How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
Award-winning author of several works of fiction, memoirist and playwright Monica Wood has written an impactful and deeply touching novel celebrating the transformational power of reading as well as the empowerment that comes with acceptance, true forgiveness and heartfelt compassion for others. How to Read a Book is a rare gem to savor, share and gift to book-loving friends.
Life is full of enriching opportunities; if presented with second chances, seize the moment to make new friends, explore alternate pathways and embrace life. Readers may alternately laugh and cry as they observe the lives of three characters intersect in unexpected ways. It succeeds in being sweetly moving without becoming saccharine.
The location is coastal Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state with a central urban population of less than 68,000 and a far greater metropolitan area. It is dauntingly large for a frightened young woman from a tiny, rural community who’s suddenly independent and alone for the first time in her life.
The primary settings for How to Read a Book are in a women’s prison, a downtown bookstore and a benign university animal research laboratory. The action spans several months and concludes with a brief, satisfying epilogue.
Strong Cast, Including an Ex-Con and a Talking Parrot
The plot is alternately narrated by three primary characters: Violet Powell, Harriet Larson and Frank Daigle. They are accompanied by a strong secondary cast that not insignificantly includes a Russian-born behavioral scientist and Ollie, a 54-year-old African grey parrot that resides in the university campus’ laboratory.
Ollie was retained by Dr. Mikhail Petrov from his previous research position but is not deemed clever enough to be an official part of the scientist’s important controlled behavioral experiments designed to demonstrate the higher-order cognition of these parrots. The birds are demonstrably highly intelligent and possess the ability to communicate with other parrots and humans. They can think, count, distinguish colors and shapes, play, make decisions and are steadfast. Some of them can even sing. They are well tended to around the clock by student assistants and are better adjusted and happier than most of the adults.
Violet is a 22-year-old ex-con recently released from prison six months early for good behavior. She has spent 668 nights incarcerated after being convicted of manslaughter of a woman who was a wife, beloved mother and popular kindergarten teacher.
Violet was smart, loved reading and consistently received excellent marks throughout school but fell for the proverbial good-looking wastrel who was several years her senior. Shortly after high school graduation, desperate not to lose him, at his urging, she got behind the wheel of his car while high on alcohol and a pill he had popped into her mouth which started the chain of events related in How to Read a Book. Pressured by the wealthier boy’s attorney while in the throes of grief and remorse, Violet accepted full responsibility for her actions and good old Todd was barely questioned and never charged.
She was a model prisoner — albeit one without visitors as the so-called boyfriend vanished, her mother died and her older sister remained ashamed and unforgiving. The bright spot in every week was Book Club, a two-hour session led by Harriet Larson, a 64-year-old volunteer retired English teacher for a select group of twelve incarcerated women. They may not have always enjoyed the book selections but it was a safe, peaceful space and provided a break in their mind-numbing routine.
Reading Books and Making Friends in Unlikely Places
Harriet became a widow when her attorney husband Lou suddenly died after many years of a compatible marriage. Both of their adult daughters were married to Englishmen and lived across the pond. Zoom calls, texts and emails are frequent but she will soon be alone as her niece Sophie, whom she raised from childhood since her sister died, is about to leave for graduate school in California. Prison Book Club and the preparation it requires keep her from becoming a lonely cat lady residing in her beautiful but empty Craftsman home.
She is specifically instructed not to get involved with the sometimes trash-talking twelve women dressed in drab blue prison garb. Additionally, there are many rules to follow: first names only, no personal information, no gifts given or accepted, bag searches entering and exiting the prison, no physical contact and a correctional officer must be continually present.
The inmates are pleased to keep the books they read for the club meetings. In eighteen months, respectful and friendly group leader Harriet has learned much about each woman in addition to the real and alleged crimes they have been convicted of and they in turn have wheedled and surmised much about her life. A gradual respect and mutual friendship has evolved over time.
The most popular book read and discussed so far has been Edgar Lee Master’s classic Spoon River Anthology, consisting of free verse poems written as epitaphs for residents of a fictional town. The selection was made almost by accident after a conversation with retired master machinist and part-time handyman Frank Daigle in Wadsworth Books.
Bookstores, Cats and An Unexpected Connection
Frank Daigle was at loose ends after a lifelong career of crafting tools and machine parts. He, too, was an avid reader who found a refuge in the warm, inviting downtown bookshop which usually displayed a cat napping in the window. The store partnered with the local animal shelter to promote adoptions. Customers coming to browse could leave not only with their purchased books, but also, after a screening process, with a new feline friend.
Like the stray cats, Frank wandered in one day and made himself immediately useful fixing wonky casters on carts, oiling squeaky doors and such until the manager offered him a part-time handyman job. It occupied his time while providing a haven after his wife Lorraine was killed in the car crash Violet caused. His daughter Kristy was convinced he was crushed by grief but in truth, his emotions were tempered by the fact that his marriage had been complicated.
Warm, Charming, Witty and Hopeful Story
All three of these fine people who are attempting to come to terms with their losses, depression, disappointments, grief, remorse and familial opinions encounter each other one afternoon in Wadsworth Books. The reality of their lives is not quite what family and friends imagine and what ultimately results is the beginning of what makes How to Read a Book unforgettable.
Put this novel at or near the top of your reading list! It has warmth, charm, wit, hope and understanding. Monica Wood demonstrates a deep understanding of the ripple effect of kindness, compassion and forgiveness in soothing troubled hearts. This reviewer wishes to have sufficient time to read it again.
About the Author:
Monica Wood is a novelist, memoirist, and playwright; a recipient of the Maine Humanities Council Carlson Prize for contributions to the public humanities; and a recipient of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Distinguished Achievement Award for contributions to the literary arts. She lives in Portland, Maine, with her husband, Dan Abbott, and their cat, Susie.
