Three Audio Books

During summer car travels, we listened to several audio books, with mixed results. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi is the true tale of the authors shared obsession with an unsolved series of crimes. A serial killer in the 1970's ritually murdered fourteen young lovers around Florence, was never caught, and is known as the Monster of Florence. Preston moved with his family to Florence (he is a mystery writer), met Spezi and together they searched to uncover and confront the man they believe is that monster. Along with murder, mutilation, suicide and vengance, they themselves become targets of a bizarre police investigation. The tale itself if fascinating, providing an additional lesson in political corruption and the concealed and extensive corruption within the Italian legal system. The tale is long, quite interesting, well narrated (Dennis Boutsikaris) but might well have benefited from some editing, since the details sometimes bog down the progress of the story.

Richard Russo, whose writing I thoroughly enjoy, wrote That Old Cape Magic, about the long, painful, sometimes funny struggles of Jack Griffin, a man in mid-life whose marriage is crumbling despite all the trappings of success, wife, daughter, etc. He has truly hideous parents and Russo creates very real, sad but often funny, people. However, over time I tired of this clueless man who excludes his family, thinking they have no impact upon his behavior and life if they are not physically present in his world. His realizations come slowly over time and I somehow lost patience with him as damages pile up along the way. Competently narrated (Arthur Morey), I wanted more to "happen" in this rather slow, character driven work.

The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain, by Andrew Greeley, is a "locked room" mystery (unraveling a mystery without chases, locations, etc.). Bishop Blackie, an intelligent, balanced Catholic Bishop makes entertaining and wry observations about love, life, religious pretentions and rigidity, as he tries to track down and understand the motivations of a priest who has gone missing. The author includes multiple pieces of history and detailed locations in Paris that make the traveler smile in memory, and the Bishop is a very astute man. However well narrated by George Guidall, the writing suffers from being "too" clever, overusing words like "patently"and "arguably" which over time, grew annoying. I found the resolution of the story to exceed my suspension of disbelief, leaving me somewhat disappointed in the end.

That said, the pleasures of audio books cannot be denied.

British Short Stories

Jane Gardam, now in her 80's, is a British writer, winner of many literary awards in Great Britain. However, until recently her work has not quite translated to the U.S. so we are only recently discovering her gifts. Her newest book Old Filth received a very positive review on NPR and I elected to start with an earlier collection of her short stories. The People on Privilege Hill is a quirky, sometimes hilarious and often moving collection of tales about individuals living in London during and after World War II. They range from 3 retired and lonely judges, to a woman who formerly drove young women in a home for unwed mothers to court where they gave up their babies for adoption during the war. One titled Babette, of course caught my eye! It's a clever and very funny tale of a woman who thinks Babette (author of one hit novel followed by years of obscurity) is dead, but our writer is contacted by the author Babette after reviewing her work for a publication. Babette bequeaths several unusual and very heavy antiques to our writer, which are hidden away and sealed in an old attic. The tale of what then occurs provides the delightful surprising almost slapstick humor in the story. Gardam intimately understands the small, daily lives, routines, heartaches and delights of her characters and is clearly skilled at making them real. The added bonus (perhaps) is that I did look up three words in her story that were not entirely familiar to me (stave, balaclava, rime) and thus expanded my vocabulary as well. It's well past the time when this talented writer should finally be discovered by Americans.

Paris Mysteries

Since I'm soon heading for Paris, I'm exploring books set in that glorious city. Cara Black is a San Francisco writer who has a successful mystery series and I was delighted by her first book in the series. Murder in the Marais introduces Aimee Leduc, a half-French, half-American detective who is fearless and sometimes impulsive, which of course gets her into trouble. Her extraordinarily talented partner, Rene is a dwarf and computer genius who provides vital assistance. Aimee is approached by a rabbi to decipher an encrypted photo. As she enters an apartment to deliver it to an old woman in the old Jewish Quarter, she finds a corpse with a swastika carved on her forehead. From that point we move into an exploration of the SS, collaborators, neo-nazis, dark secrets and passions stemming from the German occupation. I found myself admiring a good story, deepening intrigue and strong physical actions and descriptions. This would make a good movie with it's strong physical sense of place, compelling characters, evil and good colliding, and a crescendo of action that keeps you reading late into the night.

I'm delighted to have discovered Aimee and look forward to following her exploits as I prepare to visit her city.

Sex and Love in Paris

I'm reading about Paris in preparation for a trip, so when I found a little surprise in a used bookstore, I couldn't resist. John Baxter is an Australian writer who has written a number of biographies of actors and directors and film. He spent time as a screenwriter and teacher in the U.S., then moved to France where he married a French woman and has been living there for roughly 15 years. His book, We'll Always Have Paris is aptly subtitled Sex and Love in the City of Light. This small book is a very clever and funny at times, providing an audacious exploration into French culture, with particular emphasis on the sexual practices of the French. He takes you to small bookstores, cafes and brothels where Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, Edward VII, Dietrich and others held court and pursued their appetites. He is a very witty and literate writer who uses frequent references to famous artists, authors, and movie scenes which spice up his tales. Not your typical tourbook, and not a character driven novel either, but a spicy combination of short tales of contemporary encounters and historical reports that provide surprises along the way. Though not a "substantial" or "serious" work, he provides some humorous diversion for the curious who may be interested in an usual memoir of life abroad in the City of Light.

Another Updike

The late, prolific John Updike wrote The Witches of Eastwick in 1984. Though not considered one of his best works, I elected to listen to as a Random House Audio CD series, effectively read by Kate Redding. In this mid-career novel, Updike deals with adultery, active libidos, and the nuances of daily life in a small town where secrets and disatisfaction frequently dwell barely below the surface. His three female characters, all divorced or widowed, come together to drink, cast spells and compare adulteries, having slept with a variety of men, often the same ones. Their witchcraft talents and extracurricular activities are hardly a secret in this small community. Alexandra is an earth mother who makes small erotic statues sold in local stores, as she tends to her garden, her children, her body. Jane is an intense and often angry woman who tackles the cello with an urgency and intensity consistent with the way she lives her life. Sukie is a warm, very sociable woman who seems a bit naive in her fascination with everyone in town, somewhat sanctioned by her job as a society columnist for the local newspaper. Evidently Updike is not known for his sympathetic portrayals of women, who are often either jealous, vindictive, naive or they are the sex objects causing these emotions in the other women in his novels. All of the above occurs around a newly widowed younger woman in town as they find themselves vying for the attentions of Daryl Van Horne, a loud, sexually hungry, brassy (yes, devilish) New Yorker with a secretive past and unknown source of wealth.

This is not a great Updike novel, but his masterful prose is again in evidence. It's never plot heavy, and his prose is often beautiful. His insights are sharp and perceptive. He sometimes meanders as he interrupts a scene to lovingly describe the characters' thoughts or their physical surroundings. You have to pay attention sometimes not to lose the point of a conversation. However, you are rewarded for your effort with a deeper understanding of the characters. And this small Rhode Island town of Eastwick is so vividly described that you feel you could walk through the streets and know the surroundings by sight, much as you remember towns from your youth.

Phryne Fisher Mysteries

I recently downloaded an audiobook, Murder in Montparnasse, assuming that it would be set in Paris. Although that was misleading, I discovered Kerry Greenwood's mystery series and it was a happy accident indeed. Phryne (pronouned "Fry-Knee") Fisher is a still beautiful, very elegant Parisian woman with a past. She was an ambulance driver during the war, made a poor choice in love, and has settled in Australia. She is surrounded by some colorful Aussie's but she brings the sophistication of Paris with her. She surrounds herself with family members and staff who rely on her, and the man who reappears, unwanted, from her past. As she conducts a love affair with an elegant Chinese man and somewhat scandalizes the place, a series of deaths begin to occur, pointing to her past.

It's never necessary to reveal the plot of a good mystery. Elegantly read by Stephanie Daniel, what makes this mystery a pleasure is Phryne. It was just great fun to spend time such a steely and independent character. I'm looking forward to more adventures with this capable, very classy heroine.

Poor Feckless Sam

I recently finished An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke. It was promoted as an absurd, hilarious, wacky and darkly comic novel. I can partially agree with the wacky and darkly comic description. Sam Pulsifer is sent to prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickenson's house and killing the two people who were in the house, though he was unaware of their presence. He rebuilds his life after ten years in prison but has no contact with his parents and fails to reveal his past to the wife he meets in college while training to be a packaging scientist (an amusing profession cleverly described). He seems a passive, feckless soul, and when he discovers that the homes of other famous writers are going up in smoke, implicating him, he sets out in a clumsy and ill advised way to uncover the identity of that arsonist. His ineptitude can be both amusing and alarming to the reader. He is, I suppose, the fool in all of us, and much of this satire contains clever writing. However, Sam's sadly self-destructive and clueless ways after a time became annoying. His self-awareness seems to be undeveloped or hidden beneath layers of denial. He appears to have little sense of the consequences of his actions. Sam is not unlikable despite all of this. As the tale grows darker, and his life falls apart, you are saddened by the the disastrous impact of major secrets kept between father and mother, mother and son, husband and wife. The lack of information and understanding Sam has for his parents is astounding. The unraveling becomes hard to witness as he continues to make very poor choices.

This unusual novel manages at times to be both absurd and ultimately tragic. Perhaps my sense of humor is such that I could not fully appreciate the outrageous elements of absurdist humor. However, the author has written a truly original and inventive tale which might be just your cup of tea.

John Updike Remembered on NPR

John Updike, the often celebrated, gifted and prolific writer, died on January 27th 2009. Curiously, I was downloading an audio book version of the Witches of Eastwick on the night he died. On the January 28th episode of Fresh Air on NPR, excerpts from three interviews with Terry Gross were played in remembrance of the man and his work.  He was an eloquent, honest speaker (despite an earlier struggle with stuttering), a strikingly thoughtful man, and often very funny as well as insightful.

During the course of three conversations, he discussed writing and how issues in his life informed his work, how his ideas came to him and took shape, his response to criticism, etc.  He was a gracious and most interesting interview subject.  If you missed it, go to Fresh Air.Com, NPR.Com or I Tunes and download the FreshAir episode from January 28, 2009.  A wonderful series of interviews to contemplate.

Away

I recently overheard two women in a bookstore extolling the book Away by Amy Bloom, so of course I added it to my selections. Lillian Leyb is Russian Jew who escapes after the bloody slaughter of her family and arrives in New York's Lower East Side in 1924. It begins as a classic tale of immigrant experience as she toils in a sewing factory and catches the eye of the owners, both father and son. She becomes their mistress without either man knowing about the other one. In a sly and humorous way we see her struggle with her nightmares, learn English, observe carefully in order to try to understand these men and improve her opportunities. A Russian cousin joins her and informs her that her little daughter Sophie is alive and living with former neighbors in Russia. She immediately follows her heart and becomes determined to return to Siberia to reunite with Sophie. Traveling by train, with seven dollars, she is attacked and robbed and spends a very unusual period in Seattle with a prostitute who saves her life. Lillian becomes entangled in strange doings there, escapes and proceeds on foot, through the brutal lonely wilderness of Alaska en route to the Bering Strait as the only way to get to her destination. The people she meets, mostly men, provide moving characters, windows into human need, and a story that propels you forward. Lillian's will to survive, need to carefully observe in order to learn, to get to Sophie, all create a strong and compelling character. The novel is an artful blend of fiction and fantasy that seems like it could have certainly been at least partially based on a true account. The author states that it is a work of pure fiction. It's a short novel containing strong character development and an emotionally evocative story.

The Reader

Due to the release today of the Academy Award nominations, we all know that the movie The Reader, based on the 1999 book by Bernhard Schlink has been nominated in both Best Movie and Best Acting categories. I recall the book as a compelling, uncomfortable story with complex characters, and it has stayed with me since that 1999 reading experience. The movie very effectively captures the essential story and the nuances of the characters, with superb performances by the cast. We know it is the tale of the sexual and emotional relationship an adolescent German boy has at the end of WWII with Hannah, a woman with a disturbing past. She is tried several years after their affair, for war crimes she committed as a Nazi prison guard, which rocks the foundations of the young man's life. An interesting sidebar to the story is her obsession about being read to, and the selection of books he reads aloud to her is most interesting and varied. The books used in the movie included The Odyssey, War and Peace, the works of Rilke, and a book by Anton Chekov, written late in his life, called The Lady and the Dog. It is the story of two married people who begin what they anticipate to be a casual liaison and they are repeatedly drawn to each other in more serious ways. It is the one book from which portions are read aloud several times in the movie, an interesting directorial choice in terms of pertinent and pointed content. It is well worth your time to see the movie, to read the book, and to consider the Chekov story as well.

Mister Pip

New Zealander Lloyd Jones has written a superb and unusual tale for any book lover's consideration. Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Prize, Mister Pip is a story narrated by Matilda, a 13 year old girl living in a small village on an island in New Guinea during a brutal civil war in the 1990's. Helicopters hover, power goes out, teachers have fled, and both government and rebel troops of boys surround the village. Only one white man, Mr. Watt's, remains, becoming their teacher with dreams of making the classroom a "place of light". Mr. Watt's has an abiding love for Dickens and one particular book, Great Expectations. He reads to the children to provide an escape from their dreary days, to set their minds free, to encourage them to allow their imaginations to flourish. The children are enthralled by the story, especially the character Pip. When the rebels mistakenly assume that Mr. Watt's, identified as Pip, is a spy, the tale darkens and devastating events occur. "Just as Great Expectations changes Matilda, instilling in her a moral code, so the environment in which it is read changes the book." Faced with a crisis, Mr. Watt's must spin a tale that combines elements from Pip's life, his own, and that of the beleaguered islanders. Despite the heartache and horror that are contained in the story, there is considerable charm, humor and power in this book.

Jones writes in a lyrical way and has a wonderful ear for the earthy aspects of village life. Some people are "silly as bats" and "argue like roosters". He mentions characters with big bums. Despite devastating events in the story, the author makes it clear that he has great faith in literature and it's power to effect change and offer solace. That's what contributes much to create a memorable book. This book stands alone quite well but I think it would be an ideal book to read along with Great Expectations, to form the basis of a stimulating discussion.

Remembering Adolescence

Lorrie Moore is a writer recommended by Louise Erdrich, and this summer I read her book, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? The title alone made it worth reading and this short novel has both fans and critics. Berie Car, in the midst of a failing marriage, remembers her best friend Sils, and their last summer together in a small Adirondack tourist town. Life was thrilling, ordinary, sweet and bitter, all experienced in a "bleakly funny state of suspended collapse." As an awkward, skinny, yearning 15 year old, she rejects her family, and idolizes Sils, who is sassy, prettier, and sexually precocious. Berie recalls Sils in a series of flashbacks. They work together in an amusement park, Berie as a cashier, Sils as Cinderella. They are irreverent, wild, curious and rebellious, stealing in to a local bar, sneaking cigarettes. When Sils becomes pregnant, Berie develops a plan to fund the inevitable abortion. But she is caught filching money at the amusement park and is shipped off to a summer camp. We then fast-forward abruptly to her adult life in a failing marriage, and this brief part seems disconnected and unrelated to Berie's adolescent feelings and perceptions.

Moore's writing, and the clarity of Berie's memories, from cottage cheese for breakfast, to the emotional details of Berie's experience of lost innocence is the writer's strength. She uses droll wordplay humorously at times and also evokes genuine sadness. It's a bitter, often funny hymn to lost adolescence and a poignant tale. Moore skillfully illuminates an awareness of how life's significant events can often prove disappointingly anticlimactic. I thought about her memories and perceptions of these events for a long time after reading this book, remembering my own adolescence. As a result, I look forward to reading more of Lorrie Moore's books.

Suspense at the End of WWII

We were recently at the library seeking an engaging Audio Book CD for a long car trip. The Good German by Joseph Kanon (Los Alamos, Alibi, The Prodigal Spy) filled the bill perfectly for us. Jake, an American correspondent who spent time in Berlin before the war, has returned to write about the Allied triumph at the approaching end of the war. His hidden agenda is to search for his German lover Lena, who was married to a Nazi and left behind four years earlier. The quest to find her leads to a series of events initiated by the unexplored discovery of an American soldier found dead in Potsdam with huge quantities of Russian currency on his body. Investigating his death, digging for information in the wrong places, upsetting the military authorities, searching for Lena without discretion, moves him through a compelling tale involving love, murder, espionage, increasing paranoia and tension. Along the way the author explores some important ethical questions about justice and good vs. evil during wartime, and a time of peace.

The Good German is expertly narrated by Stanley Tucci, who "does accents" quite effectively. It was also made into a movie starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Toby Maquire. I anticipate viewing the movie, hoping that they did justice to the book. Kanon vividly and skillfully recreates the city of post-war Berlin, the destruction wrought by the bombing, the loss and emptiness felt by several characters living among the rubble. Because of his vivid descriptions of the city, I recommended it to a friend recently back from Berlin. For good gripping entertainment, it's well worth your time.

An Epic Tale of Turkey

Louis De Bernieres is best known as the author of Correlli's Mandolin. He has also written another interesting epic, Birds Without Wings, about the tortured and tumultuous history of Turkey. Seen through the experiences of the people populating one small village, from the turn of the century through the 1930's, we learn about the heartbreaking changes that occur, altering all of their lives. The tale begins when the Turks, Armenians and Greeks live cooperatively, and moves forward to repeated conflicts and wars that create a sad diaspora as the residents scatter or are forced out. We meet families and witness horrific choices they must make, stories they must hide, people they must protect or destroy. There is a love story of a Christian girl and Muslim boy that is destined for tragedy, and a Greek harlot must hide her identity from the lonely and powerful Turkish village leader who takes her home. The portrait of Ataturk, the great hero who modernized and westernized the country, is particularly compelling as he develops from a very cunning manipulator into a genuine war hero with impressive tenacity and skills.

The author crafted this book like Correlli's Mandolin, by skillfully describing a particular village and the impact of wars over time on a cast of well developed characters living in the village. Reading this book requires some time and effort, but for anyone with a particular interest in Turkey, it is a compelling and powerful reading experience. I found it very helpful as I attempted to understand the complex experiences, ethnic conflicts and complicated history of Turkey.

The Daughter of Time

One the the many pseudonyms for Elizabeth Mackintosh, a Scottish mystery writer, was Josephine Tey.  She wrote six mystery novels under the name Josephine Tey, and in five of them her hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. In her most famous book, The Daughter of Time, Grant is laid up in the hospital bored and recovering from a broken leg. His  friends know he has a passion for faces and bring him a pile of portraits to keep him busy.  The subjects of the portraits all have a bit of mystery surrounding them. Grant becomes fascinated by Richard III's portrait, convinced that this troubled but kind looking man  cannot be the hunchbacked murdering villain described by Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More.  He does extensive research with the help of his doctors, nurses and a young American scholar, reviewing the historical case the way he would conduct a contemporary Scotland Yard investigation  and concludes that King Richard was quite innocent of that or any other murder, and that someone else was the actual murderer, tyrant and usurper at the time.

This is a well-written and highly readable mystery novel in which Tey cleverly uses her plot to refute many of the traditional characterizations of Richard III and she encourages you, the reader, to do some research and draw your own conclusions.  After reading this book,  written in 1951, I devoured the other five books she wrote, then discovered to my dismay that she had died in 1952. But for those mystery lovers who  enjoy mysteries within a historical context, if unfamiliar with her work, she is likely to provide you with a number of hours of pleasant reading enjoyment. 

Ulysses S. Grant

I really appreciate NPR's Writer's Almanac. Though the daily entries may not always "speak" to me, I learn and appreciate so many nuggets about writers, contemporary or historical. One recent "gem" was about Ulysses S. Grant, the great Civil War Union General and two term president of the United States.  After his presidency and travels, he joined an investment banking company with his son, which experienced a boom for several years. Then it was discovered that a partner was embezzling funds and he found himself several million dollars in debt, broke less than 10 years after leaving the presidency. He had been repeatedly approached about writing his memoirs and declined previous requests. Now, deeply in debt, he also discovered he had throat cancer and not long to live. Mark Twain offered him a generous contract (75% of the profits) so he wrote through great pain during much of that time. He wrote and revised his work diligently, finished his memoirs in July 1885 and died four days later.   

His publishers sold 300,00 copies of his memoirs by subscription, using young men in Union soldier's uniforms as the sales force. His royalty of $450,000 was the largest of his time. Everyone was surprised by his very strong writing skills and one comment indicates that his clear prose "was a model of autobiographical writing."   His book, Personal Memoirs is one of the very few books written by a U.S. president that is also regarded as great literature.

For anyone interested in historical accounts and the Civil War, this sounds like a very strong contender.

The Bastard of Istanbul

The outspoken, defiant Turkish writer Elif Shafak, has written books in both English and Turkish. The Bastard of Istanbul is her second English novel, a best seller in Turkey in 2006. Armed with degrees in International Relations, Women's Studies and Political Science from University in Ankara, Shafak is outspoken on the topics of feminism, Ottoman culture, political matters, and defiant of orthodoxy. This book brought her under prosecution by the Turkish government for "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. The charge was made because one character in her book characterized the 1915  Turkish massacres of Armenians as "genocide". Charges were later dropped.

Her contemporary novel concerns a vivid. quirky Turkish family of four sisters living together in Istanbul, with Asya the 19 year old daughter (the bastard) of one of the sisters,  who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists. Enter their estranged brother who lives in Tucson with his American wife and Armenian-American stepdaughter, Armanoush.  Armanoush travels to Turkey in search of her Armenian identity, meets her stepfather's Turkish family there and Asya and Armanoush become fast friends. A secret is reveal that links the two families and connects them to the 1915 deportation and massacre of many Armenians, with ancestors described vividly through the voice of Armanoush.

Safak's women characters are colorful, quirky, and vividly described. She successfully brings together the culture clashes and differing viewpoints of the two households, vast differences between the sisters, and her description of the Turk's massacre of Armenians during WWI is unsparing and clear. It added a good deal to my limited understanding of this topic, from the Armenian viewpoint. The treatment of it's Armenian population is still not officially acknowledged by the Turkish government, which refuses to recognize this part of their past as "genocide". (Author Orfan Pamuk recently ran into similar conflicts resulting in his short term imprisonment over his criticism of the Turkish treatment of their Kurdish minority population.) Although the plot meanders a bit at times, it's a worthy book, a good colorful and compelling contribution to international fiction.  I certainly recommend it to any reader with an interest in contemporary Turkey and her very tangled and violent past.

Robert Bly

Robert Bly, first poet laureate of Minnesota, founder of the Iron Man movement, longtime antiwar spokesman during Vietnam and currently, the Iraq War, has an amazing breadth of interests and talents.  I know of him because he lived for many years on a farm in Minnesota near by cabin. He later gained fame in California for his Iron Man workshops as men sought personal growth and reconciliation with distant fathers during the fading years of the human potential movement.  In addition to writing poetry, essays, books, he leads workshops in European Fairytales and other storytelling events.  Born in Norway, he has done extensive translations, including Peer Gynt for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

His softer depictions of memories growing up on a farm, the harsh life, the visual images (again rich imagery) is captured so well in a favorite book I review each summer,  Morning Poems published by Harper Collins. To find out more about him, read some of his poems and essays on his website  www.RobertBly.com.  To hear a poem on the Writer's Almanac (NPR) free podcasts, go to  the March 18, 2008  entry.

 

Bly is appearing with several poets at the Marin Poetry  Festival in San Rafael, at Dominican College, Sunday May 18th 7:30 p.m.  For full details go to bookclub4evr and look at our What's New section.

New Yorker Podcasts-Lorrie Moore

One of the joys of podcasts is the availability of good literature for listening, from books to short stories that sample the writing skills of numerous authors.  The New Yorker has a free  monthly Fiction Podcast, easy to subscribe to under "free" podcasts.  A recent short story, read and discussed by Louise Erdrich, was Dance in America by Lorrie Moore. Moore is a contemporary midwestern writer whose work Erdrich enjoys and respects. Erdrich became taken with Moore's writing after reading her novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and quickly became aware of Moore's short story repertoire as well.  Dance in America, published in Birds of America: Stories by Lorrie Moore, tells of a dance teacher who moves to Philadelphia to teach children's dance classes. She encounters an old friend there, whose son is terminally ill and her relationship with the child and the way the family converses and copes informs her  characters. The sometimes absurd conversations within the family as a way of coping, are surprising.  The story reveals Moore's  humor, kindness and her depth as well as her sense of the absurd. Not to be dismissed as "chick lit" her writing is often about contemporary woman's issues with sharp observations noted, yet kindness and humor characterize her dealings with absurd or contradictory characters.  She writes with economy, quickly getting to the heart of her story, sometimes omitting preliminaries, yet every detail works toward the end of the story.  I'm delighted to anticipate  reading more works by this  thoughtful, humorous, highly observant writer who is cast as a "true original" by Erdrich. 

 

Imagery

When I think of one of the most powerful tools of the writer I think of imagery.  Those memories that are called up by vivid sensory descriptions are often the essence of poetry. I am currently reading a future book group selection: Out Stealing Horses by the Norwegian author Per Petterson, beautifully translated  by Anne Born.  It centers around the life of young boy a half a century ago who spends his summers with his father in a small cabin in the countryside by a river in the far eastern woods of Norway.  It is a quiet, compelling book that ensnares you in a family story that grows in complexity, seen through the boy's eyes and later from the grown man's point of view. He visits the memories of his youth, his struggling to understand, to deal with the mysteries of human feeling as he revisits his life later on in a solitary cabin. The sense of an earlier time and place is depicted by carefully detailed descriptions of  the woods, river, neighbors, logging and clearing, fishing and boating among the birch and spruce trees of the North country. The characters are complicated, often taciturn, internal people.

I find myself reading slowly, savoring the author's eloquent descriptions of place: "Between the spruce stumps the grass was growing lush and thick, and behind some bushes further on we saw the horses, only their rumps visible, tails swishing horse flies. We smelled the horses droppings and the wet boggy moss and the sweet, sharp, all-pervading odour of something greater than ourselves and beyond our comprehension: of the forest, which just went on  and on to the north and into Sweden and over the Finland and further on the whole way to Siberia..." His descriptions of sounds:  "The sun was high in the sky now, it was hot under the trees, it smelt hot, and from everywhere in the forest around us there were sounds: of beating wings, of branches bending and twigs breaking, and the scream of a hawk and a hare's last sigh, and the tiny muffled boom each time a bee hit a flower...I took deep breaths through my nose and thought that no matter how life should turn out and however far I travelled I would always remember this place as it was just now, and miss it." My favorite: "I waded a few paces into the stream and stood there listening for the sound of oars, but there was only the water sweeping round my legs, and I could see nothing either up river or down...It was a weird sensation to be standing in the night alone, almost the feeling of light or sound through my body; a soft moon or a peal of bells, with the water surging against my boots, and everything else was so big and so quiet around me, but I did not feel abandoned. I felt singled out. I was perfectly calm, I was the anchor of the world. It was the river that did that to me." The book provides numerous examples of quiet, solitary moments with nature that establish a strong sense of the place where the story unfolds.  Real pleasures await readers about to share this place.