Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

I'm starting off 2016 with a novel that combines so many elements: ghosts, mothers, cults, foster kids, family, the starry sky.  You can't imagine that all of those elements can possibly come together into a story, but they do.  Wonderfully.  

Mr. Splitfoot  was a bit of a jolt for me in my reading habits, but it was a good jolt.  It begins in upstate New York, with Ruth and Nat, two teens who live together in a foster home.  This foster home, called The Love of Christ! Foster Home, Farm, and Mission is really a terrible place full of kids who aren't wanted by anyone. It's run by Father Arthur, a man who collects checks from the government and treats the foster kids horribly.  Full of fire and brimstone, he's completely dysfunctional and takes all the kids who are "damaged" into his care.  The unwanteds.  Ruth's mother threw bleach on her face when she was little, leaving scars that resemble the night sky.  Nat talks to the dead.  Or is it all an act?

Ruth and Nat fall into a relationship with a traveling con artist, Mr. Bell.  He takes them around to give readings to people who want contact with their dead relatives.  It's a way for Ruth and Nat to make money and get away from the foster home, where they will be kicked out as soon as they turn 18.  

An alternating story involves Ruth's niece, Cora.  Set in current day, Cora is a young woman who finds herself pregnant and living with Ruth's sister (and Cora's mother), El.  El and Ruth had both lived at Love of Christ! until El was taken away and left on the side of the road by Father Arthur on her 18th birthday.  Ruth waited for her sister to come back to get her, but she never did.  Cora wakes one night to find her Aunt Ruth standing in her bedroom.  Ruth takes Cora on a walking tour of New York state.  Where are they going?  Why doesn't Ruth talk? How does it connect to Ruth and Nat's past?  

There are so many elements to this novel.  It is quirky, sad, funny, mystical, magical, and sometimes just bizarre.  But at the core, it reflects on motherhood in all of its varied ways, family, love, and how we all affect one another through our actions, words, and emotions.  Mr. Splitfoot is certainly a book club worthy read, and was a great way to kick off my 2016 reading list.  

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a  review copy, and for being so enthusiastic about this novel.  

Rating:  8/10 for a very different, yet moving novel that combines what we want with what we've got (and how to work with it), and the absolute powerful pull of love in all its mysterious ways. 

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Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

I've ranted about covers that don't match stories, and this is another one that should have a completely different cover.  The cover didn't stop me from enjoying the story, however.  

The Canterbury Sisters is a novel about women undertaking a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral in England.  Che de Milan is the main character.  She's just lost her mother, with whom she shared a dysfunctional relationship; her boyfriend has left her for another "She's the One" woman, and her mother's ashes have arrived with a note from her mother requesting she be taken on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, since she didn't get to do it while she was alive. Che had promised her mother they would do this, but forgot while living her busy life. It's a chance for Che to escape her ex-boyfriend's incessant phone calls and her misery in finding herself completely alone and at a loss as to what to do next. 

Through circumstances, Che finds herself joining a group of women who are on a paid guided pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.  These ladies are a varied group of women from the United States who all have a reason to be on this journey.  Their guide on the sixty-mile walk from London requests that each woman tell a story on the journey--echoing Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  The theme is love.  The stories are surprising, and what take this novel from what would appear at first to be a chick lit story to a really great exploration of life, what love is and how it drives us, and where we are in our journey through life.  Are we happy?  Do we regret anything?  Can we change?  Che's journey is one of guilt and grief.  Her relationship with her free-spirit mother was one of angst and confusion. Che's life is the complete opposite of how she grew up, and now she's got to look at her life and decide what to do next.  

Each of the women in this story have remarkable stories to tell, and each story is completely different.  I don't want to spoil any of this book, so I'll leave it for you to discover if your life echoes in these tales of love, loss, and forgiveness.  

This is a great book to read in the summer.  For me it conjured up all sorts of longing to undertake a walking pilgrimage!  It's on my bucket list.  This novel is a good contemporary look at the choices women make and how we can not only live with them, but learn from them.  Don't let the cover fool you; this novel is not a fluffy good time vacation story but a satisfying novel you'll enjoy.

Rating:  8/10 for a refreshing look at contemporary women and the choices we make for love.  The idea of a walking pilgrimage as the framework for a story is what makes this novel work.  

Available in paperback and e-book. 

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The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright