The Lace Reader

“The Lace Reader” is a challenging book. It is not written to be easy to read. From the very beginning we are told that it is full of lies and deceptions. By the end it is clear that this is not at all the book that it may have appeared to be.

If you pick this up looking for a murder mystery, set in modern day Salem, investigated by a woman gifted with the second sight, then you may end up feeling that you’re in the right cinema but have ended up watching the wrong movie.

“The Lace Reader” sets out to do something entirely different and something that I found much more original and satisfying. It makes the process of seeing the patterns of our own lives, the significance and consequences of our choices, the impact of the hurts show more we suffer and inflict along the way, problematic. It leads us to understand that truth comes from asking the right question and being open to unpalatable answers. In this view of the world, the truth about our lives is an emergent, malleable, elusive thing that we see with the corners of our eyes but which we must find a way to see if we before we can truly be ourselves.

One of the refreshing things about “The Lace Reader” is that Brunonia Barry manages to do justice to this complex theme and still produce an exciting, accessible novel that carries real emotional weight.
She does this by writing a novel that uses four literary devices that together act as a continuous invitation to the reader to work things out for themselves.

The first device is the unreliable narrator. Most of the novel is written in the first person present tense from the point of view of Towner, a troubled woman, returning to her childhood home and being forced by events to confront all the things she has been trying to forget. The opening lines of the book tell us how we should hear what the main character tells us:

“My name is Towner Whitney. No that’s not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.
I am a crazy woman… That last part is true.”

Brunonia Barry writes Towner Whitney in such a way that we can care about her, and hope for her without necessarily believing her, which gives the reader much the same relationship to Towner as most of the people in her life who love her.

For me part of the joy of the novel was trying to understand how much of what I was reading was true.

The second literary device, “The Lace Reader’s Guide” is there to help the reader with this task. Lace Reading is a skill akin to reading the Tarot. The lace is used as a focal point in which the Lace Reader discovers the true answer to the Seekers question. This answer sits in “the space between what is real and what is only imagined.” The secrets of Lace Reading are set out in The Lace Reader’s Guide, extracts from which are sprinkled through the book. Their distribution is not random. They are the reader’s way markers and each contains something that we need to bear in mind when reading the next section of the text.

Just when you think you understand the narrative thrust of the book, Brunonia Barry introduces her third literary device, a piece of “fiction” written by Towner as an act of therapy intended to enable her to recover lost memories and restore an integrated sense of self. In this section, Towner’s voice is younger and more intense. The action is compelling. The text could be a free-standing story. The fact that it is just another set of strands in the lace of the story only makes it stronger.

The final device Barry uses is a skillful weaving of past and present in the narration. This is often used in thrillers to feed backstory or to heighten pace but Barry uses it for something more. She helps us to understand that past and present are self-made fictions that over-write one another. Towner’s unreliable memory means that her present is often being rewritten by what she discovers about her own past.

I’ve focused here on the mechanics of the story and the ideas behind it. That doesn’t do just to Barry’s strong evocation of place and people. The island home she describes, with its caves and wild dogs and endless games of hide and seek of all kinds has a permanent home in my imagination.

I reached the end of the novel wanting to read it again, this time with the conscious understanding that the title is meant to describe not just the main characters in the book but the role in which Barry has cast me as the reader. show less

Towner Whitney comes from an established Salem family - the men were traders and merchants and pirates. And the women? Psychics and readers - especially lace readers. Towner comes back to Salem after the disappearance of her great-aunt, Eva, who gave lace readings to locals and tourists alike in her tea room. Towner's mother, May, always an eccentric, takes in abused women and children and teaches them to make lace. But Towner herself has been avoiding lace since her twin sister committed suicide as a teen after a lace reading.

The book is itself a piece of finely crafted lace - read it patiently and all of its secrets will appear in time. Keep in mind that Towner's first paragraph includes the line "Never believe me. I lie all the show more time." Bit by bit, the details behind Towner's past materialize, knitting a web of overlapping truths and lies, light and darkness, as she herself comes to terms with what has happened to her. Haunting and beautiful.

Reviewed by Junior Cain (cainbookreviews.blogspot.com) show less

Brunonia Barry reminds me of Paula Sharp in the way she writes about an underground railroad for abused women, the difficulty in helping them and the evil of men who prey on them. Throw in a little Alice Hoffmanesque modern day witchcraft and you get a story you don't want to put down.

The opening lines from Brunonia Barry's debut novel, "The Lace Reader," perfectly set the tone for the rest of the work: "My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time." Nothing in the book is what it seems at first view – events and people constantly shift and turn and realign themselves, as the reader is drawn ever more deeply into the world of Towner Whitney.

"The Lace Reader" is an ingeniously plotted tale, nearly impossible to review without giving away too many details. Which would be a horrible thing to do because this a terrific read. The story twists and changes on almost every page. The ending is a stunning roller coaster ride that made me want to show more turn back to the beginning and read the whole thing over again. And the characters are so life-like and well-drawn, by the end of the book I was almost beginning (somewhat disturbingly) to compare them with members of my own family.

In reading "The Lace Reader," I did something I hardly ever do – that is, take a chance on a book I knew almost nothing about. Generally, I do quite a lot of research and review-reading before adding a book to my want-to-read list. In this case, I'm very glad I broke my pattern. The book is an exploration of many themes, including love and abandonment, truth and illusion; itself as intricate as a piece of lace – part psychological drama, part police procedural, part family saga. All very adroitly and skillfully handled by a terrific new author. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I have a feeling Brunonia Barry isn't going to be an unknown novelist for very long. I'm already eagerly awaiting her next book! show less

Totally not what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be one of those slow family/friendship quasi-romance summer beach reads. While there is a romance element to the story, I found this to be more of a quick reading suspense story. Barry’s use of an unreliable narrator, shifting reality/dream sequences, Gothic atmosphere, an eccentric family and some interesting modern day parallels to Salem’s witch trials history made this a near perfect read for me. I love how Barry uses lace as the medium for the mind readers/fortune tellers of this story, imbuing the lace with a spiritual connection, kind of like Ojibwe dreamcatchers, meant to filter out bad dreams. The addition of the Calvinists, a religious group that admonishes the show more modern ‘witches’ of Salem and Towner’s family connection to Cal, the leader of the religious group, is perfect tinder for fueling the story.

If it hadn’t been for what I felt was a rather sub-par ending after such a great suspense-building climax, this would have been a 5-star read for me. Even so, I still found this one to be an excellent mystery/suspense read and a stunning debut novel. Brunonia Barry has now been added to my “must read” authors list.

As a word of warning, the story does contain some scenes of domestic violence that some readers may want to avoid. show less

Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader is a novel that delves into so many realms, it is hard to know where to start. The first chapter introduces us to Towner Whitney, one of a long line of Whitney women who have been labeled "quirky" by the other inhabitants of Salem. The chapter opens:

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.

I am a crazy woman…. That last part is true.

It is an appropriate opening for the book, for it is a book of secrets, of family lies and of history; both familial history and geographic history, as we are given some background of the town of Salem and the events that created it.

Towner comes from a long line of "readers," women who can show more read you past, present and future in lace. There is a specific process to the reading of lace, which is explained throughout the book. Towner has given up lace reading after the death of her sister and the subsequent depression that forced Towner to escape Salem and move to California, the farthest place she can escape to in her mind. She is brought back to Salem after the death of her great-aunt, where she begins to discover that everything about her past may or may not be as she remembers it.

This is an amazing debut novel. Barry interweaves so many plot threads, it's as if she is creating lace out of her own story. The plot moves along nicely, and Barry gives you just enough of the characters' histories throughout the story that you don't feel like you are being weighed down by their backgrounds. The characters are believable and well-rounded. Never did I feel that she was stretching the suspension of disbelief to make them seem real. I could picture walking the streets of Salem, and meeting these people downtown.

I think I've been a little bit lucky, in that I've been to Salem on two occasions now, so I'm familiar with the surroundings of the story. While some of the places are fictitious, Barry has created a most accurate view of present-day Salem. The city itself is just as much a character in the book as its inhabitants. Barry has set her story in the mid-90s, before Salem became too much of a tourist destination. It was just coming into it's own, and Barry captures the essence of city perfectly.

I think that Brunonia Barry may have something of a witch in her. The spell that she creates with this story was mesmerizing. I couldn't put the book down! Luckily I was traveling when I read it, so was able to finish the book one day. I'm anxiously looking forward to the magic that she will create with her next book. show less

Beginning this story is like leaning back into a soft feather bed on a winters night. I am breathless with anticipation as each page ends and I turn to the next. I want more, and I want it now. But also, I dread coming to the end.

I feel the breeze blowing my hair back from my face, and smell that northern sea. There is nothing like it. I watch the bricks of Salem passing under my feet. I am there.

Towner, is the main character. Her story is no less compelling or real than those of the others in the book. Eva, May, even Ann one of the more renowned witches in town all have their own equally strong personalities and stories. Mostly, it is about the Whitney family, life in a small town, and the injuries we all suffer as we make our way show more through life.It is the story of life through the eyes Sophya, who takes the the name Towner in a desperate attempt to distance herself from things she cannot bear to remember.

May lives on Yellow Dog Island, and her home is a sanctuary for abused women. Emma, her half sister lives there as well. They work the land for food, and they make lace. The Whitney family woman all read lace. It is a family gift, or curse depending on how each woman sees the lace.

Towner is living in California until a call from her brother draws her to her home in Salem. A home only minutes away by boat from Yellow Dog Island. Once she is again face to face with where she spent her her childhood, she has to deal with family mysteries both current and in the past. Facing these mysteries, learning to accept the abilities she had to read people, and to see them after they have passed on is a fascinating and intriguing read. No less intriguing is the story of Towner's healing.

Like the most beautiful examples of lace itself, this story is woven, interwoven and no thread is left hanging free. It pulls them all together to create a work of art to be cherished. A piece to look at again and again merely because it exists. show less