The White Mary: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Kira Salak
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: EBooks
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $15.01 (60%)
Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 22023
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B001EB5H98
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
A young woman journeys deep into the untamed jungle, wrestling with love and loss, trauma and healing, faith and redemption, in this sweeping debut from “the gutsiest woman adventurer of our day” (Book Magazine) Marika Vecera, an accomplished war reporter, has dedicated her life to helping the world’s oppressed and forgotten. When not on one of her dangerous assignments, she lives in Boston, exploring a new relationship with Seb, a psychologist who offers her glimpses of a better world. Returning from a harrowing assignment in the Congo where she was kidnapped by rebel soldiers, Marika learns that a man she has always admired from afar, Pulitzer-winning war correspondent Robert Lewis, has committed suicide. Stunned, she abandons her magazine work to write Lewis’s biography, settling down with Seb as their intimacy grows. But when Marika finds a curious letter from a missionary claiming to have seen Lewis in the remote jungle of Papua New Guinea, she has to wonder, What if Lewis isn’t dead? Marika soon leaves Seb to embark on her ultimate journey in one of the world’s most exotic and unknown lands. Through her eyes we experience the harsh realities of jungle travel, embrace the mythology of native tribes, and receive the special wisdom of Tobo, a witch doctor and sage, as we follow her extraordinary quest to learn the truth about Lewis—and about herself, along the way.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 64 more reviews...
 A great work of literary fiction! December 1, 2008
Jake
It was such a pleasant surprise to read the White Mary. It is so rare to find a new book that is written in the style of the great literature of the early to mid twentieth century today. The White Mary is not just an amazing story of self realization, but also a great work of fiction bound to become a classic of our time.
I will not bother giving a synopsis as many other reviewers have done this.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read a well written novel!
 Mixed bag November 27, 2008
Avid Reader (Cambridge, MA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Maybe one of my problems in reading this book was that it was the second book in a row I had read that was written by a journalist. The style is terse, descriptions are short or nonexistent. Moods are evoked by few words. Not to say I like lengthy wordy books, say like Jonathan Strange, but I wanted a middle ground. The only way I could continue to read was to pretend I was reading a newspaper article where brevity counts. It helped until dialog came along and then again I felt bereft. Really really sparse dialog which worked fine with the witch doctor but not with the other characters, the ones who spoke English. It reminded me a bit of Cecilia Holland. Sort of like: She walked across the floor. The window was open. Somewhere a door closed with a soft thud.... Okay, maybe not so bad, but the style didn't work for me here. It might be why many call this book "an easy read" but it was anything but and not for the style of writing but for what the book was about. Hey, redemptive stories are never easy reads but calling this a "fun book" or a "Harlequin" novel as some reviewers have done is just ridiculous. (And note to some reviewers: Papua New Guinea is just north of Australia, not in Africa) If you've read Louis de Bernieres South American trilogy you will have some idea of some of the torture scenes that are described in this book. They too are thankfully tersely handled but still horrific.
Okay, and now a spoiler, and a question. Are we supposed to believe that Lewis was also redeemed by the heroine sleeping with him proving that he was still potent after losing his sexual ability after being tortured by electric wires to his nether parts? What was the real point of that? I spent most of the book thinking she was looking for a father replacement and was a little puzzled by this act for both of them. Their dialog is practically nonexistent (suprise!) but he leaves her a note along with the gift of the carved box he's always working on and signs the note "love"?
And a very very minor qualm - coming from Boston I cringe when I see Boston Common and Public Garden written as plurals: Commons and Gardens, but perhaps since I read an ARC this was fixed by an editor. I did get a kick out of the statues along the Charles River described as guano covered though.
The theme of the book kind of reminds me of The English Patient (the movie) - life is full of horrors that will scar our souls but there is still hope. We can carry on because there is still love to be found.
Pass up this pale mary November 27, 2008
beckyjean (East Granby, CT)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Unfortunately, the author spends this entire book breaking the cliched cardinal rule of writing -- show, don't tell. For example, we're told about the protagonist's murdered father and insane mother. We're _told_. We are never shown any flashbacks in which these people are alive and relating to the protagonist. We're just supposed to swallow the scenario whole, and believe in it, care about it, for the balance of the book.
The book's third-person-omniscient point of view doesn't help matters. At some point, we're inside the head of nearly every character in the book, being told things rather than being shown them. Sometimes we're in more than one character's head in a single scene. Sometimes we're inside the "head" of something like a knife or a headache -- more than once, I noticed the author personifying objects and sensations. There was a headache or a fever that "wanted" to split somebody's head in two, or something like that. Lots of window dressing, but very little meaning.
The book tells nearly everything and shows almost nothing, and despite the author's seeming desire to be explicit, the writing remains imprecise. For just one of many possible examples of the imprecision -- at one point, the author describes a young government official as wearing a uniformly "solemn" expression, but a couple of sentences later notes that his eyes are darting around the room, which doesn't seem very solemn at all. The book is full of this type of garbled observation.
The characters are flat and expository. The romantic male figure, Seb, is meant to be sensitive and caring but he comes off sappy. It seems like Seb's character is propped up to show the reader how businesslike and non-touchyfeely Marika, the protagonist, is. The two characters continually butt against one other and never engage in a way that seems believable. Even when they're at their most comfortable with one another, they speak in pronouncements about how much they care about each other. The famous journalist Marika pursues tells her the story of his murdered son's decomposition, and somehow that story is lacks immediacy, lacks horror. Also baffling were the fact that the famous journalist mentioned having told the decomposition story to native children who couldn't understand English, and the fact that the author includes almost nothing about Marika's reaction to hearing this story. It seems to have been included as pure exposition.
In addition to being flat, the characters were just plain implausible. I had a really hard time believing that the hardened journalist would confess to Marika that he'd promised himself he wouldn't care about anyone anymore (but, of course, he finds himself caring about _her_). Certainly not at the point in the book at which this happens. I also had a hard time believing that Marika, a professional journalist who regularly visits countries where women are second-class citizens or worse, would balk in such an ignorant manner at being made to go to a menstrual hut while having her period. Surely someone in that line of work would have some understanding of customs and superstitions that aren't in line with modern civilization.
The closest the book comes to creating a real character is with the character of Tobo the witch doctor. Tobo is dryly funny, foolish, superstitious, wise, fatalistic, and caring all at once. I found him to be the only likeable character in the book, and I was pleased that he had the last word.
But truthfully, I wouldn't pick up this book just for Tobo. The writing is very bland, and scenes that are meant to stir some emotion in the reader (including, unfortunately, the torture scenes) simply do not work. Nothing really happens in this book, which would have been something very different in the hands of a more dynamic writer.
A story of self discovery, set in the jungles of Papua New Guinea November 25, 2008
Gwyneth Calvetti (West Salem, WI United States)
"The White Mary" captured my attention with its promise of adventure in exotic places, leading to self revelation for the story's heroine, Marika Vecera. The author, Kira Salak, shares upfront in her forward that this novel is as much based on her own life as her writer's imagination. She has led an interesting life indeed.
The story starts near the end, bringing Ms. Vecera into the heart of Papua New Guinea, led on a journey to discover for herself if the man who inspired her journalism career is really still alive in a remote jungle, as some have reported. Being thrust into the story without any real explanation was a bit jarring for me as a reader, but the author deftly alternates between the present and the past, presented as flashbacks, to help the reader understand the story as it unfolds. This direct approach to the narrative helps frame the life the main character has led, one of action rather than introspection, at the same time compelling the reader to stick with it to see how this story will develop.
In a new relationship with Seb, she struggles to become emotionally available to him, seeking out assignments in war zones overseas to escape commitment. Parts of this narrative deal with raw and horrifying events, events that reporters traveling into the thick of war zones might experience. The writing is honest and at times graphic, which may be difficult for some readers. It is not gratuitous, but explains the choices the characters involved have made in their own response to life. In fact, the graphic events stand as a foil to the hope for herself and for others that Ms. Vecera ultimately discovers as she endures hardships in a wild and foreign land. This is a story of adventure, love and ultimately hope for humanity, set in wild and exotic places few have ever ventured.
Tour de Force in the Jungle November 25, 2008
Jeannie Mancini (san mateo, CA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Droning insects, screeching monkeys, and slithering snakes create the opening scene after you crack open the cover of The White Mary, Kira Salaks fictional debut. The fetid and uncanny stillness of the swampy atmosphere has the reader imagining they have been transported back into a Jurassic period of time. Devoid of human occupation with only the wildest of nature's creatures around you. The story begins with the heroine, gliding in a dugout canoe through the eerie, yet magical, mangrove infested waterways of Papua New Guinea. She is being led into the heart of the jungle by a native guide named Tobo, who thinks she is a white witch because of her red hair. The soundless environment is only occasionally broken by the buzz of a mosquito, or the sudden crackling ripple of water broken by a surfacing crocodile.
Marika Vecera is an award winning Foreign Correspondent Journalist. Her newest mission is to write a biography about her own journalist hero, Robert Lewis. After returning from a harrowing escape from an attack in the African Congo that nearly killed her, she buries her post traumatic emotions by writing about Robert Lewis' life who was recently presumed dead from suicide. In researching his life, Marika finds a startling piece of information that may lead to her finding he is still alive, deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
This incredible and profound literary novel breaks ground and offers the reader a philosophical insight into Marika's upcoming travels. Both her journey into the interior of Papua New Guinea's dangerous country, and into the personal journey of her soul as she reveals an intimate portrait of her fears, heartaches, and journey of healing.
The book alternates between chapters of Marika's death defying trek through the jungle, her flashbacks of her near death attack in Zaire, and of her tender but tumultous romance with Seb, her psychiatrist boyfriend whom she leaves behind in a trail of tears. An added bonus too are wonderful Papua New Guinea folklore tibits that insert a little fun and lightheartedness when at times the story is so emotionally exhausting the reader might feel drained.
The reader encounters an inside view of Papua New Guinea's native village life with their throbbing drums, mosquitos that suck your blood incessantly like hungry vampires, and where witch doctors dance around ailing souls evoking spirit gods to keep them all from harm.
Within this story I found so much power, passion and poignancy. There is great depth and beauty to this novel that a reader doesn't encounter too often. I loved this book and felt awe inspired that an author could have such incredible talent. Salek has the incredible ability to at one moment describe abominable graphic violence enough to make you cringe, yet in other moments write the most tender and precious, sweet and sexy love scenes that have you crying for the beauty of it all. It is soul-searching, sensual, and yes, scary too.
I would highly recommend this book to most people I know, but it's certainly not for the weak-kneed or faint of heart. There are some scenes that are quite brutal and unpleasant. I believe, this is an award-winning book. It doesn't get much better than this.
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