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe will be in your head for the rest of the day. You’re welcome. Jepson showed up on Canadian Idol a few years back. She used to look older but her publicity machine has managed to make her look 10 years younger and 20 pounds lighter. Hmmm…

3. Get you to buy clothes from a grocery story.

When I went to New York, everyone was gaga over Joe Fresh. Of course, we know Joe Fresh as that clothing line that launched beside the diary aisle in supermarket chain Loblaws. That’s what makes it so fresh. All joking aside, I do love Joe Fresh. I bought the awesome blue jacket in their spring ads only to discover that it looks like a butcher’s jacket unless you are a Scandinavian model.