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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Of Human Bondage and the Power of Free Will., March 17, 2004
By A Customer
Every so often, a literary critic publishes an article decrying the decline of fiction writing and the preference given to convoluted prose, weighty with cleverness and self-importance, over clarity of style and truly inspired storylines. Yet, much as I agree with the writers of these articles, I can't shake the feeling that they are solitary voices in the wilderness. Why else, I wonder, should it be that an author whose short story collection "The Earth and the Sky" has been described as "an elegant debut" by none other than the New York Times Book review, and "lucid" by Publishers Weekly, is not yet a household name?
Published the same year as the aforementioned short story collection, "Trutor and the Balloonist" is Debbie Lee Wesselmann's first novel; a captivating tale of art, relationships and long-buried secrets set in a small New Hampshire town. Part literary fiction in the best sense, part murderless mystery, it tells the story of Michelle Trutor, originally from Boston but currently staying with the Wharton family in Derbysville, NH, and the various members of that family. Notable among the latter are especially the twins Proctor and Arthur (nicknamed "the Balloonist" by Trutor because of his outlandish reading glasses); and Caroline Wharton, as Arthur explains to Michelle their adoptive sister, who raised them in her parents' stead after they were found abandoned on the Whartons' doorsteps. Although Caroline has been dead for a full 16 years, she still holds an almost unholy ban over the twins and their niece Roberta, who shares a forced tenancy of their home with them; due in equal parts to the devilish terms of Caroline's will and to the power she wielded over them when she was alive. To break that spell, Arthur Wharton now asks Trutor to write Caroline's biography; a task he feels neither legally nor psychologically up to performing on his own. Trutor, recently escaped from an abusive relationship, eventually accepts as a way to keep herself occupied and refocus her life. Soon she finds herself in the middle of a stack of Caroline's notebooks, tracing the life of a woman who kept most of her affairs a secret even to those closest to her, and following clues left in her diaries, in riddles, in a mysterious map drawn by Caroline, and in masterpieces of art from various centuries.
"Trutor and the Balloonist" combines a contemporary writer's exquisite storytelling with psychological insight and old-fashioned mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers (for the riddles, think of Christie's "Partners in Crime: The Clergyman's Daughter"). The novel's most fascinating character is without doubt Caroline Wharton, a complex, highly intelligent woman with an artist's understanding of beauty but also of sheer incomprehensible ruthlessness; capable of great sensitivity but beset by the idea that nobody is remembered for their good deeds, only for their cruelty. As Caroline's secrets are peeled away layer by layer, the reader also finds out more about the rest of the Wharton family, a rather eccentric clan at first sight but emphatically drawn, three-dimensional characters all of them, who only gain in personal dimension as the story progresses. And while Michelle Trutor learns to confront her personal ghosts, the story explores violence and abuse: not in its headline-grabbing, garish forms but that of its daily occurrences in many a family.
Vivid, lyrical and on occasion subtly humorous, Ms. Wesselmann's prose is of an appealing simplicity; no word is wasted, not a single image gratuitous. She instantly places the reader into her story's location; and the colorful beauty of New England's Indian Summer, the heavy whiteness of its snow-laden winter, the vast expanse of its woods and mountains, and the serenity of its stately Victorian houses and historic towns combine to provide a rich background to a story that seems unimaginable in any other place - with the possible exception of Christie's and Sayers's Britain; although Michelle Trutor is very much a woman of our age, even if some of the novel's other characters could have been created by one of the great British queens of crime. This is a novelist I'm glad to finally have discovered; and I am very much looking forward to reading more of her work very soon.
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My first is the last one you ever want to see
Once you've got rid of them, finally free.
My second holds information to all life on earth:
Your eyes, nose and hair, a plant's gentle mirth.
My third is the time of the soul's purification,
Of sack cloth and ashes, and self-deprivation.
My whole's what I think of this writer's creation:
Her first novel? Pah! Would she were known throughout the nation!
Also recommended:
Captivity
The Earth and the Sky: Stories
Partners in Crime (Tommy and Tuppence)
Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
Emma (Penguin Classics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Penguin Classics)
The Accidental Tourist: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
The Turn of the Screw: And Other Stories (Vintage Classics)
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There's something about New Hampshire..., September 11, 2004
Both amusing and rewarding, Wesselmann's book poses two mysteries to the initially baffled reader: What secrets did Caroline Wharton hide from her family when she committed suicide and tied up her estate in a puzzling will? And, more generally, what is it about New Hampshire that inspires authors to populate their fiction with comically eccentric and emotionally challenged misfits?
Fleeing from an abusive relationship, Michelle Trutor visits the small town of Derbysville to seek refuge in the childhood home of her friend Arthur Wharton, whom she fondly calls "The Balloonist." Arthur enlists Michelle in cracking both the mystery of Caroline's death and the bizarre limitations of her last will and testament. Michelle soon realizes that the secrets of Caroline's life have been encoded in her art collection, in messages left with friends scattered throughout New England, and in pages of riddles discovered in her bedroom--a place declared off-limits to her intimidated family members by to the perplexing terms of their inheritance. Michelle is joined (or thwarted) on her escapade by Arthur's twin brother Proctor, their suspicious niece and housekeeper Roberta, the timid town historian Sissy (also the victim of an abusive husband), and the skulking, greedy estate executor Willowby.
So what is it about small towns in New Hampshire, anyway? The residents and visitors of Derbysville recall in surprising ways the parochial oddballs who inhabit Ernest Hebert's fictional town of Darby. Any resemblance between the two authors, however, ends with the idiosyncrasies of their characters. While Hebert evokes the realism of John Updike and Richard Russo, Wesselmann channels Roald Dahl and especially Lewis Carroll (to whom there are frequent allusions). Yet Wesselmann's novel steadfastly eschews phantasmagoria; just when you think Michelle Trutor is about to go down the rabbit hole, the adventure is reigned in by the solid gound of realism (or at least what passes for realism in New Hampshire).
The inscrutability of New Hampshire may never be deciphered, but, fortunately for readers, the unveiling of the secrets shrouding Caroline Wharton's life and death is both exceptionally entertaining and (best of all) immensely satisfying. Comparisons to other authors aside, the suspense and comedy of "Trutor and the Balloonist" inhabit a twisted universe quite unlike anywhere else found in modern fiction.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging Eccentrics Elucidate Enigmas...Exquisitely, March 23, 2003
Michelle Trutor (mostly called Trutor in the book) is rather at loose ends after leaving her abusive boyfriend, and accepts a vague job offer from aging attorney Arthur Wharton (whom she refers to as The Balloonist). Arthur and his twin brother Proctor live in the house where their adoptive sister Caroline raised them and then died, under strange circumstances, several years before. Trutor's assignment is to explore the mystery of Caroline, and to write her biography.Sounds simple enough but, as Trutor discovers, Caroline was a complex and difficult woman, who has shrouded herself in layers of mystery, a room full of journals, complex victorian riddles, paintings, and a coded map that symbolizes her life. Trutor quickly becomes immersed in this strange quest, and in Caroline's world, and as she does she also becomes part of the Whartons and their dysfunctional family. What happens? What does she learn about Caroline? What does she learn about herself? You will just have to read it and see! Trutor is an exquisitely crafted book. The writing is lucid and poetic, the characters engaging and complex, the New England ambience is convincing, and the underlying message is powerful: Love has the power to redeem. This is not a totally easy book to read. It takes concentration, and you will probably take the time, as I did, to solve some of the riddles, which will cause you to put down the book and think. There are many characters in the book, and you will have to do some checking back to remind yourself who they are and how they relate to the story. Still, it moves along and is well worth the effort. I recommend this one highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber
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