tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85541511350531156842024-03-13T21:20:07.986-07:00Living 2 ReadBooks worth your timeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger517125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-3169602703924383232016-04-01T16:38:00.000-07:002016-04-01T16:38:58.955-07:00Suffering<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VUeaeiTRyGo/Vv8DijreMtI/AAAAAAAACTU/LzfREuKvCOkQKQjMiA9JAxQVN-jlXT6dQ/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VUeaeiTRyGo/Vv8DijreMtI/AAAAAAAACTU/LzfREuKvCOkQKQjMiA9JAxQVN-jlXT6dQ/s320/cover.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
have GOT to lighten up. So far this year the books I have blogged have revolved around a murder in Central Park, a marriage disintegrating in Colombia, and now I have moved on to a book
of a mere 832 pages about a character who suffers
almost unimaginable abuse as a child – </span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>A
Little Life</b></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
by Hanya Yanagihara. </span></span></span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
novel begins with a familiar premise – four friends from college
move to New York to begin their adult lives. Is this an updated male
version of Mary McCarthy's “The Group”? The men are all smart,
talented and witty, and it's entertaining to watch as each finds his
footing in his profession – art, architecture, acting and law. But
gradually the story begins to narrow its focus onto Jude, the most
enigmatic of the four. What he has endured in his childhood,
revealed in flashbacks, has left him in such physical and emotional
pain that he resorts to cutting himself to try to gain control over
it. His friends try to help and protect him, his kindly and paternal
law school professor adopts him, but his past continues to haunt him.
Are you still reading this? Yes, it is just as grim as it sounds. </span></span></span></em>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Why
did I keep going? It was hard to look away. And in between the dark
scenes of trauma and brutality were tender scenes of friendship among
the four men that continued over decades. The writing is uneven,
and did all the characters have to turn out to be SO successful? But
the book relentlessly asks serious questions about the meaning of
suffering, the limits of psychiatry, the power of friendship. </span></span></span></em>
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-15154455357989645542016-02-27T17:51:00.001-08:002016-02-27T17:52:53.800-08:00Colombian Idyll <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKhDG-telYE/VtJQCm3BgWI/AAAAAAAACSI/nAMLFArQNvw/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKhDG-telYE/VtJQCm3BgWI/AAAAAAAACSI/nAMLFArQNvw/s320/cover.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Sometimes
it takes a while. Respected Colombian writer </span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Tomás
González</span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
published his first novel, <b>In the Beginning Was the Sea</b>, over thirty
years ago, but it has only recently been translated into English.
Like many first novels it is autobiographical, but it does not seem
like the early attempt of a young writer. </span></span></span></em>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Elena
and J. are a young couple who have left their life as intellectual
dilettantes in </span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Medellín
for a life of simplicity and sustainable agriculture on the coast of
Colombia. Or at least that is their idealized vision. It's the
70's, and their hippy naivete allows them to believe that they are
perfectly suited for this endeavor. But their backgrounds of urban
privilege have left them totally unable to deal with real life. They
alienate the locals, their farming attempts fail, and the omniscient
narrator discloses early in the novel that J. will not survive.
Their disintegration is uncomfortable to watch, but I couldn't look
away.</span></span></span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The story is based on the real life tragedy of </span></span></span></em></span><em style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">González's older brother. But their is no trace of filial empathy in the narrative.</span></span></span></em><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> The
prose is spare and straightforward but powerful, whether describing the beauty of
surroundings or the poignant intricacies of a marriage breaking down.
I hope this translation will allow </span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: #281e1e;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">González
to gain greater literary attention.</span></span></span></em></span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-90840033736805539592016-01-12T11:34:00.000-08:002016-01-12T11:34:59.678-08:00Too Big to Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gVE75NvD-ys/VpVTrJiPIHI/AAAAAAAACQ8/l8awyV6L030/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gVE75NvD-ys/VpVTrJiPIHI/AAAAAAAACQ8/l8awyV6L030/s320/cover.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">My
New Year's resolution...blog! No, I didn't stop reading. I just
stopped writing about it. The books stacked up but the words just
rattled around in my head. The start of my troubles was probably
when I tackled Garth Risk Hallberg's </span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>City
on Fire</b></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
– all 911 pages of it. By the end I was exhausted and overwhelmed.
How to get down on paper (figuratively) my thoughts on this
sprawling, complicated story? The setting is New York of the
1970's. The city is approaching bankruptcy, drug addiction is
rampant, punk rock and the rad art scene are emerging, the rich are
getting richer by making their own rules. Hallberg puts a character
in every one of these camps - young, old, black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor.
They are all fleshed out human beings, complicated and compelling.
The center of the story is the murder of a a young NYU student in
Central Park on New Year's Eve, but in Dickensian fashion Hallberg
weaves interconnected subplots, flashbacks and flashforwards,
coffee-stained reporters notes and teenage zines into a staggering
story that climaxes with the July 13, 1977 New York City blackout.</span></span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<em><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
characters belong to such different social strata that it seems each
of their stories is separate strand, and yet by the end they are all
braided together in ways that I didn't see coming, but didn't feel
forced or artificial. This is Hallberg's first novel. I can't wait
to see what comes next.</span></span></em></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-22725700534732760992015-09-30T16:23:00.000-07:002015-09-30T19:04:45.918-07:00Good Grief, Eileen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jxjQd2MRcz8/VgxtbCbF_nI/AAAAAAAACJQ/IVSNkOg-SwI/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jxjQd2MRcz8/VgxtbCbF_nI/AAAAAAAACJQ/IVSNkOg-SwI/s320/cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333;">Have
you ever read a book that you couldn't put down but you couldn't
recommend? I kind of feel that way about Ottessa Moshfegh’s
</span><span style="color: #333333;"><b>Eileen</b></span><span style="color: #333333;">.
It's not that I felt it was a waste of time (to obtain that miserable
feeling, read “The Girl on the Train”). Maybe it's closer to the
way I felt about “Gone Girl” – these people are all despicable
but I can't stop reading. But Eileen isn't despicable, just
depressing.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Eileen
Dunlop, 23 year old resident of a small </span>coastal Massachusetts
town she calls X-ville, is planning to escape from it all – her
alcoholic father, her dead-end job at a correctional facility for
adolescent boys, her marginal existence – for a new life in New
York. And since she narrates from a remove of fifty years, we know
she made it. We even know as she begins the story – a week before
Christmas – that by Christmas Day she will be gone. And I was
certainly rooting for her. But as she piled on detail after detail
about her life – her father's abusive insults, her disgust with her
own body, her sad workplace crush on a prison guard– I couldn't
imagine how she would gain the strength to succeed. Every time I thought her self-esteem couldn't get any lower, it did.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
then the glamorous and mysterious Rebecca comes to work at the
facility, and forms an instant bond with Eileen. Eileen sees her as
an escape route, and in an unexpected and shocking way she is. But by that time I
was exhausted. Did I really need to endure that much misery to get
to a semi-happy ending? </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I
have to admire Moshfegh’s ability to make a character and story so
compelling that I couldn't stop reading. And amazingly I did come to
care about what happened to Eileen – as opposed to that stupid girl
on the train. But be warned – it's the most disturbing Christmas
story you'll ever read.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-90511438318883521172015-08-31T17:32:00.000-07:002015-08-31T17:32:22.478-07:00Best Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0I5C30i_7Kg/VeTvwDO8fyI/AAAAAAAACDo/mlPujXlFi74/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0I5C30i_7Kg/VeTvwDO8fyI/AAAAAAAACDo/mlPujXlFi74/s320/cover.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZifZ1Edqbo/VeTv412vBeI/AAAAAAAACDw/S6K_ivpZVig/s1600/cover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZifZ1Edqbo/VeTv412vBeI/AAAAAAAACDw/S6K_ivpZVig/s320/cover2.jpg" width="200" />I</a>I<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> resisted as long as I could. I had read about Elena Ferrante's
Neapolitan Novels, much admired by literary critics and other
writers, but I'm always wary of translations, and did I really want
to commit to reading all four? But I was intrigued by that fact that
in this day when authors seem forced to relentlessly promote their
works, the mysterious “Elena Ferrante” (her pen name) has managed
to keep her identity a secret and do only the bare minimum of
interviews (written only).</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've
now finished the first – <b>My Brilliant Friend</b>, and am halfway
through the second – <b>The Story of a New Name</b>, and there's no
stopping me. The books follow the lives of two childhood friends,
Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, beginning in postwar Naples, where
there is little escape from grinding poverty and limited opportunity.
Both girls are bright and ambitious, and they imagine exciting lives for themselves.
Although Lila is the stronger, the more imaginative and determined of
the two, her parents refuse to educate her past elementary school, so
it is Elena, her “brilliant friend” who continues her education,
while Lila marries young and seems locked into the life she had hoped to
escape. And maybe she ultimately does?? I'm only on book two.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
wonder if part of the reason that Ferrante wants her privacy is that
her works seems so autobiographical. Elena and Lila are such vivid
characters, with a friendship and a rivalry that is fierce and
complex, and all the neighbors (and there a <u>lot</u> of them –
the index of characters at the beginning of the book is extremely
helpful) are rendered so sharply that they are completely convincing.
Was Ferrante taking notes all through her childhood? That's how it
feels.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Elena
and Lila are strong women, and they are angry, sometimes at each
other, often at the world. I have to find out how it all ends.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-49183420426630196702015-07-10T18:34:00.000-07:002015-07-10T18:34:10.594-07:00A Year in the Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kt99ExdTKdM/VaBwkRhYeWI/AAAAAAAACCA/GVxIqsnuvY4/s1600/cover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kt99ExdTKdM/VaBwkRhYeWI/AAAAAAAACCA/GVxIqsnuvY4/s200/cover2.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JizA5L5gfP8/VaBwkXY18LI/AAAAAAAACB8/Vc2qw3dXga4/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JizA5L5gfP8/VaBwkXY18LI/AAAAAAAACB8/Vc2qw3dXga4/s200/cover.jpg" width="139" /></a><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;">Jane
Smiley has undertaken a daunting task. In the course of three books
she follows the lives of a Midwestern family for one hundred years.
<span style="color: #333333;"><b>S</b></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>ome
Luck</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">
starts in 1920 and follows an Iowa farming family, Walter and Rosanna
Langdon and their five children, until 1953. Then </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Early
Warning</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">
picks up the story of Walter and Rosanna's children and
their offspring until 1986. The third book of the trilogy, “Golden
Age”, will be released in the fall and will complete the one
hundred year cycle. </span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #252525;">Each
chapter covers a single year, with the point of view switching from
character to character. Smiley clearly understands farming, as some
chapters deal with the </span>intricacies<span style="color: #252525;"> of crop rotation, corn prices,
chickens, pigs and the occasional sheep. But she also captures the
growth of the characters (or lack thereof). Walter remains an
uncomplaining and determined farmer, while Rosanna evolves from
vivacious and beautiful young mother to a somewhat crotchety old
woman who nonetheless learns to drive and widens her view of the
world outside the farm. The children grow from toddlers adults, choosing very different paths.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">For the most part they scatter far from the farm, marrying and
starting families. They occasionally brush up against
historic events (Viet Nam, Jim Jones, the AIDS crisis). Smiley does
an admirable job of fleshing out the growing cast of characters. And
it does help that a family tree is included, since I had some trouble
remembering who's child was who's. </span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
I had a couple of problems with the format. Jumping forward a year
with each chapter means that there's no real narrative arc, just a
series of unconnected events. And as the novel expands to include
both children and grandchildren of Walter and Rosanna, there are a
lot of storylines to follow. </span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Early
Warning” ends with a surprise revelation, and there are many
dangling plot threads that I'm interested in following, so I will
definitely read the third book. But if you're only going to read one
Jane Smiley book, be sure it's “A Thousand Acres” which I
consider to be her masterpiece.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-33106359498562305862015-05-12T17:48:00.000-07:002015-05-12T17:48:43.033-07:00Reading For Pleasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t6KploDHdVc/VVKe7ZxXGiI/AAAAAAAAB_4/KEe9O5MpfyM/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t6KploDHdVc/VVKe7ZxXGiI/AAAAAAAAB_4/KEe9O5MpfyM/s320/cover.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Of course I read for pleasure. It's not as if I have a paper to write or test to take. And thanks to the Kindle “Try a Sample” option, I can easily start reading and then reject a book without even buying it. But that doesn't mean that all books are equally pleasurable to read. Sometimes reading a book can be hard work, but the rewards are well worth the effort (I'm looking at you, </span></span></span><a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/08/everyday-life.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Karl Ove Knausgård</span></span></a><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">). At other times a book can be just good enough to keep me going, but in the end leaves me feeling as I sometimes do in a restaurant – the meal tasted fine but I expected something a little more satisfying (Sorry, </span></span></span><a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-not-you-its-me.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Rachel Kushner</span></span></a><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">). And then sometimes a book hits me just right, Whether it's because of my state of mind, or the weather, or the phase of the moon, I'll never know, but reading Willa Cather's </span></span></span><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b>The Professor's House</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> was an effortless pleasure. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Unlike
many of Cather's works, this book is not about frontier life but
university life. Professor Godfrey St. Peter teaches history at
a </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">mid-western</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> college in the 1920's and is a successful academic author.
But when his family moves to a new home, he finds himself unable to
abandon the shabby attic study in his old house, where he does his
writing. His reluctance mirrors his unwillingness to accept the more
modern and materialistic life which his wife and married daughters
have embraced. He reminisces about his favorite student, Tom
Outland, a brilliant scientist who was engaged to his daughter and
was killed in World War I. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In
middle section of the book, titled “Tom Outland's Story”, Cather
leaves the professor and his comfortable life behind to let Tom tell
the first person story of his life before his arrival at the college.
Most memorable is his description of his discovery of an ancient
abandoned city of cliff-dwellers on a mesa in New Mexico. Here
Cather's love of natural beauty is reflected in the beautiful prose
she uses to describe the colors, smells, textures of this idlyllic
spot.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #252525; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
the final section Cather returns to the professor and his struggle to
come to terms with the modern world, so far removed from the natural
world of the desert that Tom revered, and with a family to whom he no longer feels connected. He finds no easy answers.
I expected this story to feel somewhat dated, but Cather has created a universal depiction of a man out of step with
the times. Thanks, Willa – it was a pleasure. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #252525; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-11011590193027779342015-04-24T17:58:00.000-07:002015-04-24T17:58:05.932-07:00Norwegian Angst<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psyvt2PBAzI/VTrk0u423bI/AAAAAAAAB-4/KAl9KCLuxpc/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psyvt2PBAzI/VTrk0u423bI/AAAAAAAAB-4/KAl9KCLuxpc/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="197" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Surely
Norway can't be as depressing as it's depicted by its fiction
writers, can it? Karl Ove </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: small;">Knausgaard</span></span><span style="color: #333333;">'s "<a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/08/everyday-life.html" target="_blank">My Struggle</a>" paints a bleak picture, </span><span style="color: #333333;">Jo
Nesbø</span><span style="color: #333333;">'s
'Nordic noir' crime novels are dark and brooding, Per Petterson’s "Out Stealing Horses" is full of melancholy and regret. But
Petterson’s newest novel </span><span style="color: #333333;"><b>I
Refuse </b></span><span style="color: #333333;">is
darker still. Just look at the book cover!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It
opens in 2006 with a powerful scene of the chance meeting in early
morning between Jim and Tommy on a bridge outside of Oslo, where Jim,
shabbily dressed, is fishing and Tommy, in a sleek new Mercedes, is
on his way to work. The two have not seen each other in over thirty
years. Tommy comments obliquely about “the way things can turn
out”, and then drives away.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">From
there the story jumps back in time to 1966 in the small town of </span><span style="color: #333333;">Mørk</span><span style="color: #333333;">, where the two boys share a friendship forged in part by their
loneliness, isolation, lost parents, and, in Tommy's case, domestic
violence. The narrative continues to shift back and forth in time
between their adolescent years and the day of the bridge meeting.
Some passages are told in the first person by Tommy, his sister Siri
and Jim; others are told in third person, in a way that is
impressionistic but not confusing. Gradually these fragments fill in
the events that have shaped their lives, including one that has
driven a wedge between them. In some ways they have moved in
opposite directions, but both have been scarred by their pasts and
share an inability to fully connect with life.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
prose is sometimes taut but sometimes rambles in long sentences
(could these have been better translated?). The most powerful and
unforgettable scenes occur as the two teenagers are both connected
and tested by their friendship. On the other hand, it was
distracting to feel as if I needed a map of the Oslo area to follow
the detailed driving descriptions.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
is a sad and poignant story and you will have to judge for yourself
whether hope remains at the end. But I warn you...it's Norwegian.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-84645551024969907072015-03-30T19:55:00.001-07:002015-03-30T19:55:33.749-07:00Forgotten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--1AufuqC9T4/VRoJ7ClYZeI/AAAAAAAAB-M/jeo81mYBATs/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--1AufuqC9T4/VRoJ7ClYZeI/AAAAAAAAB-M/jeo81mYBATs/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Recently
our Book Club read “Stoner”, a wonderful 1965 novel by John
Williams which had gone out of print until its success in France led
to its reissue in the United States. It reminded me that one of the
books on my 'Hope to Get To' list had a similar history. I had read
an <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/time-lies" target="_blank">article</a> in the New Yorker about Australian writer Elizabeth
Harrower, whose works had been out of print for many years until, in
2012, the Australian publishing house Text reissued them and
persuaded her to publish her last novel, which she had withdrawn just
before it was to be released in 1971. The article declared <b>The
Watch Tower</b>
to be her greatest novel, so I decided it was time to read another
forgotten work.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although
the story is set in the Australia of the 1940's, I kept being
reminded of novels from earlier times. Laura and Clare Vaizey are
not orphans like Jane Eyre, but they might as well be. Their heartless
mother yanks Laura out of her academic high school so that she can
support the family, then abandons the girls completely to return to
England. Laura sacrifices her own dreams and attempts to save her
sister's future by marrying Felix Shaw, her boss at the factory where
she works. Harrower describes him as “a swarthy nuggety man of
forty-four who looked closer to fifty”. All I could think of was
poor Dorothea stuck with boring, insensitive Casaubon in "Middlemarch". </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But
Felix turns out to be much worse than the pompous Casaubon; in fact,
he proudly compares himself to Bluebeard. What follows is a
harrowing psychological tale, as Clare attempts to escape the toxic
household that Felix has created around Laura and herself. If you've ever
wondered why a woman stays in an abusive marriage, this novel provides
a vivid case study.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Harrower's
language is precise and controlled, sometimes witty, always honest.
The story was terrifying, but I couldn't look away.</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-22433070003852433202015-02-26T17:25:00.000-08:002015-02-26T17:25:48.875-08:00Story Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zyQkyPYIR98/VO_FiBe9M8I/AAAAAAAAB8g/2papsO5z_EM/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zyQkyPYIR98/VO_FiBe9M8I/AAAAAAAAB8g/2papsO5z_EM/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's
always nice to have someone read to you, especially when it's a
writer you admire. The special treat of The New Yorker:Fiction
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-podcast-joseph-oneill-reads-muriel-spark" target="_blank">podcast</a> is that the reader, a New Yorker fiction writer, chooses a
story that was published in the magazine and that he or she
particularly admires. After the reading, the writer and fiction
editor Deborah Treisman discuss the story and its author. Sometimes I
know the author well; I may even remember having read the story. But
at other times it's a revelation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">That's
what happened in January when Joseph O'Neill, who wrote the wonderful novel
<b><a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-category.html">Netherland</a>,
</b>read Muriel Spark's short story “The Ormolu Clock”,
originally published in the New Yorker in 1960. The story was
terrific and O'Neill's admiration for her technique and her
'nastiness' made me enjoy it even more. Spark is best known for “The
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, but I wanted to try one of her less
known works, so I settled on <b>The Girls of Slender Means</b>. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
'girls' are living in London in the spring of 1945 in an Edwardian
mansion called the May of Teck Club, which “exists for the
Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender
Means”. Somehow Spark manages to make this large cast of women of
different ages, experience and ambitions into fully realized
characters, as they were in 1945 and as they are when she revisits
them many years later. In the early chapters the tone is light and
droll, as when she describes one resident: “she lolled in the
distinct attitude of being the only woman present who could afford to
loll”. But she subtly weaves a darker thread into the story, and a
tragedy ultimately colors many of their lives.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm
not sure I liked this book as much as I liked the short story on the
podcast, but may that's because I like being read to by an Irishman.</span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-44681922234919214142015-02-06T15:26:00.000-08:002015-02-06T15:26:09.750-08:00Household Help<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z5WMDZ6c0TM/VNVM6DvndqI/AAAAAAAAB7c/k43R1sEFMEg/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z5WMDZ6c0TM/VNVM6DvndqI/AAAAAAAAB7c/k43R1sEFMEg/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At
first it seems to be a story revealing the changes in society in
post World War I London of 1922. Frances Wray and her mother, once
part of a genteel family living in an elegant Edwardian home, are
forced to dismiss their servants, do their own cooking and housework
(actually Frances does it all – her mother can't even boil water),
and rent out their upper floor to married couple Leonard and Lilian
Barber, <b>The</b> <b>Paying Guests</b> of Sarah Waters's novel. The
Barbers are roughly the same age as Frances, but from a lower social
class. Lilian's flapperish style - kimonos, paper flowers, feathers,
beads and tambourines – is a striking contrast to Frances's staid
and sober demeanor, although it is gradually revealed that she too
led a more bohemian life before her family's reversals forced her
back home to her mother.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So
would this book be a nuanced examination of the clash of social
classes? Decidely not. What starts as character study turns into an
action-filled, high tension page-turner which is at once dark,
shocking and occasionally comic. I hate spoilers so I'll say no
more. Sarah Waters tells a tale that feels totally authentic to its
time period but bracingly contemporary.</span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-45465084304301467152015-01-07T14:06:00.000-08:002015-01-07T14:06:33.747-08:00An Irish Portrait<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-di62bO9GU2I/VK2rVD4pTPI/AAAAAAAAB6U/4fy98oHKypo/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-di62bO9GU2I/VK2rVD4pTPI/AAAAAAAAB6U/4fy98oHKypo/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">It
seems appropriate that I start the new year with an old favorite.
I've always had a soft spot for Irish writers, and Colm Tóibín,
whose <a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-story.html"><b>Brooklyn</b></a>
was one of my favorites of 2009, has written another powerful book.
Set in Enniscorthy, a town in southeastern Ireland, during the late
1960s and early 1970s, <b>Nora Webster</b> tells the story of a
middle-aged woman whose husband, a much beloved schoolteacher, has
died of heart disease. Nora is struggling to deal with her loss, and
to help her four children, especially her two young sons, come to
terms with this new reality. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And
honestly, not a whole lot happens. The book is the story of Nora's
everday life. She sells a vacation cottage she can no longer afford,
she goes back to work, she worries about her older son's stutter and
his withdrawn attitude, she discovers a love for classical music and
an interest in singing. There are no fireworks, no dramatic
upheavals (although the events of Bloody Sunday are referenced), no
shocking revelations. But that's what I love about Tóibín. His
understated prose and matter-of-fact narrative carry a force that I
can't explain. He revealed in an interview that he lost his own
father at a young age, and that the stammering, angry son Donal is a
version of himself. Maybe that's why his plain language seems to carry
so much emotion.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nora
is no saint – at times she's not even very likable. Her evolution
is gradual, but by the end of the novel she has squared her
shoulders, faced her grief and moved forward into life. Tóibín has
painted a subtle, honest portrait of a ordinary but complicated
woman.</span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-10507233901832330672014-12-30T17:59:00.000-08:002014-12-30T17:59:13.060-08:002014 Favorites<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's
time once again for me to pick my three favorite books of 2014, and
once again I have had trouble narrowing down my list. But I have to go
with the ones that really knocked my socks off, each for a very
different reason.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cQKcUbe0MUc/VKNVYvw5K8I/AAAAAAAAB5o/dPXYOgssPvo/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cQKcUbe0MUc/VKNVYvw5K8I/AAAAAAAAB5o/dPXYOgssPvo/s1600/cover.jpg" height="200" width="132" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The
Son</b> by Phillipp Meyer (<a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/05/texas-saga.html"><b>Texas
Saga</b></a>), a multi- generational story that held me in its grip from
the very first chapter, which ended with this foreboding line from
the family patriarch: “The only problem was keeping your scalp
attached.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WXSTFLc2JNI/VKNVdO5suMI/AAAAAAAAB5w/jXQjf3gIBcg/s1600/cover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WXSTFLc2JNI/VKNVdO5suMI/AAAAAAAAB5w/jXQjf3gIBcg/s1600/cover2.jpg" height="200" width="163" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Can't
We Talk About Something More Pleasant</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">
by Roz Chast (<a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-graphic-truth.html"><b>The
Graphic Truth</b></a></span></span>), a graphic
memoir that is hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iG55K2SijBA/VKNVfuarUII/AAAAAAAAB54/vlivktlbMvM/s1600/cover3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iG55K2SijBA/VKNVfuarUII/AAAAAAAAB54/vlivktlbMvM/s1600/cover3.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>All
the Light We Cannot See</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;">
by Anthony Doerr (<a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-girl-and-boy.html"><b>A
Girl and a Boy</b></a>), the haunting story of two young lives that cross
amidst the chaos of war.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My books are already stacking up. I'm looking forward to hours of great reading in 2015. Happy New Year to all!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-70899106204030769422014-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:002014-12-26T09:19:15.383-08:00A Year-end Present to Yourself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nysoSlGxkV0/VJyuHj_4XeI/AAAAAAAAAVM/lJ2nhQXtPfo/s1600/LOR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nysoSlGxkV0/VJyuHj_4XeI/AAAAAAAAAVM/lJ2nhQXtPfo/s1600/LOR.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
Run, don't walk, to the nearest library, bookstore, computer or e-reader and get a copy of <u>Dear Committee Members</u> by Julie Schumacher. Then set aside an afternoon or evening (it's a small book) for a joyride. But be sure it is in a place where you will not be embarrassed to laugh out loud (really out loud, not just a smile) again...and again...and again on almost every page.<br />
<br />
The structure of this novel is a series of LORs (letters of recommendation) written by a college English professor for his students, his faculty colleagues and a few fellow students from his graduate school days. These are unlike any recommendation letters that you might imagine. It makes me wonder what those letters are really like.<br />
<br />
Julie Schumacher herself is a faculty member in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota and admits to writing "more letters of recommendation that she cares to recall." Included in the letters are large doses of college politics, driven by the increasing tensions between the arts and sciences resulting from the pervasive budget constraints affecting most colleges these days. But it is her arguments supporting the study of English and writing that will stay with you long after the laughter ends.<br />
<br />
And if you are familiar with Melville's <b>Bartleby, the Scrivener</b> then so much the better (but not necessary.)<br />
<br />
I am desperate to talk with someone who has read this book. If that is you, please leave a Comment below.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-34703889966579257472014-11-22T17:17:00.000-08:002014-11-22T17:17:54.579-08:00Family Bonds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TLESaaVvVig/VHEypbKHGEI/AAAAAAAAB5I/yEtjvm3haLE/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TLESaaVvVig/VHEypbKHGEI/AAAAAAAAB5I/yEtjvm3haLE/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">I
can't really blame Eileen Tumulty, the main character in Matthew
Thomas's debut novel <b>We Are Not Ourselves</b>. Growing up in the
50's in a blue collar Queens apartment with alcoholic parents whose
marriage is fragile, it's only natural that she is determined to do
better. So when she meets Ed Leary - intelligent, serious,
reliable, a talented scientist - he seems the perfect choice. She
envisions a bright and prosperous future with a home in her version
of Shangri-La – Bronxville. Perhaps she misses some early clues
that his seriousness might be tinged with rigidity, or that his
idealism might conflict with her ambitions. When reality finally
sets in, her desperation to get out of Queens causes her to commit an
act of betrayal. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">But
she has little time to enjoy her Bronxville fixer-upper with Ed and
son Connell before she is hit with a stark truth. Her
fifty-two-year-old husband has Alzheimer's disease. As anyone who
has dealt with it knows, the course of this disease is relentless,
and Thomas's description is unsparing (his own father died from it in
2002). Connell stumbles badly in his attempts to face his father's
illness and his mother's need for his help, and Eileen is no saint,
but Thomas makes them sympathetic even in their failings. I have to
admire Eileen's grit and determination in the face of the crushing
obstacles she must tackle. </span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas
paints on a small canvas – his characters lead ordinary lives in a
circumscribed world (he reminds me of Alice McDermott, who was once
his teacher). But his characters have a resonance beyond their own
small stage, and the title, taken from King Lear, expresses this
well.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>We
are not ourselves</i></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>When
nature, being oppressed, commands the mind</i></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>To
suffer with the body.</i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-1385555695959566492014-10-27T17:24:00.001-07:002014-10-27T17:24:22.866-07:00Sour Grapes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JP-E5ypO9gw/VE7gu6DtTyI/AAAAAAAAB4s/uwgd2w6pdAU/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JP-E5ypO9gw/VE7gu6DtTyI/AAAAAAAAB4s/uwgd2w6pdAU/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Count
me among the avid fans of Edward St. Aubyn's semi-autobiographical
series of Patrick Melrose novels (see my <a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2013/03/ive-been-sequestered.html" target="_blank">blog</a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">).
These five books swing wildly from harrowing to hilarious on
virtually every page. So when the fifth novel, “At Last”, was
ignored by the Booker prize committee in 2011, perhaps St. Aubyn felt a
twinge of annoyance, although he has steadfastly denied this. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">But
you know the old adage “Don't get mad, get even”? Well, clearly
St. Aubyn knows it too. In his latest novel </span><b style="font-size: 11pt;">Lost for Words </b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">he
imagines the Elysian prize, funded by a chemicals manufacturer, and
proceeds to satirize everyone connected with it in any way. The
judges, some of whom are identifiable to those tuned in to the London
literary scene, for the most part don't bother to read the books and
use their own idiosyncratic agendas to </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;">make
their choices. The books themselves range from </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt;"><i>wot
u starin at</i></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">,
a portrait of Scottish drug addicts written by an Edinburgh academic,
to “The Palace Cookbook”, an actual cookbook mistakenly submitted
as a postmodern novel. The character of Sam Black, who seems to be a </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">stand-in</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> for St. Aubyn himself, loses the prize but gets the girl. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">St.
Aubyn writes elegant prose and can be wickedly funny and insightful,
but the plot meanders and it's all just a little too snarky for me.
Better to stick with Patrick Melrose.</span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-15571098470111923852014-09-19T14:39:00.000-07:002014-09-19T14:39:30.730-07:00The Graphic Truth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8bgpKrPGf6E/VBygzVxp99I/AAAAAAAAB3s/m99xwBeR5wg/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8bgpKrPGf6E/VBygzVxp99I/AAAAAAAAB3s/m99xwBeR5wg/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="260" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If
you are a New Yorker reader you're familiar with Roz Chast, the
cartoonist whose squiggly-lined drawings manage to make the mundane,
the maudlin, or even the misanthropic events of everyday life seem
unexpectedly funny. My favorites often involve parents and children,
and the ways in which they can drive each other crazy. So I expected
that her graphic memoir “Can't We Talk About Something More
Pleasant” would offer similar enjoyment. And it does. But this
book is so much more than that.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chast's
parents George and Elizabeth are an eccentric, mismatched pair,
essentially friendless, who have lived in a decidedly untrendy
section of Brooklyn for over sixty years. Her father is gentle and
kind, but also fearful of everything and ineffectual. Her mother is
angry and critical. No surprise that Roz exited as soon as she
could. But old age begins to take its toll on both of them, and Roz
reluctantly accepts that she has to step in. What follows is the
familiar litany of memory loss, emergency room visits, hospital
stays, confusion, guilt, financial worries, resistance, anger. As
grim as this sound, it is also very, very funny.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">If
you or anyone you know has dealt with the struggle of aging parents,
you will find this story unerringly accurate and brutally candid.
Chast does not paint herself as a saint. In fact, her drawings of
her angry and frustrated self – bulgy-eyed, teeth-bared, hair
crackling - </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">are
searing (and hilarious). But her humor and honesty make this a powerful and
compelling story.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-2586685789419732042014-09-03T18:17:00.000-07:002014-09-03T18:17:00.179-07:00A Girl and A Boy<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pdc3HLW5jgU/VAe8J4-gAGI/AAAAAAAAB3U/2tntBrC1nB0/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pdc3HLW5jgU/VAe8J4-gAGI/AAAAAAAAB3U/2tntBrC1nB0/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">Time for my beach read, and this year it is </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>All
The Light We Cannot See</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
It's a story about a girl and a boy. In August of 1944, in the
waning days of World War II, the picturesque Breton town of
Saint-Malo, occupied by the retreating German army, is being bombed
by Allied forces. Alone on the top floor of a tall narrow house, a
French sixteen-year-old blind girl named Marie-Laure LeBlanc fears
for her life. Five blocks away eighteen-year-old German private
Werner Pfennig, a radio specialist stationed in a grand old hotel, is
assigned to intercept messages from Allied sympathizers and eliminate
them. The two have never met. </span></span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;">Having
set them so close together, author Anthony Doerr then jumps backward
to 1934, to tell the parallel stories of their childhoods. Hers is
the tale of a comfortable life in pre-war Paris near the Jardin des
Plantes, with a loving father who teaches his daughter that her
blindness is no handicap. His is the harsher existence of an orphan
in a coal mining region outside Essen, but he is saved from a life in
the mines or on the front lines by his extraordinary talent with
radios. In brief chapters, Doerr cuts back and forth between
Saint-Malo of 1944 and the paths each took from the start of the war
to their current precarious state. </span></span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I
know, I know. Blind girl, orphan boy, war, danger, love conquers
all, sentimental and predictable. Not at all. This beautifully
written book is many things – suspenseful, emotional, nuanced,
heartbreaking, joyous – but it is resoundingly unsentimental. Yes
there are a few coincidences, but none that disturb the flow of this
haunting story. An added plus – short chapters! Beach, plane
trip, waiting room, DMV line – this book is the perfect choice.</span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-23974942230301193322014-08-16T16:27:00.000-07:002014-08-16T16:27:40.420-07:00Everyday Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6UsYZZ5fLr8/U-_l9DSHs6I/AAAAAAAAB28/fUj7ud5N7Uc/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6UsYZZ5fLr8/U-_l9DSHs6I/AAAAAAAAB28/fUj7ud5N7Uc/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What
possessed me? Why did I want to read volume one of a six volume
autobigraphical novel, translated from Norwegian, short on plot,
frequently described in reviews as boring and banal? But <b>My
Struggle</b> by Karl Ove Knausgaard has also generated a firestorm of
interest, both in Europe and the US, generating lavish praise from
literary figures and bitter criticism from a few unimpressed critics,
as well as from family members who objected to Knausgaard's frank
depictions.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So,
what's it like? It's like being inside someone's head. You're a
witness to everything Karl Ove is thinking, from his deeply felt
views on art, death, parenthood to his adolescent plotting to obtain
beer for a New Year's Eve party. His style is straightforward and
reportorial, but not without lyricism. Most of the second half of
the book revolves around Knausgaard and his older brother dealing
with the aftermath of their father's death. Karl Ove's relationship
with his father was difficult, so as he cleans up the mess
(literally) that his father has left behind he speaks frankly of his
self-doubt and his attempts to come to terms with the loss of this
cold, judgmental man.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">What
makes this book so unusual is Knausgaard's willingness to risk being
boring by talking about ordinary, everyday events – a haircut, a
cleaning chore, a train ride – without losing the reader's
interest, and to examine his life with unsparing honesty. Somehow, it
worked for me. </span></span>
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-44213454735867652602014-07-29T12:36:00.001-07:002014-07-29T12:36:53.056-07:00Act Three<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N5dyuldJd8w/U9f0lW1kkqI/AAAAAAAAB2g/zlY64PcIhgk/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N5dyuldJd8w/U9f0lW1kkqI/AAAAAAAAB2g/zlY64PcIhgk/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">How
would the story of “Pride and Prejudice” look through Mr.
Darcy's eyes? In fiction we're always locked into the view that the
narrator chooses. But Jane Gardam, God bless her, has broadened the
vista. In <b>“<a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2010/01/raj-orphan.html" target="_blank">Old Filth</a>”</b> she gives us Edward Feathers - Raj orphan,
QC and judge in Hong Kong, husband of Betty, sworn enemy of fellow QC
Terry Veneering – looking back on his life from old age. In <a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-couldnt-resist.html" target="_blank"><b>"The Man in the Wooden Hat"</b></a> it's Betty's turn, and unsurprisingly much looks
different from her perspective, and secrets unknown (or maybe not?)
to Edward are revealed. Now the third leg of the triangle is put
into place, as Gardem's tells Terry's story in <b>Last Friends</b>. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The
novel begins with Old Filth's memorial service, but quickly jumps
back to Veneering's humble beginnings in the fishing village
Herringfleet, his improbable escape from death during the war, his
later success in law, his lifelong passion for Betty. Unfortunately
Gardam also spends time with some less interesting characters, but
even then her lucid, flowing prose keeps things interesting. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">If
you've ever been annoyed that the last 50 pages of a novel seem
flabby or uninteresting, fear not – Jane Gardam must share your
annoyance. She manages to reveal powerful secrets near the end of
each of these books, without in any way seeming gimmicky. These
novels make great summertime books, since they are best read in quick
succession, and they are almost impossible to put down. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-14279837367820414972014-07-11T13:19:00.000-07:002014-07-11T13:19:57.505-07:00Stages of Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RGIaSRmyDP4/U8A7P3O1llI/AAAAAAAAB2I/nIAPn8pQicE/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RGIaSRmyDP4/U8A7P3O1llI/AAAAAAAAB2I/nIAPn8pQicE/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Late
in Tessa Hadley's <b>Clever Girl</b>, main character Stella muses
that “the highest test was not in what you chose, but in how you
lived out what befell you”. She is certainly talking about
herself. Each of the book's ten chapters describes what 'befell'
Stella in a period of her life, from her childhood with a single
mother in postwar Bristol England in the early 1960's, to her own single motherhood and commune life in the 70's, to her married
middle age. (If you are a New Yorker reader you may recognize some
of the early chapters, which appeared there as short stories).
Although Stella can be clever, she is often the victim rather than
the driver of her fate. She somehow manages to be impulsive and
passive at the same time, and the result is a life that lurches
forward with plenty of wrong turns. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I
am often annoyed with passive characters (I had that <a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-not-you-its-me.html" target="_blank">problem</a> with
“The Flamethrowers”), but Stella is so clear-eyed and honest
about her mistakes that I grew to admire her. Hadley's prose has a
lot to do with that. It is crisp and concise, not at all showy, but
sharply observant, and by the end incidents that seemed isolated and
unconnected form a cohesive portrait. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Stella
is not always clever, but she does have the good sense to read great
literature to keep her sanity when her life is chaotic. You've got
to like a girl for that.</span></span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-46612789224640929802014-06-24T16:19:00.000-07:002014-06-24T16:19:42.876-07:00Act II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CbD0KOmRCqA/U6oE3xH0yZI/AAAAAAAAB10/pEtam-mvIj8/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CbD0KOmRCqA/U6oE3xH0yZI/AAAAAAAAB10/pEtam-mvIj8/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">What
if the most exciting part of your life occurs before you're old
enough to appreciate it? In some ways that's what happened to Jules
Jacobson in Meg Wolitzer's “The Interestings” (See my <a href="http://living2read.blogspot.com/2014/06/summer-friendships.html" target="_blank">blog</a>). For
Joan Joyce in Maggie Shipstead's </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b>Astonish
Me </b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">it
comes when, after she has slavishly devoted her</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b>
</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
childhood and adolescence to ballet, she is accepted into a company
and moves to New York. There she confronts what must be the case for
many talented young people – she is very good but she will never be
great. And she meets someone who is great – the charismatic
Russian dancer Arslan Rusakov. Improbably, he chooses Joan to help
him defect, and for a time they are lovers and she can bask in his
reflected glory. </span></span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">But
when the relationship inevitably fails, she chooses a very different
Act II – marriage to her high school sweetheart, a child, and a new
life in a Southern California suburb. As Joan struggles to let go of
her perfectionism her husband Jacob struggles to make her content in
this new life. When their son displays unusual talent as a dancer,
Joan is drawn back into the dance world.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">OK,
I think I'm making this sound like a soap opera. But it's much more
nuanced than that. Shipstead examines some universal themes –
hopes and disappointments, ambition and envy. She shows the dangers
when parents attempt to live through their children's lives. In
addition, although I know only a modest amount about ballet, I
thought Shipstead did a terrific job of describing the ballet world –
the tedium and physical pain of the endless practice, the subtle but
powerful differences between a competent dancer and an electrifying
one. She captures the joy and pain of short-lived success at a young
age and its long term effects on the life that follows. </span></span>
</span></div>
Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-2171486128623589582014-06-10T15:54:00.000-07:002014-06-10T15:54:09.551-07:00Summer Friendships<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8c1GOcFpPCA/U5eLKnL6UAI/AAAAAAAAB1c/moW3lesaX_g/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8c1GOcFpPCA/U5eLKnL6UAI/AAAAAAAAB1c/moW3lesaX_g/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Is
summer camp a rite of passage? If so, it's one I missed. But for
the six characters in Meg Wolitzer's <b>The Interestings, </b>the
bond they form in the 70's at a summer arts camp informs their lives
for the next three decades. For Julie Jacobson, who arrives in
camp as a suburban nonentity and leaves as 'Jules' with five
sophisticated urban new best friends, the camp experience is
especially transformative. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
camp has given them all the sense that they are talented and special,
destined for extraordinary lives. In the power center of the six are
the Wolf siblings Ash (sister) and Goodman (brother). Children of
privilege, charismatic, living in Manhattan, they represent for Jules
all that she admires and aspires to. But success comes instead to
Ethan, the gawky nerd, when he creates a Simpsons-like animated
series that brings him artistic and financial success. His marriage
to Ash gives her the money and prestige to create a career in
feminist theater.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">And
Jules is jealous. Wolitzer deftly and humorously explores how
friendships evolve when success does not bless all equally. She
creates no monsters, but gives each character a believable arc in the journey to maturity. More
importantly, Wolitzer tracks the ebb and flow of the friendships over
a thirty year span with a nuanced hand. She paints them as
complicated, conflicted and, yes, interesting.</span>Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-68037205819860874202014-05-01T16:50:00.000-07:002014-05-01T16:50:24.520-07:00Texas Saga<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pjpbS6zcpxU/U2Lcf88s1HI/AAAAAAAAB0s/Ms3K31w8bPI/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pjpbS6zcpxU/U2Lcf88s1HI/AAAAAAAAB0s/Ms3K31w8bPI/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Wow,
this is not my kind of book. <b>The Son,</b> by Philipp Meyer, is a sprawling, multi-generational saga
set in Texas and spanning over 160 years, replete with such standard
Western elements as cowboys, Indians, cattle, oil, death, greed,
betrayal - not exactly in my wheelhouse. Yes, I loved
“Lonesome Dove” - not multi-generational but certainly a saga –
but so often books in this genre fall into the cliches of the strong,
silent cowboy, the noble savage, the patient wife, the money-grubbing
oilmen, the romanticized view of the Old West. So I took advantage
of Kindle's option to sample the first few chapters before deciding
if it's worth buying. And let me just say that when I finished that
sample I could not push the Buy Book button fast enough. I would say
those early chapters were hair-raising, but, given that they involve
Comanches attacking a homesteading family, that would be a little too
literal. </span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
book's chapters alternate in three different voices. Centenarian Eli
McCullough, patriarch of the family, speaking to a WPA recorder,
narrates the story of his long and eventful life, beginning with his
abduction by the aforementioned Comanches. His son Peter's story is
told by entries in his diaries. They reveal a man who possesses the
moral compass his father lacks, but who is powerless against the
dogged ruthlessness that allows Eli to build his empire. Eli's
great-granddaughter Jeanne Anne has inherited his greed and
determination, even his brutality, but at the start we see her as an
eighty-six year old lying helpless on the floor in her mansion, and
even as she unfolds the events of her life, we sense that she has
sown the seeds of her own destruction.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">This
is a long, rich, powerful story that avoids every stereotype. There
are no heroic cowboys, no brave Rangers, the Indians are noble and
they are savage, the strong steal from the weak. The three narrative
perspectives eventually merge into a complicated tapestry of Texas
history</span><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, times, serif; font-size: 11pt;">.</span>Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8554151135053115684.post-39377067993893232102014-04-18T16:05:00.000-07:002014-04-18T16:05:47.769-07:00Fairy Tales<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GRj2xMb6Fjk/U1GukFzsN_I/AAAAAAAAB0c/uQzVaCBnyak/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GRj2xMb6Fjk/U1GukFzsN_I/AAAAAAAAB0c/uQzVaCBnyak/s1600/cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">The
first line of Helen Oyeyemi's </span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Boy,
Snow, Bird </b></span></span><span style="color: #333333;">could
have been “Once upon a time”. A fairy-tale quality permeates
the story, a modern twist on the Brothers Grimm. A young girl named
Boy lives in New York with a violent father who makes his living as a
rat-catcher, using techniques that would horrify the Pied
Piper. She runs away to the small New England town of Flax Hill,
where she marries a man with a beautiful little daughter named Snow.
After the birth of her own child Bird, Boy becomes something of an
evil stepmother, and the story becomes a distorted version of “Snow
White”, complete with banishment, mirrors, and difficult questions
about who is the fairest of them all.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oyeyemi's
style retains the rhythm of a fable, but, especially in the portions
where Boy is the narrator, it captures the complex, layered voice of
a modern observer, facing issues that are still unresolved in modern society.</span>Charlottehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458186380118480572noreply@blogger.com0