Official Review: Tarot Cards And Tea Leaves

[pyb]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Tarot Cards And Tea Leaves" by Ben Woestenburg.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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“When I was fifteen years old, I killed a man.”
I don’t think that qualifies as a spoiler, as it is the very first sentence in Ben Woestenburg’s novel Tarot Cards and Tea Leaves, but it certainly qualifies as a hook. The story is about a woman trying to come to terms with a violent past while developing an understanding of how it shaped her as an adult. It is told through her voice and mostly takes place during the summer of 1969. As the skeins of detail are woven and the pattern of the cloth becomes recognizable, we come to learn the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the elusory first line.

Lizzie and her friends Jimmy and Mary-Ellen spend their summer days not unlike most adolescents, looking for ways to beat the heat and trying to conjure up some adventure. This summer their curiosity is peaked when new, “exotic” neighbors take up residence in the house next door which has been abandoned for as long as they can remember. The provincial teens find this older couple to be very peculiar, as the husband spends most of his time playing piano, while the wife reads tarot cards as she tends to a goat.

As the story unfolds, relationships between the characters are formed, strengthened, and some change. The focal point is the constant abuse Lizzie suffers at the hands of her alcoholic stepfather and how each of the characters deals (or doesn’t deal) with it.

For me, the most interesting characters were Werner and Maria, the odd couple, who we learn were concentration camp survivors. My favorite part of the book is a scene where Werner is giving Jimmy a violin lesson. He tells him to play like his life depended on it as he recollects a time on a train after the war had just ended when he, himself, had to play for four hours for a Russian soldier without making a mistake or he would be shot. It elicited the most visceral response to the book from me.

Some of the things that detracted from the book deal with content, others have to do with form. The book is categorized as historical fiction, but I didn’t feel any of the events that were mentioned - the 911 attacks, the moon landing, the Vietnam War - bore significance to the plot. They felt parenthetical. I didn’t, for example, see how the author’s mother dying in one of the Twin Towers came to bear on the essence of the story. The fact that she died is important, but the fact that it was in this terrorist attack was not.

There were also some abrupt shifts from the present (1990) to the past (1969) and sequences that felt very repetitive; like we’d already gone through this.

Finally, I have to mention an inconsistency in formatting. In the beginning of the book, whenever the author spoke to another character it was placed in italics. Later on, there were times the italics were used for the author’s private thoughts, and towards the end it seems the use of italics was mostly abandoned.

For the reasons mentioned above, I rate Tarot Cards and Tea Leaves 2 out of 4 stars. I just didn’t feel the content or style of the book brought anything fresh to the table.

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Tarot Cards And Tea Leaves
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[Heidi M Simone]

Very nice and detailed review, pyb! It seems like the premise had potential, but with the mentioned flaws, the read was no longer captivating. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres because I feel like I'm learning about some parts of history, but in a less dry/textbook kind of way. Too bad this isn't this case here. Oh well, I hope your next book you review is more promising!

[pyb]

Thank you hsimone!
Yes, while a few historical events are mentioned we do not learn anything about them, real or imagined, which is what I believe an historical work of fiction should provide. I think this was simply a matter of categorizing the genre incorrectly.

(And I just posted my next review, which I did really like!)

[kimmyschemy06]

That was a very honest review. The premise sounds promising. However, the overall execution seems to be a little bit wanting. I love historical fiction as I learn a lot from them Too bad this book doesn't live up to the expectation. Good job on the review.

[pyb]

Thank you kimmyschemy06 for your feedback.
I love historical fiction too...I just think this should have been labeled as "fiction."

[Silvermoon]

Good Review.

[pyb]

Thanks Silvermoon!

[Silvermoon]

Your welcome!?