Special Nests

Susan Patrick is a librarian at the Ryerson Poly-technical Institute.

In Special Nests Brandis has crafted an interesting study of characters,
exploring “the richness and value and interest of human personality,
each person containing a world of experience, each one infinitely
valuable, capable of many things, precious and fascinating.” The novel
is imbued with the spirit of rebirth and renewal and of the ability of
people to cope and adjust and enrich their lives. Written from the
viewpoint of Ricky, a middle-aged woman recovering from serious surgery,
the book chronicles her stay with her son and his new live-in girlfriend
in the son’s recently purchased, but old, house. During her
convalescence, Ricky translates from the Dutch her mother’s wartime
diaries of daily life in the Netherlands under German occupation. The
combination of the elements in her new environment causes Ricky to take
stock of her life and set out in new directions, to make her own
“special nest.” Brandis’s writing style is straightforward, with a
strong sense of place and of the spell of the past, and with a central
character the reader comes to know and like.