Tigers in Red Weather

Klaussmann’s first novel has assured touches and enmeshes you in the life of an American family. Starting in post-war 1945 and spanning the following 24 years, this fascinating novel follows the lives of the family, mostly through their stays at their summer retreat on the rural east coast. It is told through the distinctive voices of five of the family in separate parts, so that at times, events are repeated, but viewed from a different perspective that alters the readers understanding of the events. Through the years, the relationships between the family members, subtly change, in a thoroughly realistic way, which adds much to the plot and perceptively reveals the tensions in the family as the atmosphere grows progressively darker show more after the early lighter mood and optimism of peace. show less

I picked this book up partly because of the good reviews but also out of a petty desire to see if the author had gotten her location details right (I live on the Vineyard). I soon realized that the book was so intimately about the family that very little of the world around it mattered much, and that with one trivial exception (she wrote "Vineyard Haven lighthouse" instead of "West Chop light") the smattering of local details were correct. I couldn't really judge the feeling of the society because Edgartown summer people are not my crowd (though I've worked for some of them, briefly).

The book was very well written, but I should have read the description more closely. It's a family saga with a lot of creepiness -- not a genre I normally show more enjoy. Most of the characters were despicable but vivid and at least partly sympathetic. I stayed up late to finish it because I had to see how it turned out, reading the last 80 pages after my initial attempt at lights out. My mother once said, "I don't like to hear about murders happening here, even if they're in fiction," and I feel the same, but if that doesn't bother you then go ahead and dive in. show less

Tigers in Red Weather first came to my attention by the gorgeous cover – it suggested lazy summer days of long ago (not to mention retro fashion). But underneath this innocent cover lies a wealth of themes from infidelity to murder. It does contain long hot days of summers from the 1940s to the 1960s but there’s a dark undercurrent running through it.

Tigers in Red Weather is told by five different characters – first Nick, who is trying to adjust to life as a military wife and then later, her daughter Daisy who with her cousin Ed, who finds a corpse one summer. The tale then moves to Daisy’s father and Nick’s husband Hughes – war time love affairs and what to do with something quite sinister. He’s followed by Nick’s show more cousin and Ed’s mother, Helena, who is suffering marital problems that leads to problems. Finally, we hear from Ed to sum up if the reader’s suspicions are correct.

I’m deliberately not describing the plot in this review because I think one of the strengths is in how the themes are revealed. With each character, we get just a little more detail each time and can piece the issues together. The climax is truly gripping and will raise a lot of questions about what is right and what is wrong to do in the circumstances. As the book is so multilayered, it is also a good choice for book groups as there are many topics to be covered!

Klaussmann’s writing reminded me of both Richard Yates and F. Scott Fitzgerald. There are elements of pathos, of missing something but not being sure exactly what and looking for that elusive final clue to complete happiness. Is it a co-incidence that Nick’s daughter is called Daisy? (There’s a character in The Great Gatsby called Daisy). However, Klaussmann’s Daisy is (eventually) a lot wiser, while Nick is somewhat more like Gatsby in her pursuit of endless fun. All characters have a problem – whether it’s drinking, pills or something more sinister and their flaws only serve to make them more interesting. I wish the structure was a little tighter, but the novel still pulls quite an impact.

This is a solid debut and I’ll be interested to pick up Klaussmann’s next book. Her characterisation and settings that evoke endless summer days are a pleasure to read.

I received an ARC of this book.

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The press release says

Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summer heat, sunbleached boat docks, and midnight gin parties on Martha's Vineyard in a glorious old family estate known as Tiger House. In the days following the end of the Second World War, the world seems to offer itself up, and the two women are on the cusp of their 'real lives': Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is heading for a reunion with her own young husband, Hughes, about to return from the war.

This one was a really pleasant surprise. I grabbed it from Net Galley and loaded it on my Nook just before we left on vacation earlier this month and I'm really glad I did. I was prepared for a fluffy beach read, and instead was show more treated to a brilliantly written story of family intrigue, dark secrets, a spectacular sense of place, and well-crafted characters. Klaussmann tells us the story from each of the five main characters' point of view, and the result is breathtaking. It's five stories, all bound together, about expectations, marriages gone awry, romances dying on the vine, with each story clearly labeled in place and time so we are always at ease with where we are on the journey. The deeper into the book I got, the less I wanted to put it down.

The marketing blurb continues:

Soon the gilt begins to crack. Helena's husband is not the man he seemed to be, and Hughes has returned from the war distant, his inner light curtained over. On the brink of the 1960s, back at Tiger House, Nick and Helena--with their children, Daisy and Ed--try to recapture that sense of possibility. But when Daisy and Ed discover the victim of a brutal murder, the intrusion of violence causes everything to unravel. The members of the family spin out of their prescribed orbits, secrets come to light, and nothing about their lives will ever be the same.

Even the genre is difficult to put a label on. It can be a mystery but the mysterious elements aren't the driving force; it could be a romance but those relationships, while important, aren't pulling the train either; for some readers it will be a coming of age novel; others will view it as historical fiction- particularly those who want to re-live summers spent on Martha's Vineyard, World War II coming home stories, and growing up in the Eisenhower days; some will find it very dark but others will be able to ignore the dark parts and see it simply as a tale of generational and psychological drama. However you read it, what it is NOT is boring. It's a first class good read. show less

Tigers in Red Weather houses a story that had a very, very bold undertaking. In this story, Liza Klaussmann weaves together a tale that not only spans years (and decades) but also switches from one point of view to the next. What do I mean?

The first section of time periods is devoted to one character, but then we go back to those same time periods, this time seen through the eyes of the next character...so on and so forth. What should have been completely confusing, as a result, is at times repetitive, but also filled with revelation upon revelation heaped on the reader as the story unfolds.

While reading Tigers in Red Weather I was reminded of eating an artichoke. No, really, I was. One by one the petals get pulled away and savored, show more enjoyed, then discarded until finally those last few are peeled away and the heart of the artichoke (or story) is bared, ready to be fully devoured and relished. And that's what happened with this story - I devoured those final moments and was shocked by what they meant to the rest of the story.

In some ways, Tigers is a coming-of-age story - for both the young people and their parents involved in the story. In others, it's a tragic look at how different things were in the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Post-war relationships are thoroughly explored, innocence lost, and family relationships are brutally bared as their secrets come to light.

A thoroughly engrossing novel. show less

Book on CD read by Katherine Kellgren

Cousins Nick and Helena grew up spending idyllic summers at Tiger House, the family’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard. As World War 2 ends, the two young women are about to begin their “real” lives – Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage to producer Avery Lewis, while Nick travels to Florida to reunite with her husband Hughes Derringer, home from the war. But reality doesn’t meet their expectations. Twelve years later, the cousins – along with their children Daisy and Ed – try to recapture their memories by once again spending the summer at Tiger House. But when Daisy and Ed make a gruesome discovery, the secrets and lies that each family member thought were safely buried begin to show more push to the surface.

This is Klaussmann’s debut and I see a nugget of a good novel here. But the execution falters. The dialogue is tortured. And the fractured timeline and changes in point of view do little to help the story arc. Klaussmann gives the reader some clues … dividing the book into sections titled with the character from whose point of view events will be relayed: Nick, Daisy, Helena, Hughes, Ed, and heading each chapter with the year and month. However, within the chapters events go back and forth in time as the character reflects on things. So, a chapter might be titled 1947: February, but some events relayed may have taken place months or years previously. I’m sure the author intended that this device would help build suspense, but mostly it just confused me. By the time the big reveal takes place I didn’t care, I just wanted the book to end.

Katherine Kellgren’s performance on the audio does nothing to help the novel. She has a tendency to be overly dramatic when voicing the characters. I wound up reading the text for more than half the novel. ZERO stars for the audio performance. show less

This is a tale of a family, a Martha's Vineyard society kind of family, starting with the end of WWII and moving on through the late 60s. The first third of the book is dominated by Nick, a controlling young woman who has married who she was supposed to marry, and hasn't had a happy day since. She does what she must while yearning for other things (and other men), and produces the required child, Daisy. Then a murder in the the community shakes things up, for everyone.

Next we hear from Helena, Nick's cousin, though really like a sister to her, gets her say. Her first husband died in the war shortly after their marriage, and when we meet her, she is on her way to Hollywood to marry her second husband, a filmmaker. It doesn't take her show more long to find that he is actually a grifter and is obsessed with a dead actress. Helena drifts into alcohol and drugs, taking a short break to have a baby to see if that would improve her marriage. It didn't, and she finds her son to be rather strange and frightening, so once more she moves into the arms of booze and drugs. She is visiting her cousin in Martha's Vineyard the summer of the murder, and it was in fact her son Ed and Nick's daughter Daisy who find the mutilated body. Sunny Daisy comes through it well, but Ed seems to get even more strange and worrisome. Helena's resentment of Nick begins to grow in to a complicated hate.

Hughes, Nick's husband, takes over the story for a bit, offering fresh perspective on things already known, as well as some secrets of his own. Then Ed get's his turn, finishing the book with the stark confirmation and clarification of so many of the doubts and mysteries the whole family has held for 25+ years.

This is not a cheerful book in any way. However, the writing is mesmerizing, with crisp dialog that makes you feel as if you are right there with the characters, and drives you to turn page after page into the wee hours of the morning. This is a debut novel, and a very impressive one. I'll be eagerly looking for more from Klaussmann in the future. show less