Tangerine...post reprint

Tangerine is the book my discussion group is talking about on Friday, so I decided to re-post.  I found the second reading even more fascinating and peculiar. I have pages of questions, speculations and theories.  I even contacted the author with one burning question.  I hope she responds. The last character that challenged me as much as Alice and Lucy was Sarah Woodruff in The French Lieutenant's Woman. She is haunting, mysterious, and lovely all at the same time.

This was my book choice.   My choices are generally met with some polite resistance and so I tried to make a last minute switch.  The books had already been ordered, so I am hoping for a spirited discussion on Friday. We're having guests who have been to Morocco so that might help.

Here's the original post from 3.4.1

Alice Shipley lies.  Lucy Mason lies.  John, Alice's husband lies.  That's what we know right from the get go of this fast moving novel that would surely have piqued Alfred Hitchcock's interest.  In short order, we know that Lucy is the antagonist; unlike Gone Girl, which Tangerine has been compared to, we don't have to muddle over who did it, who's doing it, or who will do something dastardly next.  What we need to know is why John married the mousy (but rich) Alice and, in short order, insisted they move to Morocco.  We need to know why Lucy, Alice's dangerously obsessive college roommate, shows up in Morocco uninvited and unannounced. And then there's Youssef, a native Tangerine, known for making a fine living duping and blackmailing unsuspecting tourists and expats.  The quartet orchestrates a plot filled with subtle movements leading to...well, read the book and you decide what's real and what's not.

Set against the sweltering Moroccan sun, the characters sizzle and and the plot burns.  This is a moody novel.  Christine Mangan not only showed me Tangier, she took me there, to the markets, to the cafes and to the dirty bars and opium dens.  Some readers might find her exquisite prose mismatched for the evil doings that take place in this exotic and mysterious setting.  However, when the plot reaches its boiling point, the style changes becoming faster, pulsating and twisting.  The inconsistency bothered me at first, but it served to quickly unravel the darkness that had been long hidden, as well as preparing us for the complex contorting yet to come. The final chapters revert back to the pensive style with which the book opened.

You may feel echoes of Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) in the plot, but this book is far more sophisticated - more grown up.  Read it in the winter and let the Tangerine sun warm you.  Read it in the summer on your deck, and let the heat carry you to Tangier.  Just read it.  If nothing else, it will make you grateful for the folks you surround yourself with, and if you think your life is a little too boring, you might decide that quiet is a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by.