Reading Loves

What Changes Everything, Masha Hamilton

2013-10-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

What Changes Everything is a sentimental novel describing a sampling of the multitude of heartbreaking effects war and violence can have, specifically in the instance of this particular novel, the United States' war in Afghanistan. Hamilton's novel features an ensemble cast of parents, children, siblings, and friends, illustrating the subtle ways by which such a variety of individuals are pulled together by global crisis.

When Clarissa Barbery gets word that her aid working husband Todd has been kidnapped by terrorists while on assignment in Afghanistan, her life is turned upside down. In an odd turn of events, she meets Danil, the street-artist brother of a soldier killed in action while deployed to Afghanistan. Danil remains estranged from his mother due to the nature of his brother's death and her inability to come to terms with the shocking reality.

Clarissa is recommended by her husband's Afghan contact Amin to forgo a military strike on the suspected terrorist safe house that hides her husband for the sake of diplomacy; Amin believes that he can work the system of Afghan familial respect and honor to negotiate for Todd's release. Todd's daughter Ruby seeks the immediate solution of a military strike, preferring to believe that the U.S. military can bring her father home safely, and tensions are heightened by the difference of approach between Ruby and Clarissa.

Amin, former assistant to Afghanistan's former Communist leader Mohammad Najibullah, has spent decades disturbed by his failure in securing Najibullah's release from imprisonment in 1996, when Najibullah was assassinated. He seeks to redeem himself from his previous failings by bringing about the peaceful release of Todd Barbery, despite the danger he puts himself into by aiding an American.

It is Mohammad Najibullah's letters to his family, written during the time of his four year imprisonment, that give this novel a critical historical context, reminding American readers that while we entered into this war in 2001, Afghanistan has suffered from the effects of violence and struggle for much longer. Sadly, Amin's connection to Najibullah, and Todd's limited narration of his experience with his kidnappers are the widest range of the Afghan experience that we are given in this novel, a fact that I personally had a large problem with.

Obviously the situations represented are tense and complicated, not just by sociopolitical differences between Americans and Afghans, but by each characters histories, loyalties, and morals. However gritty the subject matter could have been, though, Hamilton's novel glosses over violent incidents and takes a much more sentimental stand. The novel felt a bit cliche in its dialogue, and characters were unrealistically unambiguous in their good intentions. A novel that's book jacket features politically charged graffiti is expected to have more edge, at least by this particular reader. It is however a very quick read that could appeal to a very wide readership, in that it does not seek to bother the ever flammable opinions of partisan politics.

The Circle, Dave Eggers

2013-10-21T06:31:00.001-07:00

Dave Eggers' latest novel, The Circle, imagines a company that has combined and successfully monopolized elements of Kickstarter, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter, to name a few. It's reach among young citizens the world over is unparalleled, and it is seen as the most exciting company to work for. Mae Holland is hired in with the assistance of her former college roommate Annie, who has been climbing up The Circle ranks for a number of years. Starting in the Customer Experience department, Mae learns the ropes, and sees that working for The Circle is an understatement; employees are expected to participate within it's social network and community as much as they are responsible for performing their work duties.

The universal operating system that is The Circle has increased online efficiency in an unprecedented way. All purchasing, banking information, personal data, anything attributed to an online presence has been unified in a system that forbids anonymity, seemingly taking the drama out of internet interactions by making the individual accountable for any and all web deeds. Without anonymity, no one can escape responsibility for nasty comments and identity theft, or so goes the theory.

Indeed, privacy is seen by the Three Wise Men (as the three tops of the company are referred to) as selfish; every piece of information and experience should be made accessible to all citizens the world over. They imagine a Utopia of data sharing, where nothing is off limits and class structures are erased by the power of information sharing.

The skeptical reader will raise an eyebrow when Mae is called into human resources for problem mitigating because she didn't attend a party she was invited to online and her dedication to the company is questioned; or when Mae's health stats become a part of her online presence, viewable by all Circle account holders; and when The Circle produces webcams that are cheap enough to put in just about any location, and enable live feeds from every camera to be accessible to all Circle members. The level of surveillance and transparency The Circle aspires to is terrifying.

"SECRETS ARE LIES"

"SHARING IS CARING"

"PRIVACY IS THEFT"

Mae's success within the company skyrockets when she agrees to go fully transparent, wearing a camera around her neck and providing a live feed of every move she makes, only stopping the feed's audio when she uses the bathroom, and only going offline after 10:00pm if she's going to sleep. Thousands watch her day to day around The Circle campus, as she participates in massive parties, has access to unreleased products to test and rate online, and witnesses The Circle digest the brainchild of countless young thinkers, dying to have their products/concepts manufactured and marketed by the omnipotent Circle.

The Circle is not without it's naysayers though; an enigmatic man habitually questions Mae, and begins to demand that she use her online presence to warn the masses of the dangers inherent in dedicating so much of their lives to their Circle accounts. Mae's family is given free health care, taking a monumental financial load off of her father, who has been struggling with MS. The cost, however, is that they live with these webcams all over their home. The Circle feels that they should want to share their experiences with others who deal with the disease, but they quickly cover the cameras with fabric, attempting to maintain some privacy.

Mae's ex boyfriend, still a presence in her parents' lives, also takes issue with The Circle, believing that it dehumanizes and belittles actual one-on-one interaction. Indeed, Mae is so busy on her phone "smiling" or "frowning" at her followers' comments that she can barely participate in dinner conversation. Sound familiar?

Mae's naivete and oftentimes vapid outlook make her a very difficult protagonist to read. There are so many situations where her ambition and need for authentication via The Circle's social sphere lead her down a very shortsighted, selfish path. Inevitably it is that very naivete and selfishness that drive the novel right into the frightening territory Eggers' wishes to suggest our web-obsessed culture is doomed to take us.

While I certainly appreciate what this novel seeks to accomplish, the metaphors are so obvious it feels awkward. There just wasn't much finesse to how the novel was imagined. It doesn't really delve into any great depths, so much as offer a summary of the varying problems such a monopolizing, totalitarian social network could have on humanity. One is left at the end of the novel at the foothills of the mountain that is Singularity, vaguely aware that an internet creation so all-encompassing can have no other direction in sight.

It's a very straight forward telling of some very complex questions that need to become a part of everyone's discourse. Eggers' true achievement in this novel is that it is imagined only a few years out from what we are currently living. What he's created isn't much of a creative leap, so much as a surreal foreshadowing.

“We all know the world is too big for us to be significant. So all we have is the hope of being seen, or heard, even for a moment.”

Harvest, Jim Crace

2013-10-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Jim Crace turns a pastoral idyll upside down, with the most breathtaking descriptions I have read in a long time. The rhythm is mesmerizing, creating a fearless poetic landscape not simply of the farmlands Walter Thirsk has inhabited with his fellow villagers, but of the human heart. It may not have won the Man Booker, but this shortlister was well worth the read!

Thirsk came to the unnamed village at an unknown moment in history, to be estimated as anywhere between the 1770s, and the 1880s. This is when the Houses of Parliament were tweaking their fifteen or so varying Enclosure Acts, giving landowners the power to take what had been unfenced common fields, and close them off as sheep herding land. He is not born of the lands he has found himself on, but considers himself a vital part of the community, having been married to one of the locals before her unexpected passing. The simultaneous discovery of foreigners on the outskirts of the villagers' realm, as well as the setting of the barn fire the day after harvest, sets the community to wondering and finger pointing, making even the recently widowed Thirsk's place within the group uncertain.

“There's not a season set aside for pondering and reveries. It will not let us hesitate or rest; it does not wish us to stand back and comment on its comeliness or devise a song for it. It has no time to listen to our song. It only asks us not to tire in our hard work. It wants to see us leathery, our necks and fore-arms burnt as black as chimney oak; it wants to leave us thinned and sinewy from work. It taxes us from dawn to dusk, and torments us at night; that is the taxing that the thrush complains about. Our great task each and every year is to defend ourselves against hunger and defeat with implements and tools.”

To make matters far more tense, Thirsk and his neighbors have noticed another stranger in their midst during harvest. They come to call this one Mr. Quill, as he is mapping out the details of their village. Mr. Quill is clearly working with the support of their landowner Master Kent, a childhood friend of Thirsk's despite class differences, and also a widower. Sadly, Kent is about to be overturned by a direct inheritor of the land; despite years of gently ruling his country neighbors and sharing the labor of planting and harvest. Kent is to be usurped for having no male heir, by his brother in law who will enclose the lands for sheep, scattering the great majority of the villages' population to the winds.

“The mood has changed. It's heavier. We were liquid; now we're stones."

Of course all of these issues culminate into violence; the villagers assume the worst of the new faces on their lands and throw the menfolk of the group in the stocks with a week's sentence for the barn fire. Despite Thirsk's suspicion that a handful of local troublemakers were actually to blame, he keeps quiet.

An accidental death, the spilled secret of what is to be done to the common land, and a grisly attack on the landowner's horse launch all the inhabitants of the village into action, be it for self preservation, or to maintain some semblance of control on the violence. A couple women, and even a small girl are rounded up for questioning, and abused until they confess to witchcraft. The villagers close in upon themselves, labeling Thirsk and the foreigners as enemies.

Our narrator was far from perfect, despite his habit of romanticizing the village and his work. He is pushed and tested to his absolute limits, and Crace sort of shocks the reader with how far even Thirsk was willing to go; this seemingly mild mannered introvert becomes a daring witness to both sides of the village's fall, trusted by Master Kent with the scope of the problems as more than just another farm laborer.

Yet this is not a novel red with blood or loaded with violence; it is tastefully wrought, more of a major catalyst for how the villagers will never be able to recover what they had as the novel opened. Harvest is a brilliant novel about change, survival, and xenophobia, and could not possibly be more timely. So much changes in our own landscape, and Crace's novel asks us: are we too busy being afraid of what we don't know, to notice that what could truly damage us was right under our noses?

We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo

2013-10-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

We Need New Names is an exemplary piece of post colonial fiction; but even that understates its personality. It eloquently questions how we develop concepts of home, when the country we knew is not only far away, but unbelievably unfamiliar within a new cultural experience. This wonderful strangeness of foreign viewpoints is magnified by the narrators' youth in Bulawayo's vibrant debut novel.

Starting in Zimbabwe as a young girl, Darling traverses her territory with street smarts from having experienced too much political upheaval and bloodshed, accompanied by her gang of friends that, however different their geography, would resemble any gang of children anywhere in the world. The novel sees her through immigrating to America, to a place her friends back home only know as "Destroyedmichygen," where Darling believes her life will be full of Lamborghinis and Kim Kardashian.

Despite a landscape marred by decades of post colonial political unrest and AIDS, the novel begins with the camaraderie of Darling's friends scavenging for guavas. They naively mock foreign affairs and international power structures with their "Country Game," aware that countries like the United States or France mean strength to the international community, whereas their own country is broken and poor. They innocently hope that getting rid of Chipo's stomach means she will no longer be pregnant at an age when American children would be attending middle school; a pregnancy brought upon her by her own grandfather. Readers experience the sadness of watching children stealing guavas from neighborhoods where food is thrown away in large quantities, political groups destroy an entire community's housing, clothing falls apart to the point of no longer being functional, and children tend to parents ravaged by AIDS. Yet Darling's gang perseveres, dreaming of sports cars and Lady Gaga.

The youthful misunderstandings of English and pop culture bring another layer of wry commentary and linguistic brilliance on the part of Bulawayo, creating humorous anecdotes amidst despair. "The problem with English," for herself and many Africans, Darling says is that, "when we talked, our tongues thrashed madly in our mouths, staggered like drunken men."

It is when Darling moves to Detroit to be with her aunt that the pigeoning begins to be buffed out as she learns how out of her depth she is, her dreams of Hollywood personalities and iPods tempered by snow and gang violence on the streets. She dreads relaying the truth of life in America to her mother and friends back home. The gap that was once just geography widens with experiences they cannot share with Darling as she comes of age in Michigan, with President Obama's campaign and earlier years in Office, Internet pornography, and shopping malls.

Yet not even in this new country does she feel that she belongs, constantly belittled by strangers whose ignorance of African politics and diversity confuses and alienates Darling. At a wedding, she is needlessly questioned about the state of things in the Congo, as if being of the African continent make her an emissary of all countries, and perhaps worse, a young girl would want to chit chat about the violence and chaos that made her virtually a refugee with a total stranger. Her boss at the grocery store she clerks at during high school joins in with the patronizing talk; "I know you've seen all sorts of crazy shit over there." Bulawayo captures the frustration of trying to fit in with great authenticity.

Darling brims with strength and dignity, and NoViolet Bulawayo's debut unfolds intelligently, ushering in a youthful perspective on the modern trials that face immigrants coming to America. This is a novel that proves that while we may live in a world that seems smaller thanks to Skype, international phones, and enhanced communications, we can still be separated by immense barriers, and typically have far more to learn from the rest of the world than we may be conscious of. Thankfully, here is a fierce, sharp author happy to remind us, who I am thrilled to see short listed for the 2013 Man Booker!

The Testament of Mary, Colm Toibin

2013-10-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

Colm Toibin's most recent novella is absolutely not short on feeling. It's an emotional triumph, blazing with regret and sadness. In a rather secular take on Mary, the mother of Jesus, The Testament of Mary portrays her as a solitary older woman, spending her final days telling her stark story of bitterness and blood to two of his followers, whose agenda is to change the world.

A note to review readers: this is fiction. Don't allow for Toibin's representation of Mary and/or final days of Jesus Christ to be spoiled because of your spirituality. When viewed simply as a fictitious account of a world renowned historical figure, this novella becomes profound in its imaginative powers for being able to take something incredibly familiar, and still be insightful. Having said this, Im sure some may find Toibin's interpretation jarring because of changes to the Biblical story.

Mary journeys to Cana for a wedding, and also to see for herself what many are saying her son has done: he has resurrected Lazarus. She is not portrayed as a heartfelt believer in her son, merely a mother begging him to return home with her, to be safe from the Romans and Jewish leaders whose power swells with their anger and fear.

Mary simply remembers the baby she birthed, remembers how "the new life within me, the second heart beating, fulfilled me beyond anything I had ever imagined." Upon meeting her son, however, Mary finds him who was once "delicate and awash with needs," grown into something shockingly changed.

"There was nothing delicate about him now, he was all displayed manliness, utterly confident and radiant, yes, radiant like light is radiant, so that there was nothing we could have spoken of then in those hours, it would have been like speaking to the stars or the full moon."

The story of the crucifixion is familiar to us, yet it is the mother's narrative that forces us to view the violence and despair with new eyes: "I tried to see his face as he screamed in pain, but it was so contorted in agony and covered in blood that I saw no one I recognized."

It is grief and memory layered upon a bitter twist to the end of events that drives Toibin's novella into a new imagining, as Mary decides to flee the scene of her son's death to save her own life, rather than wait to care for his remains and be arrested as one of his followers, a decision that will haunt her until her own demise:

"I have dreamed I was there. I have dreamed that I held my broken son in my arms when he was all bloody and then again when he was washed, that I had him back for that time,that I touched his flesh and put my hands on his face, which had grown beautiful and gaunt now that his suffering was over."

No matter your affiliation or beliefs, I feel confident that there exists an immense achievement in this novel. It concisely evokes a searingly painful moment of mother love, daring to ask how it may have felt for the world famous Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, to simply be a protective mother. Look at it this way... if you are concerned the differences from the Bible may make you uncomfortable, it isn't a massive undertaking at 81 pages.

This is the third of the Man Bookers short listed for 2013's award that I have reviewed, and I am honestly not convinced that this particular one is up to par, should you ask for my personal opinion. It is brave and emotive, yes, but almost too simple, too concise, hindered by its brevity.

The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri

2013-09-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

Jhumpa Lahiri is a writer I would consider to be very subtle with her emotional insight. In her fourth novel, The Lowland, she ambitiously exposes readers to a complex moment in India's history, the Naxalite movement of the 1960s, and the ever painful aftermath revolutionary violence can have upon a family.

Brothers Subhash and Udayan Mitra are only separated by fifteen months, and have always been mistaken for one another desptie Subhash, the eldest, being so reserved and cautious, while Udayan the youngest, is the more precocious counterpart. Both brilliant in school, it is during their twenties that Udayan grows frustrated with post-colonial politics, and slowly becomes involved with the Naxalites of Calcutta. While always aware of their differences, it is Udayan's political zeal that slowly pushes the brothers apart, especially once Subhash leaves India to study in Rhode Island.

Impulsive and passionate, Udayan falls for quiet philosophy student Gauri, and is unceremoniously married to her, in spite of his parents wishes. Despite the hope typically implicit in expanding a family, the Mitra family grows segmented and cold with one another. Udayan crosses the line from political activist to enemy of the government, and begins to live a double life of secrets and unexplained absences, afraid even to confide in Subhash, whose temporary visa status as a student in the United States could be jeopardized. Tragedy strikes early in the novel, and the Mitra family as it remains shatters into both large and breathtakingly small pieces.

The novel is propelled forward by the amazing contrast between careful Subhash and daring Udayan; indeed, their early relationship with each other creates a lovely mirror for the two incredibly powerful ways that nations are either changed, or left to stagnate. The whole family must move on from unbelievable tragedy, and at first Subhash and Gauri believe that the only way to escape their grief is to flee India. They slowly come to realize that Udayan's absence can only eat at their hearts even more over time, especially while they struggle to make a place for themselves in the stark landscape of coastal Rhode Island.

I have always admired the truly beautiful way that Lahiri describes the powerful isolation inherent in leaving ones' home country behind, or in grieving. The Lowland is powerfully ambitious because it shows the multi-generational effects these massive life events can have upon identity. The loss of country as well as family rolls from one generation to the next, leaving empty rooms, empty houses, empty furniture, and broken hearts.

It's a beautiful novel, full of loss and emotion, brave in it's handling of three generations' differences and grieving. Lahiri calls all possible different familial roles into question, fearlessly discussing the ways we can fail others, even as we fail ourselves. It is a very sad book, but one I'm eager to recommend as it is so wonderfully crafted. It became available today, and don't forget that it is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize of 2013! If you haven't read my review for Ruth Ozeki's shortlisted novel A Tale For the Time Being, make sure you check it out.

Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel

2013-09-16T10:58:00.003-07:00

"Bring up the bodies!" the famous cry to bring the accused of London's Tower to stand trial, words uttered the days of Anne Boleyn's trial, as well as the cases of those accused of treason alongside her. Hilary Mantel won a second Man Booker in 2011 for this novel, steeping even greater anticipation upon a novel retelling such a dramatic turn of events; Henry VIII can not divorce a second wife yet would be rid of the tempestuous Anne Boleyn, despite the great lengths he resorted to in making her Queen of England. I will spare you more back story; yet Mantel breathes furious energy into a histoical moment that has become 'old hat' in modern fiction.

Mantel's characterizations are even more important in the follow up novel to Wolf Hall, as Anne's fiery personality goes under the microscope as the mousy Jane Seymour attracts the King's attentions. And so Thomas Cromwell is called in again, to make legal the parade of women it may take Henry to get a son, an heir to the throne. Tensions burn even hotter in this novel, and the pacing increases as Mantel tells this particular story with even more dialogue, relishing in the various personalities and their power-mongering ways. It makes for a more accessible read than Wolf Hall did, with less background and slow simmering, but all of the elegance in phrasing of the

Master Cromwell shows his first signs of fear, as he knows that his loyalty to the King will not protect him from all of the ambitious courtiers, especially when he moves to put the grasping Anne aside the only resounding way possible: execution.

The political witch hunt as Mantel portrays it may not have every last historical detail. It's an overwhelming chess board of names and titles, and I personally don't believe that Mantel's fiction loses any power or integrity by dropping some subtle elements of the history. Better to pace it just so, flesh out wholly what is represented, than become tedious, especially as so many have commented that they found Wolf Hall such work.

Maddaddam, Margaret Atwood

2013-09-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

What a thrill for me, to have an opportunity so early in the existance of this blog to share an author I have never written about yet truly enjoy, with the release of her most recent book! Margaret Atwood is an incredible writer, who has truly changed the way I read. She effortlessly creates such complete dystopias, from the classic stand-alone novel The Handmaid's Tale, to the trilogy that Maddaddam finishes.

“There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”

Maddaddam is a spellbindingly deep dystopia. The world has been ravaged by a devastating virus created by the mastermind Crake, wiping out humanity with a flood-like efficiency to clear the way for Crake's newest bio-engineered creation, the dangerously naive "Crakers." The few human survivors of the plague are a ragtag ensemble of former bio-engineers, God's-Gardiners (a farming co-op that takes the idea of hippy culture to an almost Jainist level), and Pleeblanders. Threatened by the violence and untrustworthiness of other potential survivors and their weaponry, as well as the dangers of wildlife, including bioengineered creatures like liobams and Pigoons, the group of survivors that came together in Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood are left trying to protect themselves and the Crakers, whose simplicity and youthfulness makes them such easy targets.

This installment is a delicious ode to the power of storytelling, as former Gardiner Toby regales the Crakers with the histories of the plague, as well as their own creation, continuing from where Oryx and Crake's Snowman left off. She is bound by their deeply religious understanding of how the world as they know it came to be, as well as their painful reverence of Crake and Oryx. How to tell them the damage Crake's machinations truly created, without upsetting their sensibilities? How to tell them anything, when they were created without concepts like ownership, writing, or even sexual control. The story telling becomes very mythological and darkly comic, as Toby is intermittently offering poignant reasonings for the very things we take so for granted as parts of 'human nature.'

There is so much beauty in the interactions between the survivors of the plague and the Crakers; even within the dark end-of-the-world circumstances, the community that has come together shares food, shelter, and attempts to move forward with love. Couples bond, women become pregnant, and despite a narrative delving so deep into such a tragic past, the tone of this trilogy's conclusion is one of bittersweet hope.

Margaret Atwood has concocted an incredibly full future setting, bursting with creative nunaces and details. Atwood's acknowledgements at the end of the novel include the following:

"Although ‘MaddAddam’ is a work of fiction, it does not include any technologies or bio-beings that do not already exist, are not under construction or are not possible in theory.”

Now isn't that terrifying! This novel is set within our own century, and if that doens't make you savor every fine detail of this trilogy, nothing will. When fiction can participate in conversations about future technologies and bio-engineering ethics so insightfully, it is our responsibility to take note, especially when presented to us so respectfully by the prolific Margaret Atwood!

Atwood is always razor sharp, but in Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam, her darkly comic insights pack the pages, offering so much for discussion. Maybe you'll think twice about what's in that wrinkle preventative skin cream you use nightly, or read more about the preservatives in your food. Not to be too morbid, but this is the effect good fiction should have. Techies, science enthusiasts, literature lovers, all can unite in this brilliant dystopia creation!

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

2013-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

I dearly appreciate the book recommendations my friends share with me, and that is what led me to Kate Atkinson's newest novel, where Ursula Todd dies, and gets multiple chances to relive her life in its entirety.

Born into an upper middle class family in 1910, in a well romanticized English countryside, Ursula experiences her first reincarnation almost immediately, as she is born strangled by her own cord. Immediately the birthing scene begins anew, but this time Ursula survives the birth. As her life continues, she dies again. After multiple restarts on her own chronology, the child Ursula begins to feel imminent threats to her core, the vibrations of where her previous life lead her to her death, attempting to guide her away.

It's a very interesting concept. Ursula is seemingly the agent of most of the changes that either extend her own, or her family members' lives. Atkinson's novel never offers a reason for Ursula's reincarnations. It's an interesting use of magical realism to show the drama within the seemingly simple choices we make, and how they can effect our nearest and dearest. There is wisdom and economy in the various tellings of this family's experiences as they navigate The Great War, coming of age, abuse, and World War II.

Atkinson paints a fabulously sentimental picture of English country life, family love, and the Civil Defense during The Blitz. It's a lovely novel, but not perfect. There's a certain climactic moment where it crosses into alternate history, and this felt cliche. Ursula's changes were so focused onto the Todd's chronology, their survival specifically. It felt overly dramatic to suddenly have Ursula trying to change the course of global history, when her siblings are born again and again into the same jobs, the same marriages. It just didn't seem consistent with the nature of the other changes that Ursula puts into motion during her reincarnations.

Some incarnations follow up with some characters, and others leave their lives hanging, seeking only to resolve an issue brought up by the most recently ended "life". In this manner, I can understand why certain reviewers are comparing the novel to our childhood 'choose your own adventure' reads. Atkinson panders to our consumptive tendencies to seek out stories that have very clearly defined resolution (ie, Ursula manages to avoid the man she had married and whom subjects her to domestic violence in a previous incarnation).

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading about the Todds; Atkinson really beautifully plays with the different dynamics their relationships (as siblings, parents and children) could evolve into throughout each new incarnation Ursula experiences. The narrative does not suffer from a feeling of repetition, either. Every new start just added a new layer of familiarity and emotional connectivity to the family.

I feel like Life After Life is a very approachable novel due to its historical content and sensitivity for family relationships, and would be an enjoyable read for book club discussion. It just betrayed itself by stepping a little too far into the realm of alternate history.

That's Not A Feeling, Dan Josefson

2013-08-23T15:13:00.003-07:00

Dan Josefson's debut novel is an odd piece of fiction set in a darkly wrought juvenile camp for troubled children in upstate New York. Benjamin has been abandoned at Roaring Orchards by his parents and narrates his immersion into the strange community that is made up of unreliable, neurotic adults serving as counselors, and their delinquent young charges. These adults are hinted to have just as serious personal problems plaguing them as the kids at the camp, and multiple even dislike the techniques and structure that make Roaring Orchards so different.

The novel is populated by such a large cast of adults and teens that you don't really get a strong sense of any personalities, even our oddly omnipotent narrator Benjamin, who inexplicably describes scenes he didn't witness. Indeed, the character most likely to encourage connection with a reader is Tidbit, who is the closest thing Benjamin has to a friend, and also a compulsive liar. Tidbit's experience with the camp sets the scene, but again oddly enough, as narrated by Benjamin. It's an uncomfortable structure that muddied the waters for me. I kept waiting for Benjamin to have meaningful moments with counselors like Aaron and Doris, who he offers incredibly intimate insights on, but my waiting never offered up any fruit in that case

There really isn't a slow build up to any particular climax, but more the meandering nonsense of day to day antics and outbursts of the kids, paired with the ineffectual and oftentimes laughable pseudo-psychology of the camps' staff, as headed by the elusive and charismatic Aubrey.

The kids are routinely ostracized and manipulated, and sinister enough in their desperation to manipulate right back. That is where Josefson truly shines; you absolutely believe them capable of the haphazard chaos they create within and around themselves. There's a shamelessness in the drama that is life within this dry, sometimes bleak place that Josefson evokes consistently throughout this novel.

Aside from those bursts of action supplied by trouble making kids, the novel doesn't build directly upwards into a climax. It can be a bit dry at times, and chillingly unpredictable. The drawback is that it didn't encourage me to read on from chapter to chapter; it really felt like work. The humor is quiet, and bittersweet. You'll laugh as you flinch at the awkwardness of the shunning and other absurd counseling techniques.

Habibi, Craig Thompson

2013-08-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with comics at a young age, but it took a more educated, experienced mind to appreciate the emotional depths that graphic novels and comics can evoke with their combination of literary story telling and breathtaking illustrations. Craig Thompson, as the author of multiple graphic novels including the award winner Blankets, weaves an ambitious web of art and myth in his 2011 publication, Habibi.

Habibi tells the story of an escaped slave girl, Dodola, who escapes with another slave's baby, Zam, and raises him in poverty with the stories of Islamic and Eastern lore. Their love and devotion to each other is tested by their various shared and individual experiences, as sex, power, and racial identity threaten to tear them apart.

Indeed, Habibi features some intense instances of violence, racism, and sexual savagery. There's quite a lot to be said about this novel in terms of its mature content. For the sake of not trying to lead anybody's personal reading experience, all I will say is that this is a work to be celebrated for it's dramatic imagery, and complex amalgamation of language scripts, iconography, and Eastern art.

The intertwining of Dodola and Zam's histories with stories and myths make for a complex, earthy reading experience, massive in scope. I don't recommend reading this novel as any sort of depiction of modern Arabic culture, but rather as it's own narrative, enhanced by the rich story telling tradition of the Middle East.

Maybe reviewing this graphic novel as my first feature from that medium is a bit like shoving a non swimmer straight into the deep end of the swimming pool. I was extremely excited by the visual feast that Thompson has constructed, and eager to put together a post! If you're new to graphic novels, definitely check out Blankets (see right), his earlier Eisner Award winning graphic novel. It's a darling coming of age story about love and opening up to your own spiritual identity that I also heartily recommend! Blankets is admittedly a bit more user friendly, but not a bit less beautiful than the epic of Habibi.

I certainly plan on reviewing more graphic novels. It makes up a pretty good chunk of my reading these days, and thankfully I constantly have friends recommending new titles!

Man Booker vs. Me

2013-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Wolf Hall was only the second Man Booker Prize winning novel to be read in the year 2013. What can I say, I've been slacking.

I talk a lot about these award winning novels, post to my Facebook account the longlist announcements (ya, nerd) and keep up with the whole process as best I can via the news feeds at www.themanbookerprize.com! I personally find the whole thing super exciting!

It's not that I assume that the books that win this, the Orange Prize, or the Pulitzer Prize are legitimately going to be my favorite new releases. It's just that working my way through the award winners of these prizes has introduced me to authors, topics, and themes that I may not have experienced without the guidance these lists supplied me with.

So, where in the scope of the Man Booker list is this blogger? Well, let's see!

1969	P. H. Newby	Something to Answer For	Not Read	United Kingdom
1970	Bernice Rubens	The Elected Member	Not Read	United Kingdom
1970	J. G. Farrell	Troubles	Not Read	United Kingdom Ireland
1971	V. S. Naipaul	In a Free State	Not Read	United Kingdom Trinidad and Tobago
1972	John Berger	G.	Not Read	United Kingdom
1973	J. G. Farrell	The Siege of Krishnapur	Not Read	United Kingdom Ireland
1974	Nadine Gordimer	The Conservationist	Not Read	South Africa
1974	Stanley Middleton	Holiday	Not Read	United Kingdom
1975	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala	Heat and Dust	Not Read	United Kingdom Germany
1976	David Storey	Saville	Not Read	United Kingdom
1977	Paul Scott	Staying On	Not Read	United Kingdom
1978	Iris Murdoch	The Sea, the Sea	Not Read	Ireland United Kingdom
1979	Penelope Fitzgerald	Offshore	Not Read	United Kingdom
1980	William Golding	Rites of Passage	Not Read	United Kingdom
1981	Salman Rushdie	Midnight's Children	Not Read	United Kingdom India
1982	Thomas Keneally	Schindler's Ark	Not Read	Australia
1983	J. M. Coetzee	Life & Times of Michael K	Not Read	South Africa
1984	Anita Brookner	Hotel du Lac	Read	United Kingdom
1985	Keri Hulme	The Bone People	Not Read	New Zealand
1986	Kingsley Amis	The Old Devils	Not Read	United Kingdom
1987	Penelope Lively	Moon Tiger	Read	United Kingdom
1988	Peter Carey	Oscar and Lucinda	Not Read	Australia
1989	Kazuo Ishiguro	The Remains of the Day	Read	United Kingdom
1990	A. S. Byatt	Possession	Read	United Kingdom
1991	Ben Okri	The Famished Road	Not Read	Nigeria
1992	Michael Ondaatje	The English Patient	Not Read	Canada
1992	Barry Unsworth	Sacred Hunger	Not Read	United Kingdom
1993	Roddy Doyle	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha	Not Read	Ireland
1994	James Kelman	How Late It Was, How Late	Not Read	United Kingdom
1995	Pat Barker	The Ghost Road	Not Read	United Kingdom
1996	Graham Swift	Last Orders	Not Read	United Kingdom
1997	Arundhati Roy	The God of Small Things	Read	India
1998	Ian McEwan	Amsterdam	Read	United Kingdom
1999	J. M. Coetzee	Disgrace	Not Read	South Africa
2000	Margaret Atwood	The Blind Assassin	Read	Canada
2001	Peter Carey	True History of the Kelly Gang	Not Read	Australia
2002	Yann Martel	Life of Pi	Read	Canada
2003	DBC Pierre	Vernon God Little	Read	Australia
2004	Alan Hollinghurst	The Line of Beauty	Read	United Kingdom
2005	John Banville	The Sea	Not Read	Ireland
2006	Kiran Desai	The Inheritance of Loss	Not Read	India
2007	Anne Enright	The Gathering	Not Read	Ireland
2008	Aravind Adiga	The White Tiger	Not Read	India
2009	Hilary Mantel	Wolf Hall	Read	United Kingdom
2010	Howard Jacobson	The Finkler Question	Read	United Kingdom
2011	Julian Barnes	The Sense of an Ending	Read	United Kingdom
2012	Hilary Mantel	Bring Up the Bodies	Not Read	United Kingdom

**

So, out of forty four years of awards... I've read thirteen. Yikes. Curse that tie in 1974!! I've got some work to do! That's the glorious thing about this plan of mine, though. I've got a lifetime of both global and homegrown literary treasures to go to. Have you subjected yourself to any awesome book challenges?

Also, has anyone read any of the novels selected for the Man Booker's 2013 longlist? Check out my review of one of the selections, A Tale For the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki! Is it a coincidence, or some literary foresight yours truly is privy to? Yah... let's not get delusional!

**Thanks to Wikipedia for this absurdly informative chart. Anyone else notice that there are no winners from a South American nation, nor any from countries on the Asian continent, except India?

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

2013-07-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

I've noticed lots of people since 2009, when it was awarded the coveted Man Booker Award, asking about this novel, or commenting on it (despite the fact that they hadn't read it). Indeed, I am the first person in four years that I've spoken to (yes, I talk to myself sometimes) to have even picked it up with serious intentions. My thoughts, despite years of "it seems so dry," and "how many hundred pages?! OF HISTORY?" I loved it!

Thomas Cromwell is a trader/lawyer/jack of all trades in sixteenth century England. His king, Henry VIII, has no male heir and wants to move on to a second wife, something the Catholic Church and its representatives from Rome will not stand for. So, how to make it legal? Call in Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey's man about town. This first installment of Cromwellian history follows Wolsey's downfall and Cromwell's rise as he clears a Parliamentary path to legitimize Anne Boleyn and her progeny (spoiler alert: Princess Elizabeth). The political intrigue runs deep; check out the awesome family histories and lists of players that front the novel! Things get complicated with all of that self interest and ambition, and it makes for a fascinating read, especially with such a brilliantly imagined lead character!

Yes, it is a bit dry and meandering. Mantel is building a trilogy detailing the nefarious Thomas Cromwell's rise to power, and his past is very vague in terms of historical record. Not much is actually known of his education and background, as there are contradicting accounts of the years he spent abroad. Mantel wisely uses this as a way to build her lead's enigma, enhancing his impressive career of power-brokering with a seemingly shady start and endless mystery. Indeed, perhaps Ms. Mantel means not only to keep Henry VIII's lords and ladies at court on the fence in regards to Cromwell's self-made ways and ambitions, but readers as well... food for thought.

“But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.”

It's an era that Hollywood and popular historical fiction have beaten into the ground, yet Mantel's brilliantly researched new viewpoint via Cromwell breathes new life and grit into it. The dialogue is quick and witty, the descriptions politically charged. Mantel's cast is thoroughly immersed in the chess match; every player a motive and every move a backlash. It's such a complicated feat, you have to sit back and be enamored at the patience it required to build such a beautifully wrought thing!

A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

2013-06-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ruth Ozeki writes a dynamic novel of a young Japanese girl, Naoko Yasutani, hell bent on recording her great grandmother's life story into her journal as a distraction from the sheer hell that has become her own growing-up. Beaten regularly at school, ignored by her teachers and parents, her cries for help go unanswered as her mother struggles to make ends meet while Nao's father repeatedly attempts suicide. She can only imagine the effect her journal will have on the individual that finds it...

The magic of the narrative begins when Naoko's journal is found on the Canadian coast by writer's-block suffering author Ruth (hmm, semi autobiographical?) as she idly trawls the beach. Convinced that Naoko is in immediate danger, and desperate to discover if Naoko's family survived the devastating tsunami of 2011, Ruth becomes consumed with the journal and it's mysterious pieces of Yasutani family history.

Naoko, known to her family as Nao (yes, please read it as "now"), documents the downward spiral that is her school and home life in detail, inwardly struggling with her father's suicide attempts after being downsized from his job in Silicon Valley and sent back to Japan. Nao feels outcasted with her family's new socio-economic status and the culture shock of being relocated to Tokyo, missing her life in California as the kids in her Japanese school pick her apart. She finds solace in correspondence and summers visiting with her great grandmother, Zen Buddhist monk Jiko.

Jiko tells Nao of her great uncle, Haruki Yasutani, whom Nao's father was named for, and who died as a kamikaze pilot despite being strongly against the violence and maneuverings of Japan during World War II. Jiko tries to teach Nao the importance of being aware of all of the single moments that make up her life: the idea of each person and moment of consciousness being a "time being."

This brilliant concept takes hold of Ruth, as she struggles to translate the pieces of Nao's journal that aren't in English, and desperately attempts to seek out what ever became of any of the Yasutanis. The journal takes Ruth deeper into the precious moments that are building themselves into Nao's fate, but taking Ruth further and further away from completing her own work. Did Nao's father succeed in killing himself, and how did that affect his long suffering daughter? Was Jiko's shrine destroyed by the tsunami?

That makes up for the surface of the novel, but it's great depths are the truly impressive feat. From beautiful descriptions of Zen Buddhist practices to thoughts on quantum mechanics, the importance of a single moment within ones' lifetime or that of a family's, takes center stage. So many characters' shame makes them consider the meaning of their lives, as their conscientious objections to the moral issues of their individual eras join them across time. History, memories, and secrets all get blurred by the passage of time, and Ozeki perfectly captures the power these elements hold over our awareness of what the facts really are.

This review can't do Ruth Ozeki's book justice. So much happens so carefully, you must read it to appreciate this grand ode to storytelling. I'm too afraid of giving away something really cool to continue going on about it! Enjoy it in all of it's well-crafted layers!

Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman

2013-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sabina Berman touchingly illuminates social interactions from the clearly focused, often times cutting perspective of Karen Nieto, autistic erudite specializing in cruelty free tuna-fishing.

Karen grows up without language or socialization until her mentally-ill mother's death results in her being adopted by her aunt. Karen slowly learns to become conscious of herself and her behavior, beginning with learning the words "me" and "you," to a lifelong fascination with Descartes, Darwin, and her commitment to the fundamental rights of all creatures.

That someone could so completely imagine such a different way of thinking and foreign self-awareness is incredible, and Berman creates Karen with such a careful, steady voice that you never doubt her "different abilities" (as Karen herself refers to her autism). This is not a novel so fixated on Karen's genius with the development of stress-free tuna harvesting that it pays no attention to the problems her condition make for her. Indeed, Karen rarely fantasizes, can't lie, and is as blunt as you could fathom, yet the depth of her emotional experiences and integrity make for a stunningly unique picture of human nature.

Karen is a character who brilliantly exposes the nuances of people purportedly better suited for social interactions than herself. Sometimes it seems as if others' vices, greed, naivety, or self interest are magnified by her viewpoint, and this is the most cutting element of her story. It's a bittersweet commentary on how we value life, in all of its varieties.

Anthropology of an American Girl, Hilary Thayer Hamann

2013-06-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

I knew I'd found a jewel within a few pages. If I could give this six stars, I would have. I loved this that much. It's Updike's Rabbit novels for women... seriously. That cutting and insightful. Updike, Salinger, all of them featuring men having these tortured, drug and sex filled youths, and in this novel women have an intelligent, emotive coming of age story.

I read a review that compared Hamann's sentences with Henry James , and I think that's a respectable comment. They are so lilting and uniquely descriptive. It is a novel brimming with heartfelt sentiment!

I was reminded sometimes of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar protagonist, just slightly less wounded and more lovelorn. I loved the insight into growing up and all of the mistakes that come with it; Hamann's protagonist is very flawed, but her honesty and passion are raw and respectable, just like Hamann's prose. If you find yourself in disbelief as to Eveline's actions/inactions, think back to your own high school/college/first job days. Eveline's voice and story are uncompromised by cliche or standards. There's nothing corny or stereotypical about her story, which is one of my favorite qualities in this novel. It really stands for itself.

Honestly, it's a novel that should be given air to speak for itself, so I am going to provide some quotes rather than drone on!

“Boys will be boys, that's what people say. No one ever mentions how girls have to be something other than themselves altogether. We are to stifle the same feelings that boys are encouraged to display. We are to use gossip as a means of policing ourselves -- this way those who do succumb to sex but are not damaged by it are damaged instead by peer malice. Girls demand a covenant because if one gives in, others will be expected to do the same. We are to remain united in cruelty, ignorance, and aversion. Or we are to starve the flesh from our bones, penalizing the body for its nature, castigating ourselves for advances we are powerless to prevent. We are to make false promises then resist the attentions solicited. Basically we are to become expert liar."

"Since he knew things at the beginning, maybe at the end he knew things too. That we had gone as far as chance would take us. That nothing is more sacred than youth or more hopeful than turning yourself over to someone and saying ~ I have this time, it is not a long time, but it is my best time and my best gift, and I give it to you. When I revisit my youth, I re-visit you"

For a reader, there isn't anything more exciting than to be thanked by an author for articulating your particular enjoyment in their work. That's what happened to me when Ms. Hamann emailed me via Goodreads... well, it was an awesome day! Yet another great reason for enthusiastic readers to connect with others, and even authors, on Goodreads!

The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner

2013-06-10T12:42:00.001-07:00

Contemporary literature takes on Italy's Years of Lead and the art community of NYC in Kushner's sophomore release, with style and speed. I wasn't even a third of the way through this novel before the manic fever to track down what branch of my library system had an available copy of her first novel, Telex from Cuba, kicked in.

The Flamethrowers follows Reno, newly graduated from art school and racing across the country on her sport motorcycle, photographing her cycle's tracks in the salt slicks of Nevada as she makes her way back to NYC and the wild art community that she has found herself amidst. It's a reactionary group of fakes and performance art so self-involved and ambitious that even the oh-so cool Reno can appear incredibly naive and out of her depth.

Kushner artfully creates an explosive cast of characters. New York's art community isn't just humming with life in this novel, it's stomping on your ceiling like an unruly neighbor's weekend party. The secondary characters' vignettes give Manhattan true vivacity from Reno's youthful perspective, as she searches for her niche amidst this rampaging assault of ideas and artistic/political statements. Simultaneously, the ventures of Sandro Valera's industrialist father after the fall of Mussolini concisely sets the scene of Italy's post fascist, decades long struggle.

It's Sandro Valera, Reno's Italian boyfriend, and his enigmatic friend Ronnie who inadvertently send her into the heart of violent political upheaval while visiting Sandro's mother near Milan. The riots and kidnappings in Rome hit extremely close to home as Reno gets pushed into the wrong group at a vicious time. By the end, you feel like Reno's excitement and curiosity have been weathered dramatically, as she seems even more the bewildered bystander than when she first found herself in NYC.

This novel is enormous with vitality and vulnerability. I think that's why I liked it so much. It beautifully conceives of the strength inherent in braving the unknown, even when you could potentially be taken so off course.

The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey

2013-06-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've been ogling this book for months it seems, and when else should I pick up a book with the word "snow" in the title than when temperatures reach scorching in my hometown? There is nothing like a modern take on Russian fables to take ones' mind off of mosquito bites and humidity!

Ivey's debut novel is set in her own home state of Alaska during the homesteading ventures of the 1920s. The Snow Child paints a sad portrait of the staggering loneliness that can grow between two people, despite their steadfast love for each other.

After struggling for years with the loss of their firstborn, childless Mabel and Jack leave their pasts "back East" to start a farm and live off the land. Mabel believes the hard work, and stark beauty of the Alaskan wilderness will bring them together, but Jack's pride won't bear his wife's partaking in farm work; thus, the gulf widens and the isolation of homesteading worsens the state of their marriage.

The couple build a girl-shape out of snow during the season's first snow in a rare glimpse of togetherness. When the snow-girl has disappeared the next morning and child sized tracks are found nearby, Mabel remembers an old story about a childless couple who built a snow girl that comes to life, and becomes obsessed with the idea that similar magic is at long last rewarding them. While Mabel has always grieved the loss of their baby, Jack begins to break under his own feelings of failure; the farm barely gets them through their first winter, and only then with the help of neighbors. Unsure of how to help Mabel with her sadness and growing obsession with the snow child, Jack withdraws into forcing a liveable yield out of the harsh Alaskan wilderness. No neighbors ever see hide nor hair of the child. Have Jack and Mabel imagined her out of their cabin-fever induced desperation to survive? Either way, she seems to be the only thing holding them together as man and wife, as well as in Alaska.

The little girl, Faina, seems an ethereal spirit of that very wild landscape that could have ended their homesteading. The couple learn to see the beauty of their new home through the eyes of the child they have always wanted. Faina disappears with the winters' end to return with the next season's first snow, yet despite her transience, the love they have for her seems better when paired with the pain of her leaving, than their lives before she first appeared.

"Life is always throwing us this way and that. That's where the adventure is. Not knowing where you'll end up or how you'll fare. It's all a mystery, and when we say any different, we're just lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive?"

The Snow Child is a bittersweet tale of the redemptive power of love. It's a straight forward fable based on Russian lore (there are quite a number of variations of The Snow Maiden) detailing the pain of emotional and physical isolation. Ivey's characterization of the couple is tender, even as they withdraw into themselves under the various strains. It is quite small in scope, not nearly as descriptive as you may imagine a novel about such a grandiose landscape could be, and moves swiftly through the narration with a gaze fixed upon very few characters.

The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oates

2013-06-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite authors. She has this ability to stretch the ideas of femininity within her protagonists that I truly admire (see Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang and A Fair Maiden). She braves waters in terms of subject matter that the status quo either gloss over or completely ignore. This newest of her works is not only a fresh ground for the author, but my first of her historical novels.

This paranormal novel set within the town of Princeton, New Jersey, specifically during Woodrow Wilson's term as president of the University, is not for the faint of heart. DO NOT, dear reader, pick this up if you're idea of paranormal reading is Laurell K. Hamilton. This is a nod to the truest of gothic literature, ie HP Lovecraft and Ann Radcliffe. It moves at a slow pace, luxuriating in the historical detailing of family legacies and Princeton. A dreaded curse is making its way through the elite families at the heart of Princeton, resulting in runaway brides, bloody murders, and mass hysteria!

Don't get bogged down by the pacing(those of you who will read this novel can giggle at my little pun later). The novel is satisfying in its wholeness as the pieces of the curse and the effects it's having on the carefully crafted community come together. It's not the height of suspense, but a methodical, gothic nightmare.

My only trouble with this book was the time it spent with Upton Sinclair, so deeply embroiled in his Socialist agenda that it sometimes took away from the fearful atmosphere the rich of Princeton were experiencing. Having said that though, his subplot helps to illuminate the growing political and social changes happening in the years represented by this VERY fictitious novel. Indeed, it led to a very interesting 'sexual politics' reading of the curses' onset within the community. SPOILERS FOLLOW: Did anyone else just start to assume that all of the talk about "the unspeakable" and Miss Slade's seduction were just turn of the century fear of rape/women's sexual awareness? However, any attempts to interpret the fantastical as anything otherwise are for naught, as the novel progresses to it's unbelievable ending!

It was certainly a fun novel, with the characteristic fearlessness both in subject and styling of so many wonderful Oates novels! Oates mixes the narration with diary entries, heightening the depth of the plot and its characters. She doesn't leave out classism, sexism, or racism as the issues of the era. I'm quite interested to see what others make of this novel, as so many of the fantastical and historical elements may appeal to such a range of readers!

A new start...

2013-05-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

I have been MIA... that's an understatement. Life is fraught with unbelievable pitfalls and unsuspected snares, yet here I am again attempting to resurrect something that was important to me. Despite setbacks of a very personal nature, the decision to rejuvenate myself via a blog about my great love of literature has been made!

I look forward to continuing the work that I should have never abandoned! I hope to reach a new following and read about your opinions (because the internet is a fabulous vehicle for conversations, both intellectual and bacon/cat inspired). Feel free to leave a message, recommendation, or question! Let the work begin!

Home, Marilynne Robinson

2011-06-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Marilynne Robinson makes you feel like she has weighed out every single sentence for a month. She is so gracefully pointed in her prose, wasting not a word; it's always an overwhelming experience to read her! If you were to highlight a novel by her, you'd might as well spray paint the whole book.

Robinson shares a sad end to Gilead's Reverend Ames' lifelong friend, minister Robert Boughton. As two of his children return home to their ailing, widowed father, they slowly attempt discourse about family differences, grievances, and spiritual confusions. Glory's failed relationships have left her feeling diffident and lost, and Jack's alcoholism and depression have kept him at arm's length of his whole family for his entire life.

The beauty is in the kindness that the family genuinely shows to each other, and the deftness with which their relationships and encounters unfold. Glory's constancy where Jack's struggle with alcohol is concerned meant a lot to me, a child of a recovering alcoholic. I felt like Robinson captured a lot when dealing with this: firstly, and maybe most importantly, that you can't force something on someone, you can not ask more of them than they can ask from themselves in that moment. Glory's patience helps Jack to stay and feel safe with her.

Despite so many barriers, so much time and angst, this is a novel of love and faith, a reminder that both of those qualities, and all relationships are a never ending process of work and devotion. Your home can speak of peace and hope just like a church to the religious.

It may seem like a quick read at first, but be sure to give this novel your full attention!

Home, Marilynne Robinson
ISBN: 0374299102

The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich

2011-06-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Louise Erdrich is such a rich, voluminously lyrical writer. I'm constantly astounded by the grace with which such powerful stories are delivered!

Mixed blood Faye Travers' own misdeed brings her to find and return a drum that tells its story past, present, and future in this beautifully wrought story. It's a beautiful story of retribution and family; the drum of the Ojibwe brings health and forgiveness to mothers and daughters wrecked by tragedy and misdeeds, as the lost children speak through the drum across generations of a reservation community.

This novel isn't just about grief and loss; it's about life and recovery. All of the women in this novel must move past their actions and circumstances: "Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could."

The power in this novel is this message, as well as its scope through multiple generations and over life and death. I highly recommend this novel, as I have been known to recommend others of Erdrich's I have read!

The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich
ISBN: 0060515112

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

2011-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most haunting books I've read all year. It's imagery is stunning. Roy weaves the history of this disjointed family after introducing readers to the tragic result of their individual actions. The structuring really pulls at your heart strings more, as the reader knows enough to react, but is drawn deeper into the chaos that Roy so cleverly and dexterously unfolds. This is precisely the sort of novel that merits the Man Booker, which it was awarded in 1997: creative in structure, lush in prose, politically aware, and globally inspired!

"Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story."

The maddeningly frustrating political and social climate of India in the 1960s imagines a world so complex and simultaneously fragile that this family saga can blow up in an unbelievably shattering way; the children, of course, pay the price in the ultimate way and are left to become horribly wounded, faithless adults. The scope of this novel makes for an intense experience. I had to read something seriously fluffy after this!

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
ISBN: 0679457313

Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas

2011-06-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was probably the most detailed account of a slow, meticulous dehumanization that I've ever read. Arenas details his youth, socio-political background, and awareness of his sexuality during the tumultuous politics of Revolutionary Cuba, and leaves no stone of his experiences unturned.

Having taken many classes for my anthropology major dealing with issues of culture/human rights, I still wasn't adequately prepared for Arenas' experience. I can't believe that someone went through all of that and kept on, had the power to lecture and write once free of Cuba. Beware, though. This book isn't for the faint of heart. It can be rude, crude, and explicit. Arenas leaves nothing to the imagination. Understand that a generation of open minded youth had so many freedoms taken away, and lashed out for a sense of joy and truth wherever they could get it.

Books like this bring to the forefront the sad state of the American educational system; as a child, most of what my generation was taught and exposed to was from the American perspective (at least until college, of course). Seeing the Communist Revolution in Cuba as Arenas tells it shows how little understood these issues really are. Countries like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Mexico have undergone such turbulent political forces in the past century, that have systematically torn to shreds every small piece of humanity people could hold onto. This memoir shows us how ill-informed we can be and reminds us why human rights world wide still have a hell of a fight ahead of them.

Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas
ISBN: 1852428082

March, Geraldine Brooks

2011-06-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

March is not at all a 'sequel', or 'companion' to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. It did hold some interesting conversations of what it could have meant for a man to go off into such an idealized war with the opinions In this, the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction, Mr. March was depicted as having held as a community-serving Christian minister (although characterizing him as being vegetarian/vegan seemed a little superfluous to me, but that's just my opinion).

I sort of enjoyed the novel. This isn't even my first experience with Geraldine Brooks... but it didn't grab me the way the Pulitzer Prize Fiction winners from 2009 to 2007 did. March struck me as an interesting story, but I couldn't help but feel that using Mr. March of Little Women, versus any other family man, was merely to heighten the reader's feelings of pain and suffering, as we who are reading this novel are assumed to have been exposed to the March girls. The idealistic picture of family life they have represented in literature, either in film or the novel makes the case for sympathy and sentimentality by itself. I was shocked by the characterization of March, and the melodrama he found himself within; but only because of my reading experiences growing up with Little Women and not due to anything skillful in Brooks' writing. He honestly struck me as sort of a complaining, and oftentimes weak narrator.

The most compelling drama in the novel was for me, that of the contraband slaves, as the socio-political status of Freedmen during the war and in the early days of Reconstruction, has always struck me so gray and hopeless. Give this novel a chance, but don't expect to be as moved by this Civil War drama as I was by say, Cold Mountain.

March, Geraldine Brooks
ISBN: 0143036661