Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse

July 20, 2015
This well-told, appealing book from Minnesota native Sullivan (The Cape Ann) is the latest installment in her cycle of Harvester novels. Nell Stillman is a widow and third-grade schoolteacher living in the rural town of Harvester, Minn., in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. She struggles to raise her son, Hilly; they reside in a snug apartment over Rabel’s Meat Market. She hires her younger cousin Elvira as a live-in housekeeper and also tutors her in reading and the social graces. Typical for a small community, Harvester is a hotbed of gossip, and when the unmarried and pregnant Elvira leaves in disgrace for Chicago, Nell is distraught. As the title suggests, the author establishes how Nell becomes a lifelong devotee to the works of the P.G. Wodehouse, starting with her acquiring his Love Among the Chickens from the town library, a bookcase kept at the Water and Power Company. She indulges her escapist daydreams through his books, and she even corresponds with him. After Hilly returns home tormented with PTSD from his World War I military service, and her love life experiences a shock, Nell increasingly turns to Wodehouse’s funny, ebullient fiction for her deliverance. She emerges as a likable, resilient protagonist in Sullivan’s inspiring novel, which should find its way onto the reading lists of book clubs.

July 15, 2015
More than 40 years of history bookend a lifelong love affair with reading for the resilient heroine of Sullivan's latest novel set in Harvester, Minnesota. Nell Stillman gets the shock of her life when her husband, Herbert, dies at the age of 35, leaving Nell penniless. Sullivan (What a Woman Must Do, 2000, etc.) tempers the harsh realities of widowhood at the turn of the 20th century with the kindness of Nell's small-town neighbors. The wealthy Lundeen family offers Nell a job as a public school teacher, while Nell's younger cousin, Elvira, moves in to help her care for her infant son. The rest of the book covers Nell's life from that point until her death many years later, which is foretold in an obituary in the first chapter. Nell's friends and family members precede her in death as they would in real life-some get sick, some go off to war, and others drop dead without any foreshadowing. In the works of British novelist P.G. Wodehouse, however, Nell discovers a "world that provided all that the so-called real world withheld-most especially, friends who didn't leave." With all the buildup, a more detailed discussion of Wodehouse's novels would have been appreciated. But Nell's enthusiasm for his books evokes a simpler time when reading and friendship could ward off despair. Nell manages to find hope-even love-in every stage of her life, the most satisfying of which is her interaction with her favorite author. Nell's life experiences read like her book collection-some are part of a series, some stand alone, and all are ultimately comforting and timeless.

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September 1, 2015
During the opening days of the twentieth-century in the small farming community of Harvester, Minnesota, there are few options for a penniless young widow left to raise her infant son on her own. Fortunately for Nell Stillman, good friends come to her aid by helping her obtain a position as a third-grade teacher. Her newly changed status puts her under even more of a microscope, however, and as she develops a relationship with a high-powered politician, Nell becomes the target of threatening notes by a cowardly bully. With the support of a coterie of caring friends and the words and wisdom found in the works of her beloved P. G. Wodehouse, Nell manages to thrive in a rapidly changing world and survive the losses that inevitably befall and affect a tight-knit community. Reviving characters from previous novels, Sullivan (Gardenias, 2005) presents a fresh glimpse into small-town life, and gently but piercingly acknowledges the essential values of kindness and compassion that foster courage in the face of hardship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)