Lesley Kagen manages to pack in quite a lot in sophomore novel Land of a Hundred Wonders — romance, a murder mystery, crazy family dynamics, a tragic accident, civil rights and racial prejudice, illicit affairs, an intuitively helpful dog named Keeper . . . and if it sounds like a ton to see in one book, you’re probably right. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t love it!
Land of a Hundred Wonders is the story of Gibby McGraw, the so-called Not Quite Right (NQR) resident living in Cray Ridge, Kentucky in 1973. After a terrible car wreck that claims the lives of her mother and father when she is a teenager, sole survivor Gibby doesn’t quite see things the way other folks in town do. Not to mention her memory is certainly not what it used to be.
Aspiring journalist Gibby is living a quiet life with her beloved Grampa, dog Keeper and friend Miss Florida at their Top O’ The Mornin’ diner, working on community pieces for her own newspaper bulletin. After the car wreck, Gib develops a close friendship with Miss Lydia, another woman considered NQR around Cray Ridge for her belief in “mystical powers” and communication with the dead. Gibby visits Miss Lydia often in Hundred Wonders, Lydia’s home and the town cemetary, to speak with her mama. Lydia tells her, of course, that her mother isn’t resting in peace — she’s too worried about Gibby and her “bein’ NQR.” Gib decides she’s going to prove to her mama without a doubt that she’s fine here on Earth and not at all NQR — she’s QR, all right.
The best way for her to do this is, of course, to solve the murder of local politician and ne’er-do-well Buster Malloy, who turns up dead on Browntown Beach. As Gibby’s the only one to discover the fresh corpse, she snaps a few photos and sets about her work in secrecy, determined to write a bold, comprehensive article so her mother will know she’s fine in the head and will stop bothering Miss Lydia passing messages back and forth. And that’s just what she does.
We’re dropped into Gibby’s town, life and story with an understanding that, as a narrator, she’s not completely reliable. She frequently skips around in the story, forgetting important details. We’re introduced to people around town at her leisure, which sometimes could be hurried along. Important events, news and scandals around Cray Ridge are completely omitted — until the end of the story — because Gibby is unable to remember them ever happening, even if she was party to all of the happenings. Effectively, we as readers are discovering all of these events right along with her, though they may have happened years ago.
Land of a Hundred Wonders was packed with tons of twists, turns and surprising revelations. Where I started and where I ended up were pretty far from one another! Kagen has mastered Gibby’s Southern twang and the colloquialisms of Cray Ridge, where all of the characters have known each other since birth — but are still rightly skeptical of one another. Sprinkled with unforgettable folks and a truly original plotline, I really loved this book. Even if we’re battered with “heavy issue” after “heavy issue” — rape, abuse, murder, prejudice, racial intolerance (it is 1973, ‘member, y’all?) — Kagen deftly moves through the novel with light hand, presenting each in turn, exploring them and moving on.
I found myself genuinely championing Gibby and wanting her to become QR — though she may (or may not) have been just fine all along. As more and more details of Gibby’s car crash, a treasure map and several illicit affairs come to light, Land of a Hundred Wonders kept me intrigued from start to finish.
4 out of 5
ISBN: 0451224094 ♥ Purchase from Amazon ♥ Author Website
Review copy obtained as a perk of being a bookseller
