Neither Present Time by Caren Werlinger

Publisher:       Corgyn Publishing

It gets to be boring to review Caren Werlinger’s books after a while. After it’s been said a few times that her writing is magnificent, engrossing, sophisticated and thought provoking, to say it again seems redundant. There is a danger that people might not believe the reviews anymore. So, here is a new word – consistently. Caren Werlinger’s books are consistently magnificent, engrossing, sophisticated and thought provoking.

Neither Present Time is the story of two women who are brought together by a book. Beryl Gray is a university librarian who finds a book with a personal inscription in it and is driven to find out more about the people involved. This leads her to Aggie Bishop and her great-aunt Cory. Beryl and Aggie share the characteristic of being caregivers. Beryl cares for practically everyone she knows and Aggie is trying to care for Aunt Cory. Since Aunt Cory doesn’t think she needs any help, even though her family is trying to institutionalize her and sell away the family home, Aggie’s one case practically equals all of Beryl’s. Neither Beryl nor Aggie has been able to sustain healthy relationships, but in learning Aunt Cory’s story, both women will learn a great deal about themselves. Looking into the past will cause them to examine the present with different eyes and will alter the lives of all three women.

Werlinger tells a good story, but what makes her book more appealing is the complexity of what she presents. There is romance in the book, but romance is in the story not THE story. There are messages and lessons to be learned while her characters do a complex dance weaving together the themes, including moving between different time periods. Werlenger’s talent is shown by the story being real, but not preachy; complex, but easily understood; and peopled by characters the reader probably knows.

Neither Present Time is like all of Werlinger’s books, a good read.

In This Small Spot by Caren J. Werlinger

Publisher:       Corgyn Publishing

Is it necessary to say anything about a book after the word “Magnificent” is used?  Only if anything else helps to get someone to read this book.  If you read the blurb on the cover, just remember that this is not a book about religion, but about how religion can be one aspect that enriches a person’s life.

In This Small Spot is a powerful story about love, not just of the heart, but of the soul.  It juxtaposes two plot lines, one dealing with the profound love between two people and the other about the equally profound love of a woman for God and the community of women who bring her closer to his will, whatever that may be.

Dr. Michele Stewart suffers a loss that would devastate anyone.  Her partner Alice, her life and her breath, dies young from cancer and leaves Mickey adrift in the world.  Though she is a highly successful surgeon and teacher, with many people who admire and love her, Mickey feels helpless.  She’s lost her anchor and realizes that she is losing the ability not only to connect to others, but to understand herself.  She’s drawn to St. Bridget’s Abbey with the hope that joining the contemplative life will provide her with the peace she needs to reestablish herself.  Mickey is not running away from what happened to her, but towards something more that she hopes she can become.

Mickey is forced to give up her career, possessions and everything, but learns that, when you strip away the facades, you find what is truly in the person.  Things do not always go smoothly.  There are personality conflicts, difficulties with cursing and a powerful temper that needs to be curbed.  With a lot of prayer, her share of penance and some humor, Mickey gradually taps into what Alice loved about her all along; her strength, gentle caring and gigantic heart.  Mickey is one of those people who makes other people better for knowing her and that begins to transform the abbey.  Just as Mickey feels comfortable with her new life, she discovers that the healing she has sought has opened her up to the love for another woman.  That, plus an incident that nearly costs her life, has Mickey reevaluating everything again.

Caren J. Werlinger is emerging as one of the most powerful voices in dramatic lesbian fiction.  Her stories are always different, strong and interesting.  She doesn’t feel the compulsion to write the same story over and over with just a change of names, but comes up with compelling characters with unique stories to tell.  Once you start reading one of her books, it becomes almost impossible to stop reading until the end, even though you keep hoping the book won’t end.  Werlinger weaves a spell with her stories that draws the reader in and won’t let her go.  The reader will wish she knew these people.

Werlinger also shows great confidence in her stories.  She doesn’t write according to a formula and isn’t afraid to include things that some would rather not read.  This is a good place to say that In This Small Place has an appropriate, but sad ending.  Not unhappy, but poignant.  It takes courage for an author to do that when most readers say they want “happily ever after” in each book.  Readers shouldn’t focus on the ending of a book, but on the quality of the experience of reading it.

If you haven’t read any of Caren Werlinger’s books, start here, but don’t let this be the last one you try.

Miserere by Caren J. Werlinger

Publisher:        Corgyn Publishing                                         

Writing about an excellent book is always difficult.  Finding the right words to convey to others  why it is so outstanding so that they will want to read it is a challenge.  Capturing the essence of a book without giving away the story is a tricky balancing act.  It would be easier to say “Mystery ….. Paranormal …..Love ….. History…..Buy it,” but that doesn’t seem to do the book justice.  Miserere definitely deserves to have justice done to it.

Caren Werlinger has constructed two parallel stories connected through time by family ties and the intolerance that people can practice towards each other.  Caitriona Ni Faolain and her sister are sold to an English nobleman in Ireland so that their destitute father can obtain five more acres of land to farm and support the family during the Great Famine.  They are sent to pre-Civil War Virginia to work on the nobleman’s estate as what amounted to white slaves.  There they make friends with the black slaves and deal with the events leading up to the war.  Eventually, Caitriona and some of the slaves are forced to flee and end up in West Virginia, where tragedy is waiting for them.

One hundred years later Connemara Faolain Mitchell arrives in West Virginia with her mother and brother.  Her father is MIA in Vietnam and they have returned to her mother’s family home to wait for further news of him.  Conn experiences visitations from her ancestor Caitriona’s ghost and learns that there is a curse on her family that only she can lift.  Meanwhile, she and her mother are not making friends with some members of the community because of their insistence on treating Negroes and other outcasts as their equals.  As Conn maneuvers through the events of both the past and the present, it becomes increasingly clear why she is the chosen one.  It’s also apparent that events and emotions separated by a hundred years are not only similar, but connected.

Miserere is an amazing book.  It moves easily between episodes from the different time periods, capturing the feelings and complexities of each era.  It addresses instances from US history that are often forgotten or that are fading from memory and makes them feel alive and in the moment.  Intolerance, ignorance and the tragic consequences of war are not unique to one period, which proves the point that history has an unfortunate habit of repeating itself.  However, it also speaks to how the chain can be broken by the actions of a few good, and determined, people.

One note to lesbian readers, this is not your typical lesbian novel.  Those who think books must contain scenes of lovers and the exclamations of feelings won’t find those here.  There are relationships, but they are gentle whispers in a story that ultimately proclaims the right of people to be different whether the differences are cultural, racial, gender related or in sexual orientation.  The book weaves an essence around the reader that draws you in and is compelling in the need to consume the story.  Connemara Faolain Mitchell may be one of the most remarkable characters created in literature period, regardless of the genre.

So what are the words to use to convince someone to try this book.  Buy it…..read it…..absorb it….marvel in it.  Hopefully, that does justice to the book.

Looking Through Windows by Caren J. Werlinger

Publisher:       Windstorm Creative (paper); L-Book (e-Book)

Emily Warner moves to Vermont to try and recover from the traumatic events surrounding the death of her partner.  Her partner always insisted that they keep their relationship quiet and unofficial, so there were no legal documents connecting them.  When the partner is injured, her family refuses to acknowledge the relationship and Emily is not allowed to spend any time with her before she dies.  Emily feels that by moving to Vermont to become a college professor, she has a chance to start her life over.  When she meets graduate student Ann Hight, there is an instant attraction, but Emily is scared to trust their feelings because Ann is straight.  Emily is also unsettled because Ann is hesitant to tell her family about their relationship and Emily fears a repeat of what happened with her former partner.  When Ann’s brother conspires against them, Emily flees to Europe to give them some space and time for her to recover from what she believes is another dose of misery.  Just as they are about to reconcile an accident and then a health crisis interfere.  Emily’s future depends on her learning to trust Ann enough to lean on her, but that is a hard thing to do for someone who has had her trust betrayed so badly in the past.  Ann is frustrated because she loves Emily and doesn’t feel she should have to pay for or be judged by Emily’s previous experience.  Whether or not they can break down each other’s walls will determine if they have a future.

Werlinger has produced a better than usual first novel.  The writing is tight, the editing is good and the characters are written to be three dimensional.  The plot flows well, is engaging and holds the reader’s interest.  A couple of scenes are a little contrived, but not enough to detract from the story.  Romance fans will like this book, but it has more development than the typical novel in this genre.  The story goes into depth about the issue of trust and the emotional baggage that can come with it, especially in a situation such as Emily faces.  One way to know that a character is written in a convincing manner is when the reader would like to take that character and slap her for some of the things she does.  When a character elicits that type of response it’s usually a sign of “reality.”

Looking Through Windows is one of those books that gives a reader a very satisfied feeling when it’s finished.