Ellen MeeropolRezensionen

This was a tough one for me to rate. I liked it quite a lot for the first half and then when Grandpa Ivan died it suddenly came crashing down and everybody in the book (except Pippa) started to drive me nuts.

I found Anna uptight and miserable as a character. Emily even more so and I was incredibly tired of her self-pity over her parents. I wanted to know more about the Isis family and less about Zoe's medical care. Zoe and her condition seemed completely unneccesary to the story, BTW.

Could Marge have been any more of a caricature? And Gina seemed like she'd become a big player but then didn't.

I suppose this is how real life works - not everybody is an important player in a story even though they are around while it's happening -- but this is a novel and I want everything in the book to matter.

I found the pie-in-the-sky ending totally absurd.

In a quiet cul-de-sac next to a closed mental hospital, an old woman just disappears one morning. Her husband and the neighbors in the other 5 houses on the street have their own opinions on what may have happened. So does the police inspector when she arrives to start investigating.

While this could have been the start of a crime novel, Ellen Meeropol uses it as a way to tell a story about a place and about a collection of people who somehow ended up in the same street - each with their own fears, nightmares and stories (including the troubled detective). The street was once used for the doctors and nurses of the nearby hospital and a lot of the people on the street had been connected to it. Others had brought their own trauma from elsewhere.

One thing that derails the tale a bit is that the author tried to make her characters as diverse as possible (including the reasons and details of their trauma). While this is often a plus, the chance of it happening in such a small neighborhood is not very big and it requires a bit of a suspension of disbelief not to get derailed by it. It feels a bit Hollywood-ish - get everyone you need together and don't look too closely at why and how they ended up at the same place. The author does make an attempt at explaining how everyone ended up there but as at least half of these backgrounds were not really needed or used, it felt a bit as diversity for the sake of diversity and some of the characters felt like checklist items (with as much depth as one can get on a checklist as well). Add to that the very weird set of chapters which sound like a chorus in a play and which really does not add anything to the story.

With that being said and ignoring that particular part, the novel actually somewhat works as an examination of mental health management - both in the past and today. It is a tale of old secrets and old crimes, some of them horrific and some of them almost acceptable which makes them even more horrific when you stop to think about them. It tries too hard in some places and there is just this much of a coincidence that I am ready to accept but I did not hate it at the end - mainly because the author did not leave dangling threads I suspect - this kind of novels tend to end abruptly and this one did not.

Northampton State Hospital existed and treated patients between 1858 and 1993. The characters in this novel may be invented but most of the experiences in the hospital were at least partially based on reality. Mental health had always been the red-headed step child of medicine - even today. While the author uses the setting to tell a story about secrets and lies, it also tells the very real story of mental health management in the past and the horrors most of the most vulnerable people in the country had to live through. And when we say the past, it does not really mean as far back as we all think it does (or hope it does).

One of my favorite aspects of reading is the things I learn. Ellen Meeropol's books are not just interesting stories, but provide the reader with the chance to explore elements of social history and issues. It's one of my favorite aspects of her writing, and is a feature of this book. My family's personal arc overlaps with some of the Azalea Court characters, so I knew of some of the events in the earlier lives of Iris, Harriet, and Asher, but through Meeropol's writing I was able to see more, from a slightly different trajectory.

An elderly woman goes missing. The story unwinds through viewpoints of multiple characters, past and present times, to unravel hidden truths. Relationships can be glorious, but also messy, and Meeropol takes the reader through those of her characters, warts and all*. It is also an elegant tribute to the power of friendship, and the strength we can find in each other.

*apologies to Oliver Cromwell

I originally bought this book because it begins in the summer of 1968 in Detroit and I was going to college in Detroit at this time. I was hoping that it would bring back some of my memories from that time period - I got the memories and so much more. This was a fantastic well written book about family and forgiveness, protests and the justice system but most important it was about sisters and their love for each other despite their estrangement.

In the summer of 1968, Rosa and Esther participated in an anti-war protest in downtown Detroit. They were both fervent in their opposition but Esther had a small baby and her family was the primary focus in her life. They both made a bad decision which caused a policemen to get hurt. When their pictures showed up on the evening news, they were identified and arrested. It was apparent that they would both have jail time in their future, until Esther made the decision to testify against her sister so that she would be able to raise her baby. Her decision caused a major estrangement between the sisters and totally ended any communication between them. Over the years, they both wrote letters to each other but never mailed them. They missed each other but were both convinced that they were right and didn't make any effort to ease the division.

This is a novel about a family divided during a time that the country was divided. One sister wants to help the future through the family that she is raising and the other sister feels that it is important to fight injustice on a larger scale no matter the consequences. Even though this book took place in the 60's, much of it is relevant in the divided country that we are living in now

Brings to life the fervor and earnestness of sixties activism and explores the interplay between idealism, altruism, and personal responsibility and love. An engaging story and a good read for boomers who traded political ideals for conventional success and comfort, and for the new wave of young climate and social activists.

Current Quarantine read: Her Sister’s Tattoo by Ellen Meeropol. I’m not very far into it, but can tell it’s a novel that comes from deep in the heart. The author’s passion for justice shines through from the start. Before my copy arrived, I read a fascinating article by Ellen Meeropol in @momeggreview which I highly recommend you read. (http://momeggreview.com/2020/02/03/au...). I’ve known the author for decades now, first when each of us lived lives as nurses, and continuing as we grew into other lives to pursue. Ellen’s books have always been ones I look forward to reading as much for how they share the strong core of her beliefs as for what I learn. I expect this book, about two sisters, who, while at a Vietnam protest, become caught in a situation that puts them at the center of a court case, will carry that tradition foreword. It is a book of choice, of loyalty, and of passions, and a most welcome read in my hot little hands. (PS All of Meeropol’s other novels are in this set of our shelves.) #hersisterstattoo #quaranread #bookshelfie
#quarantinereads #reading #books #shelfie #bookshelves #redhenpress #ellenmeeropol #bookstagram #chsbookmobilequarantinechallenge Pandemic Read.

In Her Sister's Tattoo, Ellen Meeropol tells the story of two sisters. They protested the Vietnam War together in Detroit in 1968, but were torn apart when one went to prison and the other testified against her to stay with her own infant daughter. Later, the daughters of the two sisters meet at summer camp, the one knowing nothing of her family history.

Meeropol moves chronologically, starting with the powerful events of 1968, following through to 1980, then jumping to a final section set in 2003 during the Iraq War. She tells the story from multiple points of view and the sisters' never-sent letters. It's a timely story of political protest and sibling loyalty.

I'm a believer in global warming and climate change, but those of us who do believe don't often go beyond thinking of endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Jeremy, the protagonist of Kinship of Clover, has a strong connection to plants due to family trauma suffered as a child. He feels a kinship with, and a need to save, plants that have become extinct, or are becoming extinct.

But this book is not just about environmental activism. It's a story about family. About the connections that make and break us. It's about how families choose to live can affect the children, and how secrets kept can cause a lot of heartache, and yet, lead to redemption in the end.

I loved every single character in this book. The author did a great job of illustrating a unique family dynamic and it really shines through. And, as a supporter of (peaceful) political activism, this book also spoke to me, especially considering the times and the events in which we are currently living. Some find books with a message off-putting. Not me. I like a story with a message. Even better if the message does not overwhelm the story. The balance is beautiful here.

Kinship of Clover is a book for those who like characters they can fall in love with, and for those who believe in fighting for what's right in the world. I highly recommend it.


I received this book free of charge from the author or publisher.

Ellen Meeropol's Kinship of Clover is a book that is far more than the blurb (cited above) reveals. Told from a variety of characters' points of view, this book touches on complex real topics. Kinship of Clover is a deep and moving narrative that engages the reader from start to finish.

Jeremy, the character described in the blurb, is only one of several main characters. There is Zoe, a 17-year old girl tied to her wheelchair due to her spina bifida, whose intellect and passion infuses the pages. Then there is Flo, Zoe's former activist grandmother, who is struggling with the terrifying experience of losing her memories, her freedom, and her life to her rapidly progressing Alzheimer's. And there is Zoe's father, Sam, who is coming to terms with his mother's declining health while watching his only child fall in love and dealing with his own pervasive loneliness.

The strengths of this novel are twofold. First, the character development is truly masterful. Meeropol draws the reader into the lives and minds of not just one character but a whole cast. One can't help relating to the heartbreak of Flo's memory loss and declining health or the excitement of Zoe's first romance. If the book just stopped at a cast of well developed characters, it would be good but would not come close to the depth Kinship of Clover reaches. The second successful ingredient that makes this book outstanding is Meeropol's willingness to touch on rarely discussed topics, especially when put together in one text. The real challenges of mental illness, environmentalism, living with a complex disability, dementia, activism, interracial relationships, parenting, and family dynamics are discussed in an authentic and powerful manner.

This was the type of book that keep you thinking long after you finish it and make you want to go back and read it again. I highly recommend it!

Hurricane Island is the location of a detention centre in Maine, where US citizens suspected of terrorism are taken. As one of the largest hurricanes in recent history bears down on the island, a storm of another kind is taking place inside the facility.

I'm not usually a big suspense novel fan and I wasn't sure about this novel when I started it. First, one of the main characters is a woman named Gandalf. I am a huge LOTR fan so I wasn't really taken with the naming of the character but I went with it. This story is told from the POVs of several main characters. Meeropol does a good job of shifting between characters without disrupting the flow of the story. And the characters themselves are quite well developed, although at times stereotypical, particularly the male characters in the story (Henry Ames and evil Tobias).

The suspense and pacing of the novel are its greatest strengths. Meeropol has a intrinsic gift for knowing when to jump to another storyline and keep the reader engaged. This makes for a relatively fast read (or listen if you prefer the audiobook version of the novel, which I listened to). In addition, there is the mystery of Austin's great-great grandmother. A family secret that is linked to old letters she steals and a hidden cave on Hurricane Island. While not directly involved with the main plot of the story, this subplot adding a richness and depth to the book.

I mentioned the stereotypical male characters already. The antagonist in the book, Tobias, is almost too evil. A man who is determined to climb the ladder of power, he also is obsessed with interrogation methods, torture, and at the same time is lusting after young Austin. While any one of those things could have made Tobias an effective "bad guy," throwing them all into one character was a bit much. Henry Ames is more developed. While he hides a proclivity for women's clothing and a suspected heart condition, overall he is a likeable character.

Without giving away any spoilers, I did find the climax of the story built well to a satisfying finale. However, the actual ending of the book seemed a bit abrupt. Perhaps it was the narration of the audiobook but I actually said aloud "Oh, that's the end?"

Overall I would recommend this novel. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters and will be checking out more Ellen Meeropol novels in the future.

Full review coming, I promise, but in the meantime, I think this is my favorite of Ellen Meeropol's works to date. (Disclaimer-- I've been reading her writing for several decades, but most of that has been email, professional writing, then later, poetry, short stories, and her first two novels.) One of the things I like most about her fiction is how she entwines her passion for social justice, and her expertise in health care into her novels, Kinship on Clover being no exception. (Publication date: February 3, 2017.)

Ellen Meeropol’s new novel, On Hurricane Island, raises disturbing and profound questions about torture, human rights, the scope and ethical basis of ‘extra-legal interrogation” -- and about exactly how free we, in the U.S., really are.
I finished her masterful new book just as the long-awaited report from the Senate condemning torture by the CIA was made public. These euphemistically government- termed “enhanced interrogation techniques” - in Meeropol’s novel, the use of “cold torture” - have not just been used on suspected Al Qaeda terrorists overseas but on domestic detainees as well.
Her novel is no political tract; it’s a suspenseful page-turner with a varied cast of characters, all utterly human and believable. Using five different points of view – including the professor who is detained, the young woman who guards her, her grandfather, and two interrogators at odds in their approaches – Meeropol interweaves their political viewpoints and rich emotional lives.
The setting is Hurricane Island, off the coast of Maine, which is being used as a secret detention center. Through precise detail and evocative prose I experienced the texture of the rocks, the darkness of the caves, the clammy air. Fog shrouds the island and adds to the sense of danger and mystery, while the approaching hurricane changes the dynamics of everything -- and ratchets up the tension. All these natural elements fully earn their symbolic weight.
On Hurricane Island is a powerful novel. Not wanting to experience torture so visceral you will shake with cold yourself, you might be tempted to give it a pass. Don’t.

Meeropol has a light touch with this dark story, and gives the reader relief by intercutting her scenes and cycling through the various voices and perspectives. She has written a novel of ideas, activism, and political challenge, one that is illuminated by hope and heart.

I have a friend who, while we have walked many parts of life's path together, is far braver than I, unafraid to scale the heights of conviction, and pursue the passions of belief. (Not that I'm a total wuss, for I try to support my own positions, and follow through in the ways I cast my vote and dollars.) But I marvel, and am a little envious, of activist ability, and I constantly learn about human rights and our responsibilities from the glimpses of that more rugged path she takes. I am grateful that she often extends her hand, and gives me a tug up that rocky road to standing up for human rights. On Hurricane Island also helped me to explore those paths that are harder to climb. It took me on a journey far beyond a small island in Penobscot Bay, Maine and helped me to travel in the world that has become more evident since the evolution of terrorism into this century and the response of various agencies to contain and destroy it.

The course of actions that emerge in On Hurricane Island pit people of conviction against people of conviction, and it is not always easy to see who is right or wrong. Math professor Gandalf Cohen finds herself pulled into this shadow when she is abducted by federal agents and taken to the Hurricane Island's secret interrogation center. Isolated, afraid, and unsure of why she was taken, or where she is, she tries to make sense of what is happening. Populating her new existence are federal agents with varying motivations and secrets of their own, and a young civilian guard, shocked by some of what she learns. That this all takes place as a powerful hurricane rolls up the coast adds an element of tension and fury, not unlike waiting for the back wall of a storm's eye to slam in. the shifting points of view enhanced the reality of conflicts that emerge between various personalities and beliefs. Interspersed in the current day tale is another one, set before WWI when stone from the island was still being quarried.

I am a sucker for "interwoven" tales, and if a book teaches me something as well, I'm sold. This book did more that that, though. It encouraged me to once again, sit down and have a chat with my conscience and examine my beliefs: what is right, what is tolerable, what is wrong. What can I accept, what must I fight to change.

In full disclosure, let me add that the friend I mentioned in my opening paragraph is the author of this book. Thank you, Ellen Meeropol, for once again reaching back and helping me along the path of examining conviction.

The eI have a friend who, while we have walked many parts of life's path together, is far braver than I, unafraid to scale the heights of conviction, and pursue the passions of belief. (Not that I'm a total wuss, for I try to support my own positions, and follow through in the ways I cast my vote and dollars.) But I marvel, and am a little envious, of activist ability, and I constantly learn about human rights and our responsibilities from the glimpses of that more rugged path she takes. I am grateful that she often extends her hand, and gives me a tug up that rocky road to standing up for human rights. On Hurricane Island also helped me to explore those paths that are harder to climb. It took me on a journey far beyond a small island in Penobscot Bay, Maine and helped me to travel in the world that has become more evident since the evolution of terrorism into this century and the response of various agencies to contain and destroy it.

The course of actions that emerge in On Hurricane Island pit people of conviction against people of conviction, and it is not always easy to see who is right or wrong. Math professor Gandalf Cohen finds herself pulled into this shadow when she is abducted by federal agents and taken to the Hurricane Island's secret interrogation center. Isolated, afraid, and unsure of why she was taken, or where she is, she tries to make sense of what is happening. Populating her new existence are federal agents with varying motivations and secrets of their own, and a young civilian guard, shocked by some of what she learns. That this all takes place as a powerful hurricane rolls up the coast adds an element of tension and fury, not unlike waiting for the back wall of a storm's eye to slam in. the shifting points of view enhanced the reality of conflicts that emerge between various personalities and beliefs. Interspersed in the current day tale is another one, set before WWI when stone from the island was still being quarried.

I am a sucker for "interwoven" tales, and if a book teaches me something as well, I'm sold. This book did more that that, though. It encouraged me to once again, sit down and have a chat with my conscience and examine my beliefs: what is right, what is tolerable, what is wrong. What can I accept, what must I fight to change.

In full disclosure, let me add that the friend I mentioned in my opening paragraph is the author of this book. Thank you, Ellen Meeropol, for once again reaching back and helping me along the path of examining conviction.

Expected publication: March 3rd 2015 by Red Hen Press

Intrigued by the plot of young pregnant woman under “house arrest” because her previous child had died during a cult ritual becomes muddled in the labyrinth of dysfunction relationships. Nurse and home care agency only slightly believable.

Emily is a home health nurse. She is in her early 30s, but is showing signs of being a bit of an old maid. She is assigned to look after Pippa, a young woman, who is on house arrest, due to charges stemming from the death of her young daughter. To complicate matters, Pippa is living in a cult-like community, which may have also contributed to the toddler’s death. Emily finds herself drawn into Pippa’s unusual world and an unlikely friendship begins to blossom.
This is solid first novel, centering around Emily, although the story does switch POVs from several different characters, giving the story a stronger and richer perspective. I found this book fresh and engaging.½

This is an unusual and surprising read that slowly heats to a boil; by the last third, I was having trouble putting it down! Meeropol's characters are well-drawn and sympathetic; she creates psychological complexity and back-story in precise, elegant strokes, while never losing sight of her plot. Nicely paced and nuanced. A satisfying and thought-provoking story that allows us to examine the ways in which we judge each other and ourselves, and the circumstances under which true compassion can be possible.

I'm a sucker for first novels. Most of my reading friends know that, and will often send me premiere works of an author to sample. House Arrest would have appealed to me for that reason alone, but it was the writing, and the shaping of characters and story that won me.

This debut novel explores aspects of friendship that often are ignored. The two main characters come from completely different backgrounds, and each are reluctant to trust another individual, to move out of the comfort zone each has carved out of their worlds. These two women, a home health nurse and a young woman, pregnant with her second child, on home arrest after the suspicious death of her first child in a cult related activity, are thrown together by circumstance. They forge a bond that forces them each to struggle, grow, trust and forgive, in order to move forward in their lives -- a friendship born from diversity. Each examines their inner scale that balances right and wrong, sorting the moral, legal, ethical, and humane issues that ultimately both bind them together and free them.

I have to 'fess up. Ellen Meeropol is one of my dearest friends. We haven't been in as close touch as we once were, since we both retired from nursing, but she still remains in the count when someone asks me to think of my closest friends. I've read poetry and prose of hers in the past. What impressed me beyond the story was how she has grown since I last read her work. She has shaped and tempered her craft. She is a writer.

Knowing Ellen personally, it was interesting to see how she entwined her own passions for truth, political activism and her career of nursing into the story. We met as nurses working with children who were born with Spina Bifida and their families. Even in that work, she was an advocate and activist for children with disabilities and for people with latex allergies. We collaborated on many projects to increase awareness of latex allergy, and she was the person who first recognized the symptoms of my own illness. (Good nurse that I am, I ignored her, and almost died for my efforts. Moral: Always listen to Elli.) Today, twenty years after we first began increasing awareness of this allergy, it is still not well known, and there are still people, even in the medical profession, who do not take it seriously. I think were they to read this story, it might just make the difference.

The ultimate appeal of this book, though is with the characters. It is easy to imagine meeting any one of these people, with their beliefs, self-doubts and search for answers: Emily wondering if she'd missed signs of an infection in a patient, Gina's curiosity at meeting a celebrity patient, Sam's love for his daughter, Pippa's examination of the world she had taken for granted. Decisions are not always easily defined, but the reader is carried along completely as these characters move through the maze of issues which confront them. Every one of us has a story to tell. House Arrest allows us to glimpse the tales of some ordinary people who transcend the every-day, and reach toward the extraordinary.

(This unusual and thought provoking story is due out in February 2011)