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Tigers in Red Weather
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.
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.
Brilliantly told from five points of view, with a magical elegance and suspenseful dark longing, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment.
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.
Brilliantly told from five points of view, with a magical elegance and suspenseful dark longing, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment.
389 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2012
368 people are currently reading
13809 people want to read
About the author
Liza Klaussmann
5 books296 followersLiza Klaussmann worked as a journalist for the New York Times for over a decade. She received a BA in Creative Writing from Barnard College, where she was awarded the Howard M. Teichman Prize for Prose. She lived in Paris for ten years and she recently completed with distinction an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, in London, where she lives. She is the great-great-great granddaughter of Herman Melville.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,969 reviews
February 7, 2016
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. The book jacket compares its contents to the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Patricia Highsmith, two writers whom I adore (and a mash-up made in heaven). I also live in Cambridge and pass many of the same streets as the book's protagonists.
I loved the atmosphere (and the period details) of the novel but found the plot somewhat tedious and boring. The first four sections (told by Nick, Daisy, Helena, and Hughes, respectively) are mostly one-dimensional character sketches told with predictable dialogue and banal prose (e.g., the condensation of a martini glass is described as "sweat" or "sweaty").
Not much happens in the first four sections, and then there is a rush of events and action in the final section (that narrated by "Ed" in his first-person voice). Unfortunately, the events in the last section are simply too disjointed from the earlier narrative that they strain credulity and the author introduces too many tangents that remain unresolved. For example, why does Ed say that Frank Wilcox is his biological father (or does he)? Whatever happens to Avery Lewis after he gets the money he was after? Ultimately, the author leaves too many loose ends, rendering this novel incredibly unsatisfying...
I loved the atmosphere (and the period details) of the novel but found the plot somewhat tedious and boring. The first four sections (told by Nick, Daisy, Helena, and Hughes, respectively) are mostly one-dimensional character sketches told with predictable dialogue and banal prose (e.g., the condensation of a martini glass is described as "sweat" or "sweaty").
Not much happens in the first four sections, and then there is a rush of events and action in the final section (that narrated by "Ed" in his first-person voice). Unfortunately, the events in the last section are simply too disjointed from the earlier narrative that they strain credulity and the author introduces too many tangents that remain unresolved. For example, why does Ed say that Frank Wilcox is his biological father (or does he)? Whatever happens to Avery Lewis after he gets the money he was after? Ultimately, the author leaves too many loose ends, rendering this novel incredibly unsatisfying...
August 29, 2012
Silly me, I scanned the reviews of this book and came away with the impression it would be a light beach read about a pair of cousins after World War II, their children, a little bit historical fiction and family drama and intergenerational perspective, something similar to J. Courtney Sullivan's Maine.
I was wrong.
Nick and Helena are two cousins, close in age, who go their separate ways after World War II comes to a close. Nick to be reunited with her husband Hughes, who is distant after his return from wartime Britain, and Helena with a skeevy insurance man who has grand plans in Hollywood. They each have children and the cousins reunite during the summer at their family home on Martha's Vineyard. The story is told through alternating family members, including Nick's daughter Daisy and Helena's son Ed. Sounds like a breezy beach vacation through post-war America with a little family drama right?
Not quite. There is a seriously creepy vein running through the story. And I'm not just talking about Ed, the super creeper cousin. Towards the end of the book, Nick and Helena start to give off Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? vibes. The entire novel is darker than the cover would convey. I can not even begin to describe this without spoiling the story, so I will stop. The one thing I am left ruminating over is whether I couldn't stop reading this book because it was good, because the suspense was masterful or whether I was just so confused by having my expectations dashed.
I was wrong.
Nick and Helena are two cousins, close in age, who go their separate ways after World War II comes to a close. Nick to be reunited with her husband Hughes, who is distant after his return from wartime Britain, and Helena with a skeevy insurance man who has grand plans in Hollywood. They each have children and the cousins reunite during the summer at their family home on Martha's Vineyard. The story is told through alternating family members, including Nick's daughter Daisy and Helena's son Ed. Sounds like a breezy beach vacation through post-war America with a little family drama right?
Not quite. There is a seriously creepy vein running through the story. And I'm not just talking about Ed, the super creeper cousin. Towards the end of the book, Nick and Helena start to give off Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? vibes. The entire novel is darker than the cover would convey. I can not even begin to describe this without spoiling the story, so I will stop. The one thing I am left ruminating over is whether I couldn't stop reading this book because it was good, because the suspense was masterful or whether I was just so confused by having my expectations dashed.
June 19, 2012
Wow...what a debut! Somehow this book manages to exist as both beach-read and book-club material. The plot is riveting, which makes the book hard to put down, but it is the superb character portraits that kept me reading long into the night. The narrative technique used is very effective, and the author succeeds in creating multi-dimensional and fascinating characters whose inner lives are revealed in tiny bits until the picture is complete. Each of the five sections is narrated by a different character; each character offers another perspective on pivotal moments in their shared lives over a 20-plus year period. This was so much more powerful than a traditional narrative. The writing is straightforward and honest; it also offers tremendous insight on the inner workings of marriage and the historical setting. Highly recommended!
August 12, 2016
I just need to stop reading historical fiction. Like right now. But I keep trying, like the little kid who keeps reaching for the electric burner, even though he’s bound to burn himself for the thirteenth time and once again lose several layers of skin in the process, or like the woman who just can’t stop dating that man-child with the six-pack abs and commitment issues and the Mickey Mouse voice, because damn it she can bounce quarters off his belly button, and that ought to be worth a few more rounds on the merry-go-round.
Because like that little kid I want to reach out and just one time find the burner turned off, or like the woman I just want to meet a man who looks like Brad Pitt but has a bit of substance for once in her damned life. Well, not me personally, but I feel your pain sister. With historical fiction, I am beginning to think it’s a bit personal, and I am beginning to think I’m the only one who hasn’t been let in on this wonderful, exotic secret that will somehow change my life, but maybe not. And it’s frustrating and intoxicating and I keep coming back for more. Just spin me one more time, and this stint is bound to be different.
And I end up…right back where I started. Let’s start with the dialogue shall we. Now I love me some good dialogue. I want to hug it and squeeze it and kiss it and pat its little forehead and somehow find a way to make it my own. More often than not (and this novel is no exception), I end up disappointed with the overused phrases tossed in my direction. It reminds me of the jellybeans often found beneath the sofa cushions. Just don’t eat them. Sure, they might have been great and wonderful three months ago (like the dialogue might have been snappy and witty about two or three generations ago), but I’m not feeling the love now. And I want to feel the love.
The characters proved a bit too unlikeable. Heck, let’s face it, at least one or two were probably borderline bastards. And that works for me, if the others pick up the slack and shine brighter than a Colt revolver. But I’ll be honest: I didn’t really like any of the sons-a-bitches. Again, sometimes that works when it’s done correctly, but yeah, that wasn’t really working for me either. The characters were just a bit too full of themselves, or completely and totally self-involved (like six-pack abs guy).
Let’s talk about setting. I love Massachusetts and Boston. I love the Cape and the North Shore with its quaint little towns and storybook houses. I love it even more when its spring or summer or fall, and when there isn’t a foot of snow on the ground with layers of ice packed underneath. But this didn’t really feel like Massachusetts to me. Something was just a bit off, and that’s probably a rather quick way of summing up TIGERS IN RED WEATHER.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
Because like that little kid I want to reach out and just one time find the burner turned off, or like the woman I just want to meet a man who looks like Brad Pitt but has a bit of substance for once in her damned life. Well, not me personally, but I feel your pain sister. With historical fiction, I am beginning to think it’s a bit personal, and I am beginning to think I’m the only one who hasn’t been let in on this wonderful, exotic secret that will somehow change my life, but maybe not. And it’s frustrating and intoxicating and I keep coming back for more. Just spin me one more time, and this stint is bound to be different.
And I end up…right back where I started. Let’s start with the dialogue shall we. Now I love me some good dialogue. I want to hug it and squeeze it and kiss it and pat its little forehead and somehow find a way to make it my own. More often than not (and this novel is no exception), I end up disappointed with the overused phrases tossed in my direction. It reminds me of the jellybeans often found beneath the sofa cushions. Just don’t eat them. Sure, they might have been great and wonderful three months ago (like the dialogue might have been snappy and witty about two or three generations ago), but I’m not feeling the love now. And I want to feel the love.
The characters proved a bit too unlikeable. Heck, let’s face it, at least one or two were probably borderline bastards. And that works for me, if the others pick up the slack and shine brighter than a Colt revolver. But I’ll be honest: I didn’t really like any of the sons-a-bitches. Again, sometimes that works when it’s done correctly, but yeah, that wasn’t really working for me either. The characters were just a bit too full of themselves, or completely and totally self-involved (like six-pack abs guy).
Let’s talk about setting. I love Massachusetts and Boston. I love the Cape and the North Shore with its quaint little towns and storybook houses. I love it even more when its spring or summer or fall, and when there isn’t a foot of snow on the ground with layers of ice packed underneath. But this didn’t really feel like Massachusetts to me. Something was just a bit off, and that’s probably a rather quick way of summing up TIGERS IN RED WEATHER.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
August 30, 2019
I AM STILL PROCESSING THIS STORY. SO MANY LAYERS & TOLD BY 4 OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS POINT OF VIEW, THIS WAS FASCINATING & HARD TO PUT DOWN. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR ANY HISTORICAL FICTION LOVERS OUT THERE. THIS STORY STARTS INNOCENT ENOUGH LEARNING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS & THE PLOT BUT STARTS GETTING DARKER & DARKER. WELL DONE LIZA KLAUSSMANN. I FOUND THIS TO BE SO ORIGINAL & ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.
August 16, 2012
It's a good and fast read, one step above a beach read. I have a couple comments.
The first half of the book I was sure this was going to end up being a 4 star but somehow, Klaussman decided to decelerate the plot halfway through. The first 3 characters' chapters were very much building momentum and it really propelled me forward but then on the 4th chapter I found myself losing interest... I really think she should have done the order differently, to create that sense of build up that I enjoyed so much in the first half of the book. The final chapter was perfectly chosen though.
The next comment is that I feel there were some superfluous characters who detracted from further developing the main characters (for instance, Daisy's theatre friend). The consequence of this type of narrative is that if you dont' do it very well, the reader will be left feeling like they don't really know any of the characters at all- I had this sensation at the end of the novel. Perhaps removing a few of these accessory characters would have given us a chance to get to know everyone better. There were certain actions taken or not taken by certain characters (I won't spoil it) that just don't make sense to me and I really hate that feeling... they lose their since of realness.
Finally, the ending left me slightly unsatisfied. I'm okay with tied or untied endings, as long as they're done well. If you are going to leave things untied, the reader should at least have some sense of the different possible outcomes, the ability to speculate. Here, we really lose a sense of most of the main characters. I disliked that.
The first half of the book I was sure this was going to end up being a 4 star but somehow, Klaussman decided to decelerate the plot halfway through. The first 3 characters' chapters were very much building momentum and it really propelled me forward but then on the 4th chapter I found myself losing interest... I really think she should have done the order differently, to create that sense of build up that I enjoyed so much in the first half of the book. The final chapter was perfectly chosen though.
The next comment is that I feel there were some superfluous characters who detracted from further developing the main characters (for instance, Daisy's theatre friend). The consequence of this type of narrative is that if you dont' do it very well, the reader will be left feeling like they don't really know any of the characters at all- I had this sensation at the end of the novel. Perhaps removing a few of these accessory characters would have given us a chance to get to know everyone better. There were certain actions taken or not taken by certain characters (I won't spoil it) that just don't make sense to me and I really hate that feeling... they lose their since of realness.
Finally, the ending left me slightly unsatisfied. I'm okay with tied or untied endings, as long as they're done well. If you are going to leave things untied, the reader should at least have some sense of the different possible outcomes, the ability to speculate. Here, we really lose a sense of most of the main characters. I disliked that.
July 7, 2013
4.5 stars, rounding up to 5. I don’t give too many 5 stars, and certainly not two in a row, but I seem to be on a roll.
Granted, this has all the things I love about good summer fiction. Historical, sprawling beach manse, family secrets. Throw in a nod to The Great Gatsby and I was sold. I’m surprised by the relatively lackluster ratings on Good Reads because I thoroughly enjoyed this start to finish. In this we have cousins Helena and Nick (Nick is a girl; but get it? A nod to Gatsby, also her daughter is Daisy; I could probably write an entire paper on the parallels with Gatsby but I’ll spare you) though the story is told through multiple viewpoints. The author weaves these multiple viewpoints excellently and I loved how the same scene was told various ways with little bits of “mystery” in the first telling, which kept me engaged. I adored the relationship between Helena and Nick as well as Nick's relationship with her husband. There was something to love and/or pity about all the characters, and I do mean all of them. The author treats each, even the worst, with kindness and humanity. Overall an enthralling beach/poolside read (indeed I read it in one sitting at the pool). Fantastic.
Granted, this has all the things I love about good summer fiction. Historical, sprawling beach manse, family secrets. Throw in a nod to The Great Gatsby and I was sold. I’m surprised by the relatively lackluster ratings on Good Reads because I thoroughly enjoyed this start to finish. In this we have cousins Helena and Nick (Nick is a girl; but get it? A nod to Gatsby, also her daughter is Daisy; I could probably write an entire paper on the parallels with Gatsby but I’ll spare you) though the story is told through multiple viewpoints. The author weaves these multiple viewpoints excellently and I loved how the same scene was told various ways with little bits of “mystery” in the first telling, which kept me engaged. I adored the relationship between Helena and Nick as well as Nick's relationship with her husband. There was something to love and/or pity about all the characters, and I do mean all of them. The author treats each, even the worst, with kindness and humanity. Overall an enthralling beach/poolside read (indeed I read it in one sitting at the pool). Fantastic.
September 19, 2013
What a waste of time!! Definitely chick-lit is not my cup of tea.
September 7, 2014
Man, now I'm sad.
I was really enjoying this book for the first three parts but then the last two parts sunk it for me.
See, from where I'm sitting (and listening), the first three voices wove together a story about women, specifically how women relate to each other in relating to the first woman introduced, Nick. Nick is the showboat, the flaunty one, the one who loves attention, the one who hates responsibility, etc. Her best friend is her cousin, Helen, and they adore each other only Helen actually doesn't adore Nick quite as much as Nick adores Helen and Nick doesn't actually adore Helen as much as she needs her for a backdrop, as supporting cast, as the reflector so she can shine more brightly. As the women grow up, marry, and move apart, their lack of relationship becomes more pronounced, even though they maintain the veneer of cousinly love.
Then there's Nick's daughter, Daisy, on the verge of teenagehood during a turbulent summer. She comes to understand things about life and she also has a traumatic experience. She needs her mother to help her through this particular set of growing pains and while Nick steps up sometimes, she's so lackadaisical about her role, much like she is about most of the roles she plays, that she does more harm than help. Daisy has to turn to her sociopath cousin, Ed, for support and understanding, though she doesn't quite understand that's what she's doing.
Helen fills us all in on what she did while living in Hollywood with her mentally unstable, unloving husband and how she became addicted to painkillers. Then we get to see why she hates Nick so much yet how she can't seem to separate herself from her cousin.
Had it ended there, I would have liked this book a lot more than I did.
But then Hughes, Nick's husband, gets his turn. He clears up his past for the reader and then repeats everything that we've already read. Verbatim. All the same conversations, the same moments. It's not even really his take on the situation, it's just him following along noticing and saying what we already know. He becomes a pathetic character and not one worth listening to.
Then sociopath Ed wraps up the story. I think we are supposed to infer that he had some sort of attachment disorder and perhaps ranged on the autism spectrum due to the staggering amount of pills his mother was taking during her pregnancy; the thing is, though, he's not an interesting, compelling character, not like, say, Dexter. In his part, his purpose is to clear everything up for the reader. If you suspected it, he'll confirm or deny it. It's like he has to spell out the story, telling us what we've already guessed at. Sadly, this revealing of All the Things! is a let-down. The excitement of not knowing but fully suspecting was a lot more enjoyable.
There's a murder in the book. It should have had a big impact on everyone in the community but it only served to give people something to talk about at dinner parties and to ostracize a member of the island community. Even the murder's impact on Ed was anti-climactic. Yes. The murder was anti-climactic. That's a horrible way to use a murder.
I was bored and disappointed with the last two parts of this book and that took away from my overall enjoyment which is sad because I think this story would have really stuck with me had it just been written from the female perspectives.
I was really enjoying this book for the first three parts but then the last two parts sunk it for me.
See, from where I'm sitting (and listening), the first three voices wove together a story about women, specifically how women relate to each other in relating to the first woman introduced, Nick. Nick is the showboat, the flaunty one, the one who loves attention, the one who hates responsibility, etc. Her best friend is her cousin, Helen, and they adore each other only Helen actually doesn't adore Nick quite as much as Nick adores Helen and Nick doesn't actually adore Helen as much as she needs her for a backdrop, as supporting cast, as the reflector so she can shine more brightly. As the women grow up, marry, and move apart, their lack of relationship becomes more pronounced, even though they maintain the veneer of cousinly love.
Then there's Nick's daughter, Daisy, on the verge of teenagehood during a turbulent summer. She comes to understand things about life and she also has a traumatic experience. She needs her mother to help her through this particular set of growing pains and while Nick steps up sometimes, she's so lackadaisical about her role, much like she is about most of the roles she plays, that she does more harm than help. Daisy has to turn to her sociopath cousin, Ed, for support and understanding, though she doesn't quite understand that's what she's doing.
Helen fills us all in on what she did while living in Hollywood with her mentally unstable, unloving husband and how she became addicted to painkillers. Then we get to see why she hates Nick so much yet how she can't seem to separate herself from her cousin.
Had it ended there, I would have liked this book a lot more than I did.
But then Hughes, Nick's husband, gets his turn. He clears up his past for the reader and then repeats everything that we've already read. Verbatim. All the same conversations, the same moments. It's not even really his take on the situation, it's just him following along noticing and saying what we already know. He becomes a pathetic character and not one worth listening to.
Then sociopath Ed wraps up the story. I think we are supposed to infer that he had some sort of attachment disorder and perhaps ranged on the autism spectrum due to the staggering amount of pills his mother was taking during her pregnancy; the thing is, though, he's not an interesting, compelling character, not like, say, Dexter. In his part, his purpose is to clear everything up for the reader. If you suspected it, he'll confirm or deny it. It's like he has to spell out the story, telling us what we've already guessed at. Sadly, this revealing of All the Things! is a let-down. The excitement of not knowing but fully suspecting was a lot more enjoyable.
There's a murder in the book. It should have had a big impact on everyone in the community but it only served to give people something to talk about at dinner parties and to ostracize a member of the island community. Even the murder's impact on Ed was anti-climactic. Yes. The murder was anti-climactic. That's a horrible way to use a murder.
I was bored and disappointed with the last two parts of this book and that took away from my overall enjoyment which is sad because I think this story would have really stuck with me had it just been written from the female perspectives.
May 24, 2013
This book wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be once I began reading it, which I think is due to the face that the book summary located inside the front cover is misleading, or perhaps I relied too heavily on it to tell me everything that was included in the plot. This book was divided into sections and told its story from the five main characters' individual points of view. It was certainly an interesting take on the story, because I was able to see how each character perceived themselves and their world around them, and then compare that to how each person was described in the eyes of whatever character happened to be telling the story at that particular time. This enabled me to get a well-rounded view of each character, and showed that no matter what face they put on to the world, each character was suffering from something different inside (especially Nick and Helena, and their twisted relationship).
On the other hand, I thought this book was somewhat predictable at times, as well as containing a number of cliches. I felt like some of the events and happenings were a bit far-fetched and implausible (Ed's behavior leading to a life as a serial killer; Daisy and Tyler's relationship and engagement; Tyler's fascination with NIck; Nick's countless affairs that were meant to punish Hughes' one affair, which he kept apologizing for his entire life). By the time I was done reading, I hated all of the characters and could not identify with any of them. I was also confused at the author's choice to write the final chapters, which gave insight to Ed's character, in the first person. Perhaps she wanted Ed to be the pivotal, central character, thus choosing to end with his story and his thoughts in the first person, which must have been to force the reader to see things from his eyes. I did not like the fact that she made Ed wind up as a type of serial killer, forced to become evil through his family's various actions (it felt completely random), and I thought the ending was odd and inconclusive. Throughout the book, Ed kept referring to his odd behaviors as him doing his "research," which I did not quite understand. Ed's strange fascination with his cousin Daisy also made me uncomfortable, and for a while, I thought they would end up married themselves.
On the other hand, I thought this book was somewhat predictable at times, as well as containing a number of cliches. I felt like some of the events and happenings were a bit far-fetched and implausible (Ed's behavior leading to a life as a serial killer; Daisy and Tyler's relationship and engagement; Tyler's fascination with NIck; Nick's countless affairs that were meant to punish Hughes' one affair, which he kept apologizing for his entire life). By the time I was done reading, I hated all of the characters and could not identify with any of them. I was also confused at the author's choice to write the final chapters, which gave insight to Ed's character, in the first person. Perhaps she wanted Ed to be the pivotal, central character, thus choosing to end with his story and his thoughts in the first person, which must have been to force the reader to see things from his eyes. I did not like the fact that she made Ed wind up as a type of serial killer, forced to become evil through his family's various actions (it felt completely random), and I thought the ending was odd and inconclusive. Throughout the book, Ed kept referring to his odd behaviors as him doing his "research," which I did not quite understand. Ed's strange fascination with his cousin Daisy also made me uncomfortable, and for a while, I thought they would end up married themselves.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2013
This is not the worst book I've read - I wouldn't want to give it that accolade. The dialogue is monotonous - 'can I get you a martini', 'yes, I'd love that', 'a dash of something?' and so on. There is hardly a scene in the book when someone isn't drinking alcohol, in itself tedious, as if the author could think of nothing else that people do when congregating. The characters are inconsistent - four of them are tinged with insanity, Nick, Helena, Ed and Avery as if this touch of weirdness added depth to their characters. They wander in and out of this unhealthy state to fit the particular point of the story rather than coming from within each of them. This is a great novel if you're into reading about dysfunctional people who apparently have the financial luxury to sit around and ruin their lives with their own neurosis/psychosis. I don't think there's a single happy character in the entire book.
The only redeemable adult might to be Hughes, whose love for his wife, Nick (who, everytime I read her name, I had to stop and remind myself that she was female) survives her constant unhappiness derived from some sense that she's not "fulfilled" due to societal constraints.
I'm not looking for sunshine and rainbows, but it gets a little much when you're asked to believe that a 12 year-old character would possess the frustrations/anger of a 30 year-old.
Overall, it's a little dispiriting to think that EVERY character in this author's world is seething with inner turmoil and anger.
The only redeemable adult might to be Hughes, whose love for his wife, Nick (who, everytime I read her name, I had to stop and remind myself that she was female) survives her constant unhappiness derived from some sense that she's not "fulfilled" due to societal constraints.
I'm not looking for sunshine and rainbows, but it gets a little much when you're asked to believe that a 12 year-old character would possess the frustrations/anger of a 30 year-old.
Overall, it's a little dispiriting to think that EVERY character in this author's world is seething with inner turmoil and anger.
June 28, 2012
What an impressive first novel. Starts out rather innocently as two close cousins are on a train, post World War II, both going to begin new lives. The atmosphere of the novel is wonderful, I felt fully immersed in this time period and in their lives as well. The tension of the novel builds as more and more facts are related about the characters lives. Narrated by the five main characters, we soon realize their is much more to this story than the innocent beginning would have one believe. Soon the suspense and the tension builds, time passes, and many secrets are slowly revealed. The ending was somewhat shocking but I felt very fitting. Would definitely recommend. ARC from NetGalley.
June 18, 2013
Devastating, heartbreaking - could not put it down sort of read!
March 9, 2016
Tigers in Red Weather is a great beach read - intriguing, fast paced, dramatic. I liked that each section was narrated by a different character over the 20 or so years that the story took place so they filled in missing information from the other characters' narratives. The novel started off strong and ended strong but there was a lag in the middle (specifically in Hughes section). I also felt like I wish some of the characters had been developed more (Avery) or less attention had been devoted to them (Eva). I get that the author was trying to make a point that even those you are closest to can never really be known to you but at the cost of me feeling like I didn't understand some of their motivations. Nonetheless, a quick, creepy read.
November 23, 2013
The title “Tigers in Red Weather” suggests a whole lot more teeth and claws than we actually see in Liza Klaussmann’s fine and subtle first novel. But the phrase comes from a Wallace Stevens poem, “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock,” that gets the tone of this psychological drama just right. Klaussmann’s characters are early risers who feel pretty well disillusioned long before 10 o’clock. She’s written an elegant playbook on passive aggression, a study of the desires and resentments that burn away souls behind teeth-clenched smiles.
I wouldn’t ordinarily recommend yet another dysfunctional family vacation novel, but 36-year-old Klaussmann has done something exceedingly clever here. The story concerns two lovely female cousins, Nick and Helena, who summer in an old family cottage on Martha’s Vineyard. We first meet them in 1945, just after World War II. Nick is looking forward to seeing her husband, a lieutenant junior grade she doesn’t know very well. Helena is planning her second marriage, this time to an aspiring Hollywood director.
The young women are devoted but find each other exasperating in different ways. Nick, with her “very polished exterior,” is controlling and superior; she speaks to everyone in “her ‘Don’t be a fool’ voice.” Helena, meanwhile, is needy and naive, with an enlarged capacity for suffering and rage. Neither woman can figure out why she’s so unhappy. Soon, they each have a child with their new husbands. Nick’s daughter is vivacious and competitive; Helena’s son is taciturn and creepy. As we watch their lives over the next 25 years, the tendrils of devotion and resentment grow more tightly entwined, particularly as Nick’s family prospers financially and Helena’s falters.
That long time span suggests a vast family saga, but this is not a novel heavy with incident. The opening chapter, in particular, is dangerously restrained. Skim the rest of the book for action scenes, and you’ll miss some crucial occasion of strangled hope or smothered bitterness. Klaussmann, who happens to be the great-great-great-granddaughter of Herman Melville, vaults through the years, alighting on quiet, fraught moments: the decision to take another tranquilizer, the search for one’s flirtatious spouse at a party, the perusal of adulterous love letters. And, oh yes, the discovery of a strangled body in the woods.
Indeed, the forces building up in this very tempered thriller are just as deadly as they are subtle. The psychological pressure beneath these shiny lives grows more unsettling with each passing chapter. Nick’s husband notes that “touching her was like touching an exposed wire.” She’s the kind of woman who thinks, “Everything was just fine” with such intensity that you expect her jaw to shatter. When poor Helena sees her husband’s private shrine to a dead starlet, you can almost see Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette fall across the page. And every time Helena’s little boy announces that he’s going to check the mouse traps, I heard a teeny, tiny scream.
But what makes all this particularly fascinating is Klaussmann’s unusual structure. While narrating in the third-person, she presents the story in five sections, each concentrating on a different character: Nick, Helena, Nick’s daughter and so on. It’s not a matter of being led through the same event five times a la “Rashomon.” Nor does she use the even more demanding technique Mark Haddon employed in “The Red House,” his dysfunctional family novel, which switched perspectives every few paragraphs. Instead, Klaussmann has given each section its own time span; some overlap, some don’t. We experience many events in only one of these sections, but a few others recur across several sections, providing an unnerving kind of dimensionality. Even some lines of dialogue get repeated, suddenly infected with more ominous implications.
A large formal party, for instance, sounds exciting and romantic to Nick’s starry-eyed daughter, who has her sights set on a handsome young man. But for Nick’s husband, the evening is full of “all the tension of pretense and false understanding.” And for Helena’s son, the gathering promises sexual revelations of an entirely different order.
To be honest, the pulse of “Tigers in Red Weather” is too faint for a large audience, but this is a well-crafted novel that tracks the way familial disappointments can ferment into poisonous hatreds. Its alluring accumulation of bile reminded me of Maggie O’Farrell’s “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.” A former journalist who lives in London, Klaussmann is a master at unexpressed despair, which is always eventually expressed, of course. And watch out: There’s a single, shockingly violent moment in these pages that proves she’s not limited to the drama of seething with a smile.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/20...
I wouldn’t ordinarily recommend yet another dysfunctional family vacation novel, but 36-year-old Klaussmann has done something exceedingly clever here. The story concerns two lovely female cousins, Nick and Helena, who summer in an old family cottage on Martha’s Vineyard. We first meet them in 1945, just after World War II. Nick is looking forward to seeing her husband, a lieutenant junior grade she doesn’t know very well. Helena is planning her second marriage, this time to an aspiring Hollywood director.
The young women are devoted but find each other exasperating in different ways. Nick, with her “very polished exterior,” is controlling and superior; she speaks to everyone in “her ‘Don’t be a fool’ voice.” Helena, meanwhile, is needy and naive, with an enlarged capacity for suffering and rage. Neither woman can figure out why she’s so unhappy. Soon, they each have a child with their new husbands. Nick’s daughter is vivacious and competitive; Helena’s son is taciturn and creepy. As we watch their lives over the next 25 years, the tendrils of devotion and resentment grow more tightly entwined, particularly as Nick’s family prospers financially and Helena’s falters.
That long time span suggests a vast family saga, but this is not a novel heavy with incident. The opening chapter, in particular, is dangerously restrained. Skim the rest of the book for action scenes, and you’ll miss some crucial occasion of strangled hope or smothered bitterness. Klaussmann, who happens to be the great-great-great-granddaughter of Herman Melville, vaults through the years, alighting on quiet, fraught moments: the decision to take another tranquilizer, the search for one’s flirtatious spouse at a party, the perusal of adulterous love letters. And, oh yes, the discovery of a strangled body in the woods.
Indeed, the forces building up in this very tempered thriller are just as deadly as they are subtle. The psychological pressure beneath these shiny lives grows more unsettling with each passing chapter. Nick’s husband notes that “touching her was like touching an exposed wire.” She’s the kind of woman who thinks, “Everything was just fine” with such intensity that you expect her jaw to shatter. When poor Helena sees her husband’s private shrine to a dead starlet, you can almost see Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette fall across the page. And every time Helena’s little boy announces that he’s going to check the mouse traps, I heard a teeny, tiny scream.
But what makes all this particularly fascinating is Klaussmann’s unusual structure. While narrating in the third-person, she presents the story in five sections, each concentrating on a different character: Nick, Helena, Nick’s daughter and so on. It’s not a matter of being led through the same event five times a la “Rashomon.” Nor does she use the even more demanding technique Mark Haddon employed in “The Red House,” his dysfunctional family novel, which switched perspectives every few paragraphs. Instead, Klaussmann has given each section its own time span; some overlap, some don’t. We experience many events in only one of these sections, but a few others recur across several sections, providing an unnerving kind of dimensionality. Even some lines of dialogue get repeated, suddenly infected with more ominous implications.
A large formal party, for instance, sounds exciting and romantic to Nick’s starry-eyed daughter, who has her sights set on a handsome young man. But for Nick’s husband, the evening is full of “all the tension of pretense and false understanding.” And for Helena’s son, the gathering promises sexual revelations of an entirely different order.
To be honest, the pulse of “Tigers in Red Weather” is too faint for a large audience, but this is a well-crafted novel that tracks the way familial disappointments can ferment into poisonous hatreds. Its alluring accumulation of bile reminded me of Maggie O’Farrell’s “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.” A former journalist who lives in London, Klaussmann is a master at unexpressed despair, which is always eventually expressed, of course. And watch out: There’s a single, shockingly violent moment in these pages that proves she’s not limited to the drama of seething with a smile.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/20...
October 11, 2012
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2012/...
Tigers in Red Weather is a unforgettable novel of life with all its complexity and mystery. Nick and her cousin Helena grow up together in Tiger house an old family estate on an island. As they grew the world changed with them; World War II has ended and it felt like a world of possibilities. Helena leaves for Hollywood and Nick reunites with her husband after serving in the war, but everything has changed and on their trips back to Tiger house they find out just how complex life can be.
This is no ordinary story of family and growing up; apart from the emotions of life and family there is a sense of dark and sinister secrets. With the back drop of the forties to the sixties you can watch the family grow and the hidden be revealed. Brilliantly told from five perspectives, Tigers in Red Weather slowly shows you the true colours of every member of this family, building a beautiful but fragile picture of these characters.
I really loved the characters in this book; all of them had their own secrets and flaws and while they may not have the best intentions they all felt very real and oddly portrayed. The dark and underlying secrets of this family is what really stood out for me in the book; it made the characters come alive but kept a sense of mystery as I continued reading. I am reminded in part of The Great Gatsby as the characters all feel shallow and selfish but there is so much depth and beauty in each of them as the story progresses.
While on the surface this feels very much like a typical novel of family, the dark secrets really kept me engrossed and the reveal of the darkest secret was both surprising and pleasing; that little curve ball at the end really cemented my feelings towards this book. This is a debut novel by Liza Klaussman but she really shows that she is a master at her craft; especially with the literary idea of ‘show don’t tell’. Klaussman is the great-great-great granddaughter of Herman Melville but I hope that doesn’t become a label for her, because I expect to see great things from the author in the future.
Tigers in Red Weather is a unforgettable novel of life with all its complexity and mystery. Nick and her cousin Helena grow up together in Tiger house an old family estate on an island. As they grew the world changed with them; World War II has ended and it felt like a world of possibilities. Helena leaves for Hollywood and Nick reunites with her husband after serving in the war, but everything has changed and on their trips back to Tiger house they find out just how complex life can be.
This is no ordinary story of family and growing up; apart from the emotions of life and family there is a sense of dark and sinister secrets. With the back drop of the forties to the sixties you can watch the family grow and the hidden be revealed. Brilliantly told from five perspectives, Tigers in Red Weather slowly shows you the true colours of every member of this family, building a beautiful but fragile picture of these characters.
I really loved the characters in this book; all of them had their own secrets and flaws and while they may not have the best intentions they all felt very real and oddly portrayed. The dark and underlying secrets of this family is what really stood out for me in the book; it made the characters come alive but kept a sense of mystery as I continued reading. I am reminded in part of The Great Gatsby as the characters all feel shallow and selfish but there is so much depth and beauty in each of them as the story progresses.
While on the surface this feels very much like a typical novel of family, the dark secrets really kept me engrossed and the reveal of the darkest secret was both surprising and pleasing; that little curve ball at the end really cemented my feelings towards this book. This is a debut novel by Liza Klaussman but she really shows that she is a master at her craft; especially with the literary idea of ‘show don’t tell’. Klaussman is the great-great-great granddaughter of Herman Melville but I hope that doesn’t become a label for her, because I expect to see great things from the author in the future.
November 6, 2022
"Everybody wants pretend they're different, but we're not. We're all the same."
A compelling novel with a bewitching cover. I am watching the cover again and again and I can't decide whether it is Nick or Helena and what her eyes are telling me. I am really fascinated by this picture.
Or maybe she knew their marriage better; she was beginning to learn that the two weren't the same thing.
The narration, the story was simply beautiful, captivating, poignant. Humans (characters) were humans. Liza Klaussmann captured a few people with their hopes, dreams, fears - the book was "just" about that. But, oh..., how she told their stories, how their voices sounded...
"Because, things go pass. Anyone who's lived just a little while knows that. Things just... go."
There were many levels, many issues that this novel touched. One of the most mesmerizing was the friendship between Nick and Helena.
Helena looked at her. There were so many things she couldn't say to Nick anymore that it made it almost impossible to say anything at all. Even the small pleasantries, or minor concessions.
She had learned the hard way that when people know too much, they inevitably want to save you from yourself.
I agree with Jane: She captures the time and the place, bringing it to life, and again highlighting exactly the right details. But I was emotionally involved (unlike Jane). And I also agree with Jane that if you prefer plot driven stories, linear narratives, characters to care for, this may not be the book for you.
August 10, 2012
I waffled for a long time in deciding whether to pony up the $12.99 for this ebook. On the one hand, I was powerfully drawn to that killer title. On the other, I knew from the blurb that a) it's about rich people in angst, and b) two of the characters are named Nick and Daisy. Ooooh-kay. So Liza Klaussmann thinks she's F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's a dangerous thing for a writer to make such an obvious comparison between her own work -- especially a debut novel -- and such an important literary work as The Great Gatsby. I wondered whether she was just trying to write Gatsby Post-War, or what. I doubted she could pull it off. I sneered a little, thinking about it.
Then I bought it, because I had to go to work and I really, really needed some new reading material for my lunch break and those boring hours when nothing happens and I can sit there and read.
Boy, am I glad I bought this book. And although I am still a little in disbelief at the bozack it takes to compare one's self to Fitzgerald, damn, Klaussmann pulls it off, and she's got a pretty objective view of her own writing. That's something rare among writers.
Tigers in Red Weather follows the really messed-up lives of five members of a single family: Nick is a woman, and a stretch to shoehorn allusions to Nick Caraway into this text; I would have preferred a more traditionally female name for her, as I kept mistaking her dialog lines for those of her husband or other male characters to whom she was speaking. Nick is virtually the main character of the book, although equal time is given to four other family members. Nick, though, has "it," an alluring presence -- even though she is not a particularly gorgeous woman -- that imbues her with social power and draws many different people into her orbit. Nick wants a life full of adventure. Instead, she gets a life of upper-class role-playing, stuck as she is in the post-war era when women had many more social restrictions than they have now.
Helena is her cousin, though the two are closer and more like sisters. Helena is timid and easily swayed by the more powerful personalities in her life.
Daisy, my favorite character, is a strong young woman, and maybe the only one to retain some sense of perspective and normalcy throughout the course of the novel.
Hughes is Nick's husband and Daisy's father. He, too, has been corralled by upper-class convention into living a life different from the one he longs for. But he does the best he can with what he's got, trying to be the best man he can be for his family's sake. I found him to be very sympathetic and moving in his secrecy.
Ed is, well, pretty messed up. The son of Helena and an obsessive con-artist film-maker, Ed has some creepy preoccupations with things and people which don't inspire creepy preoccupations in normal young men.
It's a larger cast of characters than in The Great Gatsby, or at least the book delves deeper into more characters' heads than Gatsby does, but there are strong similarities between the two novels. Tigers in Red Weather makes the point more blatantly that wealth and standing don't solve anybody's damn problems; that if anything, those in the social spotlight have to work harder to conceal the ugly parts of their lives than other people may expect. Like Gatsby, Tigers is a story about the mythology of perfection.
And like Fitzgerald, Klaussmann's writing is so precise it makes me ache to realize how flawless writing can be. As a reader, I was gobsmacked by the potency of such subtle imagery as the broken radio wrapped in tissue paper -- imagery presented so quietly that it is all the stronger for the lack of fanfare surrounding it. As a writer, I was both envious and greatly inspired by the care and confidence of Klaussmann's craft. From the first chapter, I got the feeling that every word in every sentence was carefully chosen, that this was a book written with an astounding amount of skill. And I found myself thinking, about halfway through, "Yeah, it's okay to name your characters Nick and Daisy. You're living up to your own implied bombast quite nicely. Well played, Liza. Well played."
This book makes me want to be a better writer. This book made me find new ways to perfect my own craft. I love it when I find a book that does that.
So why four stars? I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the final segment of the novel. Each segment is told from the point of view of one of the five characters mentioned above, in a close third-person perspective. The fifth and final segment switches to the POV of Ed, after he's landed in a hospital, and it's told in first person, switching between past-tense flashbacks and present-tense scenes of the hospital. I hated the transition here. Somehow the first-person stuff didn't carry the same power and care of the preceding third-person parts, and the sense of artfulness fell apart. Plus, with the final section of the book the theme veered away from literary fiction reminiscent of The Great Gatsby and into thriller/mystery territory, though just barely into that territory. While the change of theme provides closure and answers a lot of questions other readers no doubt found nagging, I would have preferred to leave those questions hanging for the sake of preserving that good, angsty, delicate-imagery literary tone.
But that's just me. Other readers' mileage will vary, and most will probably find Ed's narrative to be a satisfying conclusion to a very good book about very bad lies.
This is easily one of the best books I've read in 2012, whether it was released in 2012 or not. Highly recommended.
Then I bought it, because I had to go to work and I really, really needed some new reading material for my lunch break and those boring hours when nothing happens and I can sit there and read.
Boy, am I glad I bought this book. And although I am still a little in disbelief at the bozack it takes to compare one's self to Fitzgerald, damn, Klaussmann pulls it off, and she's got a pretty objective view of her own writing. That's something rare among writers.
Tigers in Red Weather follows the really messed-up lives of five members of a single family: Nick is a woman, and a stretch to shoehorn allusions to Nick Caraway into this text; I would have preferred a more traditionally female name for her, as I kept mistaking her dialog lines for those of her husband or other male characters to whom she was speaking. Nick is virtually the main character of the book, although equal time is given to four other family members. Nick, though, has "it," an alluring presence -- even though she is not a particularly gorgeous woman -- that imbues her with social power and draws many different people into her orbit. Nick wants a life full of adventure. Instead, she gets a life of upper-class role-playing, stuck as she is in the post-war era when women had many more social restrictions than they have now.
Helena is her cousin, though the two are closer and more like sisters. Helena is timid and easily swayed by the more powerful personalities in her life.
Daisy, my favorite character, is a strong young woman, and maybe the only one to retain some sense of perspective and normalcy throughout the course of the novel.
Hughes is Nick's husband and Daisy's father. He, too, has been corralled by upper-class convention into living a life different from the one he longs for. But he does the best he can with what he's got, trying to be the best man he can be for his family's sake. I found him to be very sympathetic and moving in his secrecy.
Ed is, well, pretty messed up. The son of Helena and an obsessive con-artist film-maker, Ed has some creepy preoccupations with things and people which don't inspire creepy preoccupations in normal young men.
It's a larger cast of characters than in The Great Gatsby, or at least the book delves deeper into more characters' heads than Gatsby does, but there are strong similarities between the two novels. Tigers in Red Weather makes the point more blatantly that wealth and standing don't solve anybody's damn problems; that if anything, those in the social spotlight have to work harder to conceal the ugly parts of their lives than other people may expect. Like Gatsby, Tigers is a story about the mythology of perfection.
And like Fitzgerald, Klaussmann's writing is so precise it makes me ache to realize how flawless writing can be. As a reader, I was gobsmacked by the potency of such subtle imagery as the broken radio wrapped in tissue paper -- imagery presented so quietly that it is all the stronger for the lack of fanfare surrounding it. As a writer, I was both envious and greatly inspired by the care and confidence of Klaussmann's craft. From the first chapter, I got the feeling that every word in every sentence was carefully chosen, that this was a book written with an astounding amount of skill. And I found myself thinking, about halfway through, "Yeah, it's okay to name your characters Nick and Daisy. You're living up to your own implied bombast quite nicely. Well played, Liza. Well played."
This book makes me want to be a better writer. This book made me find new ways to perfect my own craft. I love it when I find a book that does that.
So why four stars? I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the final segment of the novel. Each segment is told from the point of view of one of the five characters mentioned above, in a close third-person perspective. The fifth and final segment switches to the POV of Ed, after he's landed in a hospital, and it's told in first person, switching between past-tense flashbacks and present-tense scenes of the hospital. I hated the transition here. Somehow the first-person stuff didn't carry the same power and care of the preceding third-person parts, and the sense of artfulness fell apart. Plus, with the final section of the book the theme veered away from literary fiction reminiscent of The Great Gatsby and into thriller/mystery territory, though just barely into that territory. While the change of theme provides closure and answers a lot of questions other readers no doubt found nagging, I would have preferred to leave those questions hanging for the sake of preserving that good, angsty, delicate-imagery literary tone.
But that's just me. Other readers' mileage will vary, and most will probably find Ed's narrative to be a satisfying conclusion to a very good book about very bad lies.
This is easily one of the best books I've read in 2012, whether it was released in 2012 or not. Highly recommended.
July 22, 2012
Looking to read something completely different? Try Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann. This novel is sure to surprise and in never quite what the reader expects it to be. The novel opens by introducing readers to cousins Nick and Helena when they are young twenty-something brides at the end of World War II. Nick, not exactly beautiful but with a lust for life and excitement is set to travel to Florida to meet her husband Hughes, who has been serving in the Navy. Helena, more beautiful but also more reserved and somewhat naïve, despite losing her husband in the war, is bound for California to meet Avery, the man is going to marry, a man she barely knows. Unfortunately Hughes is changed by the war, leaving Nick confused about the man she married and Avery has some peculiarities that Helena cannot fully comprehend. Nick and Helena have spent nearly every summer in Nick’s family home on Martha’s Vineyard, and it is there in the summer of 1959 their children, Daisy and Ed, find the body of a young woman who had been brutally murdered. This event forces each one to examine their own lives and the family slowly begins to unravel as secrets come to light. Told from five different perspectives, and skipping from poignant years in the ‘40’s, ‘50’s and ’60’s, Tigers in Red Weather is part historical fiction, part murder mystery, and part thriller. Unique in presentation and almost cinematic in nature Tigers in Red Weather is an excellent exploration of what makes individuals tick and the ways that their actions affect those around them is a truly unforgettable read.
November 24, 2012
This story, which jumps around time periods ranging from 1945 to 1969, follows Nick and her cousin Helena, their husbands, children Daisy and Ed, and a variety of other Martha's Vineyard residents. It has everything: murder, secrets, betrayal, regret, longing and lust. It is a great summer read about hot summer nights, gin drunk from jelly jars, and sneaking around in the shadows. This debut novel by Herman Melville's great great great granddaughter is told from 5 different perspectives. The story unfolds skillfully and smoothly. I got this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from TLA and knew it would be good. I couldn't put it down!
November 15, 2015
I would say this novel was between 3 & 4 stars for me. I ended up giving it the 4 stars because it kept me engaged, and even though the characters weren't that likeable I wanted to know what happened to each of them. Usually when I can't find one character who is worthy I will give up on a read or at least feel let down by the novel, like Franzen's 'Freedom'. That being said, maybe there wasn't a particularly worthy character within the novel, but each one, except maybe Helena, had reasons for their unworthiness...maybe even Helena, but I just had a hard time with her character.
Many parallels to 'The Great Gatsby', even down to the names of two characters, which is a bit presumptuous of a first time novelist, or actually, any novelist, but it worked, so good on Klaussmann for that.
This is a family drama with a dark feel to it that the cover does not depict. This is not a singularly dimensional read, but has some complex characters whom you may not like, but who will grab your attention right up to the end. Each character is 'off', which adds to the complexity, drama, and creepiness of the novel.
It is a novel, like many others, that reveals how the choices we make not only affect ourselves, but also those around us, and in some cases, like in this book, very devastatingly.
Deeper than a beach read, but still a quick-paced read with some layers that keep it interesting.
Many parallels to 'The Great Gatsby', even down to the names of two characters, which is a bit presumptuous of a first time novelist, or actually, any novelist, but it worked, so good on Klaussmann for that.
This is a family drama with a dark feel to it that the cover does not depict. This is not a singularly dimensional read, but has some complex characters whom you may not like, but who will grab your attention right up to the end. Each character is 'off', which adds to the complexity, drama, and creepiness of the novel.
It is a novel, like many others, that reveals how the choices we make not only affect ourselves, but also those around us, and in some cases, like in this book, very devastatingly.
Deeper than a beach read, but still a quick-paced read with some layers that keep it interesting.
August 16, 2012
I purchased the hardcover of this book based on a friend's glowing review, thinking I'd pass it along to my mom after I read it. I'm so glad I didn't wait for the paperback or read the e-book because I know this book will get lots of mileage among my mom's friends after she reads it. It's just the kind of book you want to pass around and discuss after reading! It would be a great book club read (if only I had a book club...)
This is a story of family dynamics and relationships spanning a couple of decades from the 1940s to 1960s. I loved the way the story was told through various characters' voices, with each providing some of the story (and there is a mystery involved), and each knowing different things about what happened. The characters were all very well drawn, and I felt that I "knew" them all by the end of the book. And I got a very good sense of the time in history too, as the story moved back and forth in time.
I can't wait to hear what my mom and her friends think of this book and its characters. The story and the characters will stay with me for a long time.
This is a story of family dynamics and relationships spanning a couple of decades from the 1940s to 1960s. I loved the way the story was told through various characters' voices, with each providing some of the story (and there is a mystery involved), and each knowing different things about what happened. The characters were all very well drawn, and I felt that I "knew" them all by the end of the book. And I got a very good sense of the time in history too, as the story moved back and forth in time.
I can't wait to hear what my mom and her friends think of this book and its characters. The story and the characters will stay with me for a long time.
August 6, 2012
I'm going to be honest here, and reveal to the world exactly how shallow I am when it comes to books. We all say, 'Never judge a book by its cover', but really, let's face it, we all do! I, for one, had heard absolutely nothing about this book and picked it up only for its gorgeous cover image (Australian cover, that is) of a classic 1940s/50s pinup stretched out on a boardwalk in a vibrant yellow bathing suit, pouting with her perfectly-shaped, red lips. It's a stunner, check it out. Having picked it up, however, I did quickly learn from the blurb that this was exactly my kind of book, as it happens. Once again, superficiality wins!
'Tigers in Red Weather' reads something like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' redone with the style and modernity of 'The Great Gatsby'. Nick and her cousin Helena have always been the best of friends and are, at the novel's kick-off, currently sharing an apartment due to wartime constraints. The pair laze about drinking gin, listening to jazz records and dreaming about their current lovers. Both have grown up relatively privileged, but the real money is on Nick's side of the family. Helena is just the poor cousin by comparison, forced to tag along in her brilliant and rich cousin's wake. Nick is a compelling, passionate character, and my personal favourite. She's a real firebrand, determined to live her life differently to all the rest. To me, by comparison, Helena is just a bit milquetoast! Her insistence that she is merely the innocent in the events that culminate around her becomes grating after a while and I became quite furious with her! Anyway, I digress... The pair are soon to be married to their respective beaux, Nick to her longtime lover Hughes, who is away with the Navy, and Helena, for the second time after the death of her first husband, Fen, in the war, to a Hollywood-based insurance salesman. Neither are to be entirely happy marriages, as it turns out, but as the girls drift apart, they lose the connections that might have helped keep them afloat. They come together frequently, and often with mixed results, at their grandparents' holiday home, Tiger House, out on one of America's famed holiday isles.
Nick isn't really cut out for the housewife's life, instead dreaming of getting away to Europe with her suddenly distant husband. But Hughes is determined that they live a 'safe' life and Nick is so besotted that she soon finds herself relenting, only to find that all is not what it seems with her perfect husband and perfect life. Soon she is restless, and looking elsewhere for the excitement she can't find in her own marriage.
Helena, on the other hand, finds herself estranged from her husband in a very different way. Avery, it turns out, is obsessed with his first wife, a minor movie-star in Hollywood and her death years before. He has made it his life's work to put together a film documentary about her life and keeps a darkroom separate from the house where he works day and night. Helena soon finds herself despairing and begins to self-medicate with drink and prescription drugs.
Things aren't looking good for the pair. But the next generation has problems of its own. Enter Nick's daughter, Daisy (a nod to Fitzgerald perhaps?!) and Helena's strange son, Ed. The two become fast, if oddly-paired, friends during the holidays they spend together on the island, and it is their discovery of the murdered and mutilated body of a local maid nearby their home that soon changes things for both of them at home and for their parents too.
Tigers is a marvelous ride - with the kind of plot that puts 'To Kill a Mockingbird' to shame, wrapped up in the aesthetics of 'The Great Gatsby', it's got everything. The characters are vibrant and real and the settings stunning. Told from the perspectives of five different characters, it is well-rounded and surprising. Ed's conclusion will grip you and hold you until the very last page. This is the Kennedys on crack! A rollicking read!
'Tigers in Red Weather' reads something like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' redone with the style and modernity of 'The Great Gatsby'. Nick and her cousin Helena have always been the best of friends and are, at the novel's kick-off, currently sharing an apartment due to wartime constraints. The pair laze about drinking gin, listening to jazz records and dreaming about their current lovers. Both have grown up relatively privileged, but the real money is on Nick's side of the family. Helena is just the poor cousin by comparison, forced to tag along in her brilliant and rich cousin's wake. Nick is a compelling, passionate character, and my personal favourite. She's a real firebrand, determined to live her life differently to all the rest. To me, by comparison, Helena is just a bit milquetoast! Her insistence that she is merely the innocent in the events that culminate around her becomes grating after a while and I became quite furious with her! Anyway, I digress... The pair are soon to be married to their respective beaux, Nick to her longtime lover Hughes, who is away with the Navy, and Helena, for the second time after the death of her first husband, Fen, in the war, to a Hollywood-based insurance salesman. Neither are to be entirely happy marriages, as it turns out, but as the girls drift apart, they lose the connections that might have helped keep them afloat. They come together frequently, and often with mixed results, at their grandparents' holiday home, Tiger House, out on one of America's famed holiday isles.
Nick isn't really cut out for the housewife's life, instead dreaming of getting away to Europe with her suddenly distant husband. But Hughes is determined that they live a 'safe' life and Nick is so besotted that she soon finds herself relenting, only to find that all is not what it seems with her perfect husband and perfect life. Soon she is restless, and looking elsewhere for the excitement she can't find in her own marriage.
Helena, on the other hand, finds herself estranged from her husband in a very different way. Avery, it turns out, is obsessed with his first wife, a minor movie-star in Hollywood and her death years before. He has made it his life's work to put together a film documentary about her life and keeps a darkroom separate from the house where he works day and night. Helena soon finds herself despairing and begins to self-medicate with drink and prescription drugs.
Things aren't looking good for the pair. But the next generation has problems of its own. Enter Nick's daughter, Daisy (a nod to Fitzgerald perhaps?!) and Helena's strange son, Ed. The two become fast, if oddly-paired, friends during the holidays they spend together on the island, and it is their discovery of the murdered and mutilated body of a local maid nearby their home that soon changes things for both of them at home and for their parents too.
Tigers is a marvelous ride - with the kind of plot that puts 'To Kill a Mockingbird' to shame, wrapped up in the aesthetics of 'The Great Gatsby', it's got everything. The characters are vibrant and real and the settings stunning. Told from the perspectives of five different characters, it is well-rounded and surprising. Ed's conclusion will grip you and hold you until the very last page. This is the Kennedys on crack! A rollicking read!
February 9, 2017
In summary, I feel a good novel is one in which the story is told well, the details are linked properly and in a clever way and the human psyche is often observed in a way that evokes emotion or thought even after the book is over - this is the reason for my better than average rating. The characters are not likable and while reading the book there are annoyances that make you want to give it one star, but something keeps you going. The gem of this book is the lesson in perception, the way the story changes through the eyes of each character.
I loved the way each section (there are 5 parts) was narrated by each main character in an effort to give the reader the whole story. This worked well for reading and thing stories together, but not so well when deciding how to rate this story or deciding how I feel about it. Klaussman is a talented writer, but I feel that she favored some of her characters and in turn wrote their section in a more fleshed out manner, leaving other stories flat and unexciting. I knew my favorite as soon as I read it. So 5 stars on the set up, 3-4 stars on character development.
Then we move on to the actual story which at times seemed to drag (especially if you didn't like the narrator) but at other times became surprisingly interesting. Klaussman has a knack for throwing in clever unexpected details from left field and then blending them seamlessly into the story. There is no doubt in my mind that she is a talented writer even if she was a little over zealous at the end. (I think she loved her ending). However, the inconsistency of her enthusiasm for certain parts of the books makes it feel like a roller coaster, almost like I can imagine her groaning and writing certain parts just to link the story. Those are the slow parts. So 5 stars on story telling and writing, but 2-3 on consistency.
Lastly, this book truly is a great summer read and definitely smarter than a regular boring beach read and I don't consider it chick lit at all. Well done for the genre. There's something annoying about the characters, but somehow the reel the reader in out of curiosity. Like eating a mediocre dinner with the promise of a great dessert. Though, the dessert doesn't end up that spectacular but it does make you think about it later.
I didn't expect to like this book at all and I definitely didn't expect the way it was written- it's sort of Gatsby-like due to the time period and dramatics, but nothing like the work of F.Scott Fitzgerald. I also thought the murder mystery would have been more substantial.
If I sound disappointed I was not at all, just surprised at how inaccurate the blurb was. I also think this is a great book for observing human nature and gaining a great lesson in perception. Perception just may be the gem in this book...and I loooove that part. This book makes you think and I always appreciate that.
Overall, because of the ups and downs in this book, I give it an average three stars. I had a hard time going between three and four because the great parts are excellent and it's not just an average book. If it's four the you know I've changed it yet again.
I loved the way each section (there are 5 parts) was narrated by each main character in an effort to give the reader the whole story. This worked well for reading and thing stories together, but not so well when deciding how to rate this story or deciding how I feel about it. Klaussman is a talented writer, but I feel that she favored some of her characters and in turn wrote their section in a more fleshed out manner, leaving other stories flat and unexciting. I knew my favorite as soon as I read it. So 5 stars on the set up, 3-4 stars on character development.
Then we move on to the actual story which at times seemed to drag (especially if you didn't like the narrator) but at other times became surprisingly interesting. Klaussman has a knack for throwing in clever unexpected details from left field and then blending them seamlessly into the story. There is no doubt in my mind that she is a talented writer even if she was a little over zealous at the end. (I think she loved her ending). However, the inconsistency of her enthusiasm for certain parts of the books makes it feel like a roller coaster, almost like I can imagine her groaning and writing certain parts just to link the story. Those are the slow parts. So 5 stars on story telling and writing, but 2-3 on consistency.
Lastly, this book truly is a great summer read and definitely smarter than a regular boring beach read and I don't consider it chick lit at all. Well done for the genre. There's something annoying about the characters, but somehow the reel the reader in out of curiosity. Like eating a mediocre dinner with the promise of a great dessert. Though, the dessert doesn't end up that spectacular but it does make you think about it later.
I didn't expect to like this book at all and I definitely didn't expect the way it was written- it's sort of Gatsby-like due to the time period and dramatics, but nothing like the work of F.Scott Fitzgerald. I also thought the murder mystery would have been more substantial.
If I sound disappointed I was not at all, just surprised at how inaccurate the blurb was. I also think this is a great book for observing human nature and gaining a great lesson in perception. Perception just may be the gem in this book...and I loooove that part. This book makes you think and I always appreciate that.
Overall, because of the ups and downs in this book, I give it an average three stars. I had a hard time going between three and four because the great parts are excellent and it's not just an average book. If it's four the you know I've changed it yet again.
February 17, 2013
TIGERS IN RED WEATHER is a finely tuned domestic drama that has the added intrigue of a small community murder. Told from multiple points of view, the interesting and heartbreaking story spans the period post world war II and some events during by which rationing and wartime romance are topics.
From 1944 through to 1969, the period piece provides a glimpse into the lives of a pair of cousins stemming from earlier memories at the Tiger house estate as youngsters themselves through to marriage and motherhood. Nick and Helena are portrayed as the classic yin gang yang with Klaussmann often casting the cousins in separate shades of gray. Their sides of the story couldn’t be different, where Nick thinks she’s helping, Helena perceives as hindering. It’s an intriguing format that encapsulates all aspects of a story from a variety of angles – much like in life, there is no single version of the truth.
Helena’s husband Avery is the Hollywood type whose shady dealings land Helena in hot water with Nick – the housewife who craves excitement and suffers boredom while seeking solace in adulterous fashion. Their children in Daisy (Nick’s daughter) and Ed (Helena’s son) develop a friendship of convenience by virtue of their close proximity to one another and historical ties to Tiger house. Klaussmann’s attention to feelings and knee jerk emotions is expertly crafted - from the discovery of a murdered young woman by Nick and Ed, to Ed’s subsequent development of an unsettling habit, each interaction and consequence changes the reader’s perception of events. The fifth character to have their side of the story told is Nick’s husband Hughes – a wartime vet returned home still coming to terms with a life far separate to his so called domesticated bliss. He’s pivotal to the story, while it may not seem apparent from the onset, Hughes adds a rough edge while at once taking a soft handed approach the murder discovery.
Klaussmann’s tale rivals Megan Abbott’s ability to convey so much with a mere gesture of fleeting glimpse of emotion. The characters tell a story through action with words often cheap and hollow. I enjoyed reading the different perspectives with all deepening the drama without feeling repetitive or necessary. Despite not a lot going on in terms of mystery, the character heavy tale maintained my attention from beginning to end – entirely captivating and well written.
TIGERS IN RED WEATHER is a beautiful book – the cover art portrays Daisy in perfect light, the story is strong through each iteration and the written flows seamless. I cant wait to see what’s next from Klaussmann
From 1944 through to 1969, the period piece provides a glimpse into the lives of a pair of cousins stemming from earlier memories at the Tiger house estate as youngsters themselves through to marriage and motherhood. Nick and Helena are portrayed as the classic yin gang yang with Klaussmann often casting the cousins in separate shades of gray. Their sides of the story couldn’t be different, where Nick thinks she’s helping, Helena perceives as hindering. It’s an intriguing format that encapsulates all aspects of a story from a variety of angles – much like in life, there is no single version of the truth.
Helena’s husband Avery is the Hollywood type whose shady dealings land Helena in hot water with Nick – the housewife who craves excitement and suffers boredom while seeking solace in adulterous fashion. Their children in Daisy (Nick’s daughter) and Ed (Helena’s son) develop a friendship of convenience by virtue of their close proximity to one another and historical ties to Tiger house. Klaussmann’s attention to feelings and knee jerk emotions is expertly crafted - from the discovery of a murdered young woman by Nick and Ed, to Ed’s subsequent development of an unsettling habit, each interaction and consequence changes the reader’s perception of events. The fifth character to have their side of the story told is Nick’s husband Hughes – a wartime vet returned home still coming to terms with a life far separate to his so called domesticated bliss. He’s pivotal to the story, while it may not seem apparent from the onset, Hughes adds a rough edge while at once taking a soft handed approach the murder discovery.
Klaussmann’s tale rivals Megan Abbott’s ability to convey so much with a mere gesture of fleeting glimpse of emotion. The characters tell a story through action with words often cheap and hollow. I enjoyed reading the different perspectives with all deepening the drama without feeling repetitive or necessary. Despite not a lot going on in terms of mystery, the character heavy tale maintained my attention from beginning to end – entirely captivating and well written.
TIGERS IN RED WEATHER is a beautiful book – the cover art portrays Daisy in perfect light, the story is strong through each iteration and the written flows seamless. I cant wait to see what’s next from Klaussmann
March 26, 2015
*4.5
I received this book through a goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked this book. It completely had me engrossed from the very beginning till the end. Told through five viewpoints throughout the 40's to the 60's, the prose was written smoothly that I never lost interest. I actually liked reading the various viewpoints and how each one had a different perception. It's a story of love, deceit, suspense, sadness, family secrets, and the damage one can do to each other. It's a story that's thinly veiled with sadness but worth reading. It was the perfect book to read at the end of the summer season.
I received this book through a goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked this book. It completely had me engrossed from the very beginning till the end. Told through five viewpoints throughout the 40's to the 60's, the prose was written smoothly that I never lost interest. I actually liked reading the various viewpoints and how each one had a different perception. It's a story of love, deceit, suspense, sadness, family secrets, and the damage one can do to each other. It's a story that's thinly veiled with sadness but worth reading. It was the perfect book to read at the end of the summer season.
June 23, 2013
I couldn't believe it!
There were some very positive reviews about this first book from the author. The Globe & Mail gave it a glowing report.
I didn't like it all. I did read it to the end (hoping it might get better) though.
I couldn't relate to any of the characters. I didn't even like most of them. I found them unbelievable, selfish, shallow and definitely unlikeable.
Don't waste your time reading this one.
There were some very positive reviews about this first book from the author. The Globe & Mail gave it a glowing report.
I didn't like it all. I did read it to the end (hoping it might get better) though.
I couldn't relate to any of the characters. I didn't even like most of them. I found them unbelievable, selfish, shallow and definitely unlikeable.
Don't waste your time reading this one.
August 31, 2013
I usually luv bks about rich white people problems but this one can kick rocks. The writer tried to do way too much and it all ended up quite pointless and dumb. Never felt any kind of connection or compassion for anyone especially Helena who was such a spineless, passive aggressive "victim". COULD NOT STAND HER! Won't read another by this author.
July 3, 2017
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 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.
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 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.
July 14, 2016
Tigers in Red Weather begins on the east coast of America in September 1945, just after the end of the Second World War. Cousins Nick and Helena have grown up spending a long spring of summers at Tiger House, the family’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard, a place which both women hold fondly in their memories.
At the outset of the novel, we meet Nick and Helena, ‘wearing their slips and drinking gin neat out of old jelly jars’ in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Helena is about to get married for the second time and is on the cusp of moving to Hollywood, a decision which she views with some optimism: ‘At least this way I won’t turn into an old maid, mad as a hatter and warts on my nose’. Simultaneously, Nick is travelling to meet her husband Hughes in St. Augustine, Florida. The couple make their home here in a rented pre-fab, ‘just like all the others surrounding it’. From the start, several small fissures reveal themselves in the relationship between the couple, and it is clear that calling them ‘happily married’ would be rather far from the truth. Despite the cousins growing up together, their adult lives veer off in entirely different directions, living at opposite ends of the country and losing the regular contact with each other which they both heavily rely upon.
The second part of the novel begins in 1959 and lays focus upon Nick’s daughter Daisy, who believes her mother to be a ‘bit crazy’. She and Nick are travelling to Tiger House to spend the summer with Helena and her son Ed. Here, dawning understandings are realised by many of the characters. When Daisy sees her mother and aunt on the porch of Tiger House, for example, she becomes ‘mesmerized. It was as if her mother and aunt had been snatched away by goblins and replaced with fairies of some sort. They looked so beautiful to her, and so different… They could have said anything, and she would have loved them’.
We as readers learn a lot about the characters as the narrative progresses, from details about their pasts to their thoughts and feelings regarding a whole host of varied subjects. Each character is given a plausible past and their relationships with one another have been crafted both sympathetically and skilfully. The novel is strong in social history, and the inclusion of music and films throughout really historically grounds the novel. A clever touch is the way in which we are able to see the technological progressions of such things as both time and the book go on.
Ed and Daisy’s discovery of a dead body in a seemingly abandoned shack in the woods soon shrouds the entire family, whose lives are already fraught with troubles and secrets. Tigers in Red Weather becomes, in part – if rather a small part – a murder mystery story, but it is so much more than that. It is an elaborate study of several characters, a rich social history which spans rather a wide chronological scale.
The novel is split into five separate sections, each of which follows a different character. The majority of the novel uses the third person omniscient perspective and only the final section is told from the point of view of one of the characters. The book is not a chronological one and some of these narratives do jump around a little in time, a technique which becomes a little confusing at times, but this is really the only drawback of the novel. The conversations which Klaussmann has crafted between her characters work wonderfully.
Throughout, Klaussmann’s descriptions are often original: a train which ‘smelled like bleach and excitement’ – and sometimes rather lovely: ‘The oak tree in the backyard cut pieces from the moon’. The entire novel is incredibly well written.
Tigers in Red Weather is rather an absorbing and incredibly intriguing read from the outset, and it is certainly a masterful debut. It is an exceedingly well planned and well thought out novel, and Klaussmann has really done justice both to her characters and to the story which she has constructed.
At the outset of the novel, we meet Nick and Helena, ‘wearing their slips and drinking gin neat out of old jelly jars’ in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Helena is about to get married for the second time and is on the cusp of moving to Hollywood, a decision which she views with some optimism: ‘At least this way I won’t turn into an old maid, mad as a hatter and warts on my nose’. Simultaneously, Nick is travelling to meet her husband Hughes in St. Augustine, Florida. The couple make their home here in a rented pre-fab, ‘just like all the others surrounding it’. From the start, several small fissures reveal themselves in the relationship between the couple, and it is clear that calling them ‘happily married’ would be rather far from the truth. Despite the cousins growing up together, their adult lives veer off in entirely different directions, living at opposite ends of the country and losing the regular contact with each other which they both heavily rely upon.
The second part of the novel begins in 1959 and lays focus upon Nick’s daughter Daisy, who believes her mother to be a ‘bit crazy’. She and Nick are travelling to Tiger House to spend the summer with Helena and her son Ed. Here, dawning understandings are realised by many of the characters. When Daisy sees her mother and aunt on the porch of Tiger House, for example, she becomes ‘mesmerized. It was as if her mother and aunt had been snatched away by goblins and replaced with fairies of some sort. They looked so beautiful to her, and so different… They could have said anything, and she would have loved them’.
We as readers learn a lot about the characters as the narrative progresses, from details about their pasts to their thoughts and feelings regarding a whole host of varied subjects. Each character is given a plausible past and their relationships with one another have been crafted both sympathetically and skilfully. The novel is strong in social history, and the inclusion of music and films throughout really historically grounds the novel. A clever touch is the way in which we are able to see the technological progressions of such things as both time and the book go on.
Ed and Daisy’s discovery of a dead body in a seemingly abandoned shack in the woods soon shrouds the entire family, whose lives are already fraught with troubles and secrets. Tigers in Red Weather becomes, in part – if rather a small part – a murder mystery story, but it is so much more than that. It is an elaborate study of several characters, a rich social history which spans rather a wide chronological scale.
The novel is split into five separate sections, each of which follows a different character. The majority of the novel uses the third person omniscient perspective and only the final section is told from the point of view of one of the characters. The book is not a chronological one and some of these narratives do jump around a little in time, a technique which becomes a little confusing at times, but this is really the only drawback of the novel. The conversations which Klaussmann has crafted between her characters work wonderfully.
Throughout, Klaussmann’s descriptions are often original: a train which ‘smelled like bleach and excitement’ – and sometimes rather lovely: ‘The oak tree in the backyard cut pieces from the moon’. The entire novel is incredibly well written.
Tigers in Red Weather is rather an absorbing and incredibly intriguing read from the outset, and it is certainly a masterful debut. It is an exceedingly well planned and well thought out novel, and Klaussmann has really done justice both to her characters and to the story which she has constructed.
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