Exploring Up Lit with Ruth Hogan’s The Moon, The Stars, and Madame Burova
The Moon, The Stars, and Madame Burova by Ruth Hogan introduced me to a new genre: Up Lit. Short for uplifting literature, Up Lit (also UpLit or Up-Lit) books are about human connection and even when exploring difficult topics and themes, there is always hope. Anna Boatman, publishing director at Piatkus, Little Brown, said in an interview for The Irish Independent that Up Lit books take “you on a kind of emotional ride. You have to really care about the characters, and the plot. You want it to go one way, and then it does. And you feel happy when you’ve finished it.” In other words, these books are the “guilty pleasures” we escape into when we need something ultimately positive and, well, uplifting. And hasn’t there been a need for that during the pandemic.
Being unfamiliar with Up Lit until now, I would have described Hogan’s novel as a cross between a romance and a cozy mystery. Imelda Burova—Tarot reader, palmist and clairvoyant—inherited her talent and her dukkering booth on the Brighton pier from her Romany mother. For decades she has done readings for “the lovers and the liars, the angels and the devils, the dreamers and the fools.” Per the code of her trade, she keeps everyone’s secrets, “she knew the killer, the victim, and the murder weapon.” But there is an emotional toll for continually learning and holding people’s dark truths. One niggling secret always at the back of Madame Burova’s mind involves a hidden identity, an inheritance, and links to her own past.
The Moon, The Stars, and Madame Burova begins as the title character closes her business after 50 years. Her final task is to follow through on a promise made long ago, unleashing a secret that throws another woman’s entire identity into crisis. Madame Burova delivers an envelope for a past client to Billie, a woman in her early 50’s who recently lost her parents and her job. The two women form a friendship as one tries to solve the mystery of the envelope’s contents and the other fears the truth it may reveal.
Chapters are defined and named by time, from the early 1970s to “Now”. The first sections introduce a whirlwind of multi-generational characters that require a scorecard to follow. In addition to Madame Burova, the cast of colorful characters populating the seaside town include entertainers (contortionist, daredevil, “mermaids'' in a water act), shop owners, and local enigma MI5 Clive, who claims his odd activities on the promenade involve sending coded messages to other intelligence agents. Several rescued canines also liven up the action. The time jump allows for full character arcs, from young people finding their vocation and first love, to their older selves reflecting on the choices made, the doubts and losses endured, and how to redefine oneself in retirement. As such, the novel appeals to readers across all ages, but speaks especially to readers of a certain age.
I am not a romance novel reader, but who doesn’t like a good love story? There is a smoldering romance, complete with vicious rivalry, at the core of Madame Burova that even made this skeptic tear up.
We glimpse Madame Burova’s craft as we eavesdrop on her readings. Madame Burova admits that some of her responses are plain old common sense, which don’t require revelations from the cards; but at other times she must tell someone bad news. Sometimes she is truly able to help a person in need. Hogan studied Tarot extensively in preparation for writing the novel. I wanted these scenes to delve deeper into the process and how Madame Burova arrives at her interpretation of the cards, but perhaps that would alienate skeptics or skilled Tarot practitioners who might disagree with her analysis. Hogan’s feminism comes across in scenes of Tarot readings in the 1970s with young women, who are mostly interested in knowing about their future husbands. Madame Burova tries to steer the session to encompass more. “Don’t you want to ask anything about you and your future?. . . What would your dream job be, for example?” she asks a young woman and is met with a look “as though she were sitting an exam in a subject that she hadn’t studied.”
The Author’s Note reveals that Hogan grew up in the early 1970s and she wanted to accurately represent the sexist and racist attitudes of the time without sugarcoating. There is a gratifying comeuppance for the handsy boss and an enraging tale of racist bullying, told with a heart-aching twist.
From the mystery aspect, Hogan pulls an Agatha Christie with a late reveal of a character name-change that contrives to keep the reader in the dark longer. A major coincidence contributes to the wrap up, which, while not unsatisfactory, feels forced. After a gentle pace for the bulk of the book, these final revelations race to the neat summation, inconsistent with the previous flow. But these are minor annoyances in an overall fun read.
Hogan’s Up Lit novel affirms that despite obstacles, uncertainty, secrets, and loss, we carry on because we must. And sometimes things do work out in the end and second chances are possible.
The Moon, The Stars, and Madame Burova
by Ruth Hogan
304 pages. 2021
About Diane Englert
Diane is a writer, accessibility consultant, and provider of audio description and open captioning services. Her writing appears in Ruminate Magazine, From the Depths, What Rough Beast, Hash Journal, We’ll Never Have Paris, and Nanoism, among others. She recently finished her first middle grade novel. Diane worked in theater as a director, producer, dramaturg, actor, and wrote libretto for several mini musicals that have all been produced. Diane loves coffee and her family, who say she makes The Best Banana Bread. Her bite is worse than her bark. Find her on Instagram @signeddiane.
