Category: BookLust I

Grass Dancer

gr4c5Leave a comment

Power, Susan. The Grass Dancer. Bookcassette Audio, 1998.

I have admitted as much, I am not a fan of magical realism. But, I think I found a way to combat my dislike – audio books. Listening to Grass Dancer is certainly easier than reading it!
As an aside, I have become spoiled by compact discs when it comes to audio books. I’m listening to The Grass Dancer on cassette and the hum and clicks in the audio is so distracting! Luckily, I am using this book as entertainment while I walk on the treadmill so it’s not too terrible. Ahem. Correction: I WAS using this book as entertainment. Last night my stereo ate the tape! Damaged it beyond repair. UGH! Embarrassing that I had to pay the owning library a $5 replacement fee.

Anyway, onto the review, such as it is. Since I only got halfway through the story this will be brief. Grass Dancer doesn’t have a plot. It doesn’t have a main character. It doesn’t have a linear timeline. At best, I would call it a mishmash of stories with interconnected characters, most from the same family. Grass Dancer as a whole is a shape shifter. With multiple points of view bouncing from first person to third and timelines that are all over the place (1981, 1964, 1935, and 1969 are important dates), it is hard to stay focused on the main purpose of the story. What I found most disheartening is that I would grow attached to a character (like Pumpkin) and then the story would move away from him or her. Most characters came back, but in impersonal ways. Wait until you read what happens to Pumpkin! This is not to say I didn’t enjoy Power’s writing. She inserted some surprises along the way that I wasn’t expecting and she stayed true to the cultures, legends and myths of the Sioux Indians which I appreciated.

Reason read: North Dakota become part of the union in November.

Author fact: This is Power’s first novel.

Book trivia: Susan Power actually reads the unabridged audio. I think this is the first time I’ve listened to an audio book actually read by the author. I think.

BookLust Twist: This was indexed in Book Lust twice. Once, in “American Indian Literature” (p 23) and again, in “Growing Writers” (p 107). It is also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains: the Dakotas” (p 106).

Great Hunt

gr4c5Leave a comment

Jordan, Robert. The Great Hunt. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1990.

Full disclosure – I don’t know why I am reading any more books from this series. I have a problem with repetition and in the preface Jordan writes the phrase, “the man who called himself Bors” no less than 23 times. I get it. He wants you to know the guy’s name isn’t really Bors. As a result of the preface, I expected nothing less in the rest of the book. There is a lot of repetition between the first and second book to “catch you up” if you didn’t read the first one. However, truth be told, very little changes in the next installment of the Wheel of Time series. Everything is still over-the-top dramatic (“eyes more dead than death” p xiv). Rand al’Thor is still the reluctant hero. Trollocs are still terrible. Egwene is still conflicted and childlike. They still have this weird romance thing lingering. Probably the more interesting thing about them at this point is that they go on different journeys. Still, it wasn’t enough to keep me glued to the page.
And another thing! Can I just say how annoyed I am by the sheer number of groups, nations, societies and the like? Good grief! You have aielmen, arad doman, caemyl, cairhien, children of the light, darkfriends, dai shan, dreadlords, far dareis mai, eyeless, forsaken, fades, gaiden, goaban, hardan, hundred companions, lurks, manetheren, marath’damane, mydraal, halfmen, questioners, shadowmen, sea folk, taraboners, tinkers, tree killers, trollocs, tuatha’an, warders, watchers over the waves, white cloaks, women’s circle, and wisdom. Let’s not forget about the aes sedai who can be red, brown or blue, or the ajah who can be blue, red, white, green, brown, yellow or gray (where’s the purple, orange or pink?).

Can I admit that I think the Wheel of Time “logo” looks a lot like a Mickey Mouse head?

Reason read: to continue the series started with Eye of the World in October.

Book trivia: The Great Hunt is 757 pages long.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 214).

Eyre Affair

gr4c5Leave a comment

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

Reason read: Reason #1 – I was home-home and had finished the two books I brought with me. I was thinking Robert Jordan’s 800+ page behemoth would take much longer, but obviously I forgot I would be in the backseat for 5.5 hours, then on a boat for another hour, and then stuck in a very relaxing vacation on a very relaxing island with lots of time to read…
Reason #2 – October is Crime Prevention Month and since Thursday is a cop, more or less, I thought this would be appropriate. More or less.

So. Picture this: the year is 1985. The Crimean War is still raging and Great Britain is in a reverse time warp. Instead of being behind the times they are way ahead of them. England is a futuristic place where time travel is an everyday occurrence, the most common thing to clone is the resurrected Dodo bird (everyone has them as pets), and visitations to the pages of literature is child’s play. Thursday Next is a Special Operative in literary detection where not much is supposed to happen (it’s supposed to be a desk job after all). Most crimes in involve Byronic forgeries and protests over Shakespeare’s authenticity. That is until a minor character from a Dickens novel is found murdered outside the novel, changing the plot forever. That’s just for starters. When Jane Eyre herself is plucked from Bronte’s original manuscript and the kidnapper threatens to alter Great Britain’s most beloved story, Thursday rises to the challenge to rescue Jane. It’s no small task for the kidnapper is a former professor who once tried to seduce Thursday and seems to have godlike powers. To make matters worse, Thursday’s mind is not 100% on the case as she is distracted by a heartbreaking secret in the form of an ex-lover she can neither escape nor forget.
Fforde writes with cunning intention. Every chapter is riddled with wordplay, puns, literary allusions and trivia. With a names like Thursday Next, Hades Acheron, and Jack Schitt, you can just imagine the possibilities. Even the twins Jeff and Geoff got a giggle out of me. Because I am not up on pop culture I am sure some references went over my head.
One of my favorite scenes is when Thursday and the before mentioned ex-lover attend a performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Only this adaptation is more like The Rocky Horror Picture Show than serious theater in the round. The audience participation is hilarious. Another great moment is when Thursday’s uncle is showing Thursday his latest inventions. The bookworms are the best.
My only gripe is when Thursday is first asked to join the hunt to stop her former professor from destroying an original manuscript. Rule #1 is to never think or say the professor’s real name. If you do he can detect your whereabouts, your whole game plan right down to your very next move. After the first attempt to capture him goes horrible awry Rule #1 is abandoned and no one abides by it anymore. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Odd.

Favorite line, “The worms were busy reading a copy of Mansfield Park and were discussing where Sir Thomas got his name from” (p 152).

Author fact: Fforde has one of the most entertaining websites I have seen in a long time. Visit it here.

Book trivia: This is Fforde’s first novel.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapters called “Action Heroines” (p 6), “Companion Reads” (p 64), and “First Novels” (p 88). Also, from More Book Lust only in the chapter called “Brontes Forever” (p 35). As an aside, Pearl suggested reading The Eyre Affair with Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (for obvious reasons), but I already read Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair for different reasons so it was pointless to read them again with Wide Sargasso Sea.

I have to say, one of the drawbacks to reading anything in Book Lust is that it is going to be old news. I always feel late to the party when I see a best seller with over 500 reviews on LibraryThing. It makes me wonder what I could possibly say that hasn’t already been said.

Culture of Disbelief

gr4c5Leave a comment

Carter, Stephen L. The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialized Religious Devotion. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

The simplest way to sum of The Culture of Disbelief is this, it is the argument that society forces religious devotion to be kept private and should not to be displayed openly. Society discourages us from voicing a religious choice. Right from the beginning you are hit with a sentence that brings it all to light: “More and more, our culture seems to take the position that believing deeply in the tenets of one’s faith represents a kind of mystical irrationality, something that thoughtful, public spirited American citizens would do better to avoid” (p 7).

Reason read: Carter was born in the month of October.

Author fact: Stephen Carter and Natalie Merchant share the same birthday.

Book trivia: Blood transfusions is a major topic in Culture of Disbelief.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: He Say” (p 8). Here is yet another example of a title that shouldn’t have been included in this particular chapter. Yes, Stephen Carter is African American, but this particular work is not fiction.

Dervish is Digital

gr4c5Leave a comment

Cadigan, Pat. Dervish is Digital. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2000.

Right away I knew Dervish is Digital was going to be weird. The story opens with Dore Konstantin, a detective lieutenant in charge of TechnoCrime, Artificial Reality Division, meeting with an arms dealer. Later, she is spending time discussing demons and blowfish with a cyborg. It’s almost as if you aren’t meant to follow Cadigan’s off the wall imagination. It gets even stranger so my only advice is to hang on. Maybe you aren’t supposed to understand it all. Snarly Konstantin is supposed to be solving a case involving someone stalking his own ex-wife but it gets more complicated when the East/West Japanese and Hong Kong deviants are introduced. While Konstantin’s character is shallow and underdeveloped, Cadigan does an amazing job of describing Konstantin’s world. Cyberspace is richly detailed and completely believable. I never did latch onto the idea of there was a real crime to solve, but the story was an interesting ride.

My only gripe? Cadigan loved to describe anatomy as “wasp-waist.” I get the look Cadigan was going for, but after awhile I started to believe she couldn’t think of any other way to describe someone as having a narrow waist.

Reason read: September is Cadigan’s birth month..and if I’m still reading this in October, October is computer learning month. Whatever that means.

Author fact: according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, Cadigan is local. Schenectady and Fitchburg.

Book trivia: the main character, Dore Konstantin is introduced in an earlier novel by Cadigan called Tea From an Empty Cup. Yup, I am reading them backwards. Here’s what I’m hoping, Konstantin is an underdeveloped character in Dervish because she has been completely spelled out in Tea.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called Cyberspace.Com (p 69). For the record I want to say that Pearl doesn’t mention that the same character is in both Dervish is Digital and Tea From an Empty Cup. There was no way for me to know the two books are linked.

Bluebird Canyon

gr4c5Leave a comment

McCall, Dan. Bluebird Canyon. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1983.

Picture southern California. Now picture the star of a soap opera star named Rex Hooker with a penchant for self-destructiveness. The two go together in a stereotypical way, don’t you think? What isn’t so typical is Bluebird Canyon’s narrator, Oliver Bodley. Better known as “Triphammer” or “Trip”, Detective Bodley is a not so ordinary city police officer who gets caught up in Rex’s struggle to keep from losing it all. Interestingly enough, Rex and Trip go way back, as in high school way back. As the story unfolds, we find that Trip and Rex had been through quite a bit together back in their younger days. Just to give you an example. Rex and Trip are accused of partaking in the gang rape of a drunk girl. The victim’s brother and five of his friends proceed to kick the crap out of Trip and Rex…in detail. There’s more where that came from. Fast forward 20 years. Trip has been called to the Hooker estate for an apparent suicide attempt. Trip hasn’t seen his friend in those 20 years and Rex was rumored to be the victim. Be prepared. It gets nutty from there. Turns out, Rex is fine but 45 pages later his girlfriend’s sister accomplishes what he didn’t. Rex still lives with his parents but has a son, an ex-wife and a girlfriend. Meanwhile, at 37 years old, Triphammer is adrift. He doesn’t have a steady relationship, hates his exwife, in fact; he lives in a trailer on the beach (think Chris the DJ on Northern Exposure), he’s constantly losing his hat, and he doesn’t have a problem doing drugs in uniform (minus the hat). What he does mind, however, is being spit on.

All in all, some of Dan McCall’s plot was a little annoying. As I mentioned before, Trip is called to Summer Snow because Rex Hooker is trying to commit suicide. 45 pages later, another character hangs herself. It is mentioned the Hooker family is petrified of fire. 51 pages later Summer Snow is burning, thanks to an arsonist. I never grew to like Trip at all and I thought the writing was rambling and disconnected. At times the behavior of all the characters were exaggerated and ridiculous. Other times their actions were too sedate for the scene: two dogs were murdered on two separate occasions, two different houses were set on fire, two different suicides occurred…it all seemed a bit much. If McCall was trying to bring Rex’s soap opera to life in Bluebird Canyon he succeeded.

Quotes to make you sit up, “The world is full of assholes, and eventually they all turn up at the beach” (p 65), “My hole couldn’t handle a Q-tip” (Yes, he’s talking about what you think he’s talking about on p 72), “Chemists do not liven up a conference” (p 111), and “I wish my mind was a dog and I could train it to go sit” (p 244)

Reason read: California became a state on September 9th, 1850.

Author fact: Dan McCall passed away on June 17th, 2012. The Cornell Chronicle posted a really nice obituary about their former colleague.

Book trivia: I could see this as a movie, but to my knowledge one has never been made.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “California, Here We Come” (p 49).

History Man

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bradbury, Malcolm. The History Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.

The Kirks are are an interesting couple. Howard Kirk is a professor of sociology with a “convenient” marriage. Both Howard and his wife, Barbara, take advantage of sexual relationships that further their causes and commitments. Right from the beginning you know they are bound for trouble. “So, sensing the climate, some people called the Kirks, a well-known couple, decide to have a party” (p 1). And this is how it begins. The History Man starts with a party and ends with a party, but a whole lot happens in between. Howard has liaisons with a colleague and a student while trying to seduce a third woman. Barbara spends her weekends running off to London for a “shopping” trip.

Howard Kirk starts a vicious buzz about campus about inviting Professor Mangel to give a lecture at the University of Watermouth. This creates an uproar as Mangel is seen as a racist, a sexist, a geneticist, and a fascist so no one can agree about his invitation.

There is a good dose of philosophy and psychology; a whole lot of explaining how people are and what makes them tick. I couldn’t decide if I really liked the Kirks. They reminded me of the Underwoods in House of Cards. They both seemed a little conniving. In the end I felt the most sorry for Barbara Kirk. She and her husband have an open relationship but, being a mother, she doesn’t have quite the same opportunities as Howard.

Reading History Man was a little tedious. For one, Bradbury likes to describe people’s actions step by step. Howard getting settled into his office. Barbara driving a car. Every movement is sometimes detailed creating pages and pages of one giant paragraph. Yet, at other times large moments in time are skipped all together. Howard could be talking to his wife at home one moment and the in the next moment he’s lying in bed with another woman.

As an aside, the author’s note is hysterical. It sets the tone for the entire story.

Line I liked: “Everywhere else the code is one of possibility, not denial” (p 71).

Reason read: Well, there are really two reasons: Malcolm Bradbury was born in September. History Man is about an academic and most schools start classes in September. My institution is the oddball who start classes the week before. No. I take that back. We have three days of classes, then have a long weekend, then the semester gets rolling.

Author fact: Malcolm Bradbury’s website is really cool. Everyone should check it out, if not for the information, for the photographs. But. The whole thing is great. Another article you should look up is one written by Tom Rosenthal back in 2006.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academia: the joke” (p 4).

Gesture Life

gr4c5Leave a comment

Lee, Chang-rae. A Gesture Life. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.

A Gesture Life is the elegant story of Franklin “Doc” Hata, a Japanese man living in suburban New York. He is a proper man quietly living out his days after retiring from the medical supply business. He has a beautiful house and garden and what appears to be a calm life. Everyone respects him, but no one really knows him. As we delve deeper into his history we learn of many rippling disturbances. We discover an adoptive daughter, mysteriously estranged from Hata, with a child of her own. We learn of a relationship with a widow who he cared for deeply but to whom he couldn’t quite commit. We don’t even fully understand how close they became or why they drifted apart. Through Hata’s memories we revisit World War II and his position as medic in Rangoon. We watch the unfolding and blossoming of a relationship with “K” a comfort woman; a relationship that ends in tragedy, as most wartime relationships do. In the end, it’s Hata’s relationship with daughter, Sunny, that is the most compelling. Theirs is a deep and complicated bond.
The one gripe? The passage of time (past and present). If it wasn’t a complete mystery to me I only had snippets of understanding. For most of the time it was unclear how much time had really passed in Hata’s present day and trying to do the math didn’t help. At one point he is reunited with his daughter and he guesses her to be 22 years old. I have a problem with this because he also says he hasn’t seen her in 13 years. That means the scene in the drug house took place when Sunny was nine years old. Somehow I can’t see a nine year old engaged in sex with two men at the same time. He also arranged for her to have an abortion…when was that? When Hata sees her again he says it’s as if they are “transported back in time” and he remembers her “lean against the parking meter and smoke her spice-scented cigarettes” (p 209). As a nine year old? Smoking, yes. Sex, while not completely impossible seems unlikely. When Sunny talks about her son she says he is six which would have made Sunny a mother at 16 if she really was only 22. Not completely implausible except it is her second pregnancy. I refrained from trying to put together a CSI timeline, but obviously, Sunny is not 22 years old.

The two quotes I liked, “I am not a long-chase antelope” (p 71) and “…to wonder if something like love is forever victorious, truly conquering all, or if there are those who, like me, remain somehow whole and sovereign, still live unvanquished” (p 216).

As an aside, I can see why Pearl says to read A Gesture Life and Remains of the Day together. Both stories feature an extremely proper yet aging gentleman, looking back over the course of his life. They both have secrets and a way of living that seems to be bound not only by society, but an inner code of conduct.

Reason read: this is a companion read to Remains of the Day, read (erroneously) in honor of Sri Lanka. Here is the funny thing – neither Remains of the Day nor A Gesture Life have anything to do with Sri Lanka in any way shape or form. Both books were used to describe another book, The Hamilton Case which was written by Michelle de Kretser who was born in Sri Lanka.

Author fact: When you pick up A Gesture Life you almost feel you are reading the wrong book. Lee also wrote Native Speaker which won a bunch of different awards. Lee was also named a finalist for Granta’s Best American Novelist Under 40 Award.

Book trivia: The cover to A Gesture Life is stunning. It’s comprised of two different photographs.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust more than once. First, from the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 65) and again in the chapter called “Pawns of History” (p 182). A Gesture Life is also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Sri Lanka: Exotic and Troubled” (p 212). Which, as mentioned before, has nothing to do with Sri Lanka.

Remains of the Day

gr4c5Leave a comment

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Read by Simon Prebble. Tantor Audio, 2012.

Stevens is a dignified butler who has been given some well deserved time off from his American employer, Mr. Farraday. Mr. Farraday has also given Stevens the use of his vehicle (including fuel), urging Stevens to take a road trip. But, Remains of the Day isn’t really about the vacation of Stevens, but rather the memory lane Stevens end up traveling down. On his driving tour Stevens thinks back over his years as a butler first with Lord Darlington and then with Mr. Farraday after Farraday purchases Darlington Hall and its contents, including the servants (“the whole experience” as he says). Heavy on Stevens’s mind is his he spent working with housekeeper Miss Kenton and his strained relationship with his now deceased father. All three were employed together with Lord Darlington. I have to admit, as an emotional person, the passing of Stevens’s father and how Stevens reacts was somewhat disturbing. If you read the book, pay attention to when Stevens tells a guest the doctor has been called. The guest thinks Stevens has called the doctor for his ailing feet (for he had just asked Stevens for bandages) and Stevens lets him think as much even though his father has just died, the real reason for the call.
Remains of the Day is more flashbacks than present day story. Stevens takes you on a journey to discover what it means to have dignity. He reveals a world where being proper is more important than having sentiment. He explores the meaning of loyalty not only to an employer, but to oneself.

Reason read: This is a companion read to A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (which does not take place in Sri Lanka. See BookLust Twist for further details) but August is the bets time to visit Sri Lanka, or so I am told.

Author fact: This is Ishiguro’s third novel.

Narrator trivia: this is the second audio book I have listened to narrated by Simon Prebble. The first was Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Book trivia: Remains of the Day was made into a movie in 1993 and starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. It received eight Academy Award nominations. Not too shabby. This is definitely one I want to put on my list to see.

BookLust Twist: Mentioned more than one in Book Lust and then again in More Book Lust. In Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 65) – which is why I am reading Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee at the same time. Also, in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade By Decade (1980s)” (p 179). Remains of the Day is also from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Sri Lanka: Exotic and Troubled” (p 212). Interestingly enough, Remains of the Day has nothing to do with Sri Lanka and is only mentioned in this chapter to describe the style of another book.

As an aside, I plan to go through all Book Lusts (Book Lust, More Book Lust and Book Lust To Go) to see how many books have nothing to do with the chapter they are mentioned in. I am curious to see how many books that eliminates – not that I won’t read them…

Bloodlines

gr4c5Leave a comment

Conant, Susan. Bloodlines. New York: A Perfect Crime Book, 1992.

This is one of those quick reads that you almost feel like reading over again because it goes by so fast. Holly Winter is a writer who has a column about dogs. In her spare time she trains, shows and is obsessed with Alaskan malamutes. Be prepared for overkill. Holly is extremely passionate about dogs of all kinds and loathes puppy mills. When she discovers a malamute for sale at a pet shop she just knows the dog came from a puppy mill. Only going to investigate the malamute, Holly gets caught up in a mystery when the owner of the pet shop is brutally murdered and the malamute goes missing. Holly is straight out of Murder, She Wrote as she tackles solving the crime by tangling with tough guys and other shady characters.

Confessional: I get snagged by repetitiveness. If something occurs too often *in any situation and not just books* it sticks out like a throbbing thumb to me. In this case, Holly Winter’s condescending tone when she is explaining something. Here’s what I mean. These are direct quotes from the book:

  • “You know her? If you don’t know what I knew…”
  • “Maybe you don’t know the breed.”
  • “You may not realize.”
  • “Maybe you’ll understand. If not I’d better explain.”
  • “Doesn’t everyone know this? Maybe not.”
  • “In case you didn’t know…”
  • “If you know anything about obedience…”
  • “In case you’ve spent the last two years exiled…let me explain.”
  • “Before I tell you…I want to make sure that, in case you are a newcomer, you understand something…”
  • “In case you aren’t a specialist in AKC regulations, let me explain.”
  • “You probably don’t need a translation but just in case…”
  • “You do know about that, don’t you?”
  • “You do know how to read a pedigree, don’t you?”
  • “Stranger around here?”
  • “You know what a palindrome is, don’t you?”
  • “Have I lost you?”
  • “…in case I’ve lost you…”
  • “You know what an Elkhound is?”

And the list goes on and on. It happens enough times that it sticks out to me. The more it sticks out, the more I am aware of it…and it drives me crazy.

Reason read: Dog Day is August 26th.

Author fact: Conant won the Maxwell Award for Fiction Writing in 1991. By the titles of her books you can tell she is a huge dog lover.

Book trivia: While I was bogged down by how didactic Holly could be, other people complained about how “preachy” she was about puppy mills. For some reason that was more forgivable to me. People tend to write about what they know. It’s obvious Conant has strong opinions about puppy mills so she’s going to express those opinions through Holly.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “I Love a Mystery” (p 118).

Absolute Zero

gr4c51 Comment

Cresswell, Helen. Absolute Zero. Read by Clive Mantle. North Kingston, Rhode Island: BBC Audio, 2007.

As discovered in Ordinary Jack the Bagthorpe family is highly competitive. When we meet up with them in Absolute Zero they have taken their one-upman-ship to a whole new level by entering as many different contests as possible. Uncle Parker begins it all when he enters a slogan competition and it snowballs from there. As each member begins to win something they become known as celebrities. Their fame grows to the point of commercials and live television. But, who knew Zero the dog would take center stage? As with Ordinary Jack hilarity ensues, especially when little cousin Daisy Parker moves on from pyromania to an obsession with water. I’ll say no more.

Reason read: Absolute Zero continues the Bagthorpe series started in July in honor of National Kids Month

Author fact: Cresswell was involved with writing television scripts and that comes out a little in Absolute Zero.

Book trivia: the audio is read by Clive Mantle and I have to admit, he had me laughing with his accents.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Best for Boys and Girls” (p 21). I should note that Pearl suggested reading all of the Bagthorpe books in the series, but since they weren’t individually indexed, per my rules, I am skipping them.

Long Way From Home

gr4c5Leave a comment

Busch, Frederick. Long Way From Home.New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1993.

How to describe Long Way From Home? Part dark fairytale, part family drama, part commentary on mothers and adoption? All of the above. Each section of the book is separated by a familiar drawing of Mother Goose, looking quite witchy. It sets a subliminal tone. But, onto the plot: Pennsylvanian Sarah has been wanting to reach out to her biological mother for some time. An ad promising a possible reunion prompts her to abandon all common sense as well as her husband and son. Husband, Barrett, convinced he knows where she went, dumps five year old Stephen with his New York in-laws and sets off for the southwest. Meanwhile, biological mom Gloria is cooking up home remedy concoctions and getting ready to kidnap her new-found grandson. Each character is obviously searching for something other than the obvious. Each are on a self destructive path.
My one complaint? You don’t really get to know the characters well enough to understand their motives or really care. Except Stephen. Little five year old Stephen is exactly how you would expect a boy with a mentally unstable mother and a neutered father. Only grandmother Lizzie remains a solid, reliable presence in his life.

Line I liked, “You think you don’t leave a trace, she thought, and then you’re found” (p 42).

Reason read: August is Busch’s birth month. Nothing fancier than that.

Author fact: Frederick Busch was a New York man through and through. He was born there and died there.

Book trivia: Grandmother Lizzie Bean appears in two other Busch tales, Rounds (1979) and Sometimes I Live in the Country (1986).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Frederick Busch: Too Good To Miss” (p 48).

Caroline’s Daughters

gr4c5Leave a comment

Adams, Alice. Caroline’s Daughters. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1991.

I have to preface this by saying this was a very quick read. The characters keep you glued to the page. One of the major themes of Adams’s Caroline’s Daughters is dissatisfaction. To start with, Caroline has five daughters from three different marriages and each one couldn’t be more different from the another. The only thing they really have in common, besides their biological mother, is the need for something more in their lives. Eldest daughter Sage is a failing ceramics artist with a philandering husband. What disturbed me about her story is that everyone around her knows her husband is a cheat but no one has that conversation with her. Overweight Liza is mother to three but wants to be a writer. She is the only one who is truly satisfied, relationship-wise…at least she thinks she is (stay tuned). Fiona is a restauranteur who really doesn’t like food and can’t keep a boyfriend. Jill, as a stockbroker lawyer, is fixated on wealth so much so she has prostituted herself for the excitement and extra cash. Portia, the youngest, simply doesn’t know what she wants. Her sexuality as well as her entire life is ambiguous. True to all sibling rivalries, there is competition and jealousy among all five of them. In the midst of all this chaos is Caroline, powerless to help her daughters find their way. She has her own drama to deal with when her third husband suffers a debilitating stroke.
In addition to be a commentary on dissatisfaction, families and mother-daughter relationships, Caroline’s Daughters is a sharp look at San Francisco’s culture in the 1990s. Politics, economics, AIDS and sexuality are all common themes. It was interesting how many times Adams had a character wonder if someone in her life was gay or not.

Line that I liked, “However, despite herself she finds that she is hurrying faster, rushing against the possibility that this man could be someone she knows” (p 237). Adams is talking about the homeless, something San Francisco, as well as every other major city in the U.S., needs to address. Liza’s reaction to the homeless man is pretty typical of the wealthy.

Reason read: August is Adams’s birth month.

Author fact: There is a 1935 movie by the name of Alice Adams but it has nothing to do with author Alice Adams.

Book trivia: Caroline’s Daughters was published eight years before Adams’s death in 1999.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “A…Is For Alice” (p 1).

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

gr4c5Leave a comment

Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Mordecai Richler. New York: Washington Square Press, 1959.

Duddy Kravitz is a third generation Jewish immigrant who reminds me of Kevin Spacey’s character in House of Cards. Although Duddy is only a teenager growing up in 1950s Montreal, he is amoral, scheming, conniving, sly, and even amusing. He goes after what he wants with a corrupt, combative, yet subtle bully air just like a well trained politician. He knows how to hustle for jobs while hustling people at the same time. No one is immune to his charms or betrayals. At the heart of the story Duddy has plans to own land because, in his mind, that is the only way he can be sure he will be Somebody in the end. He’ll steamroll over anybody and everybody to get what he wants. His pride won’t let him be human. In the end, Duddy ultimately becomes Richler’s mouthpiece for topics such as greed, politics, religion and family and you can’t help but admire Duddy’s tenacity no matter how much you hate his moral character. Just like Frank Underwood, he is a begrudgingly likeable villain.

Best lines, “He had a smile that melted the rubber bands in the girls’ panties left, right and center (p 150) and “The higher you climbed up splendid tree-lined streets the thicker the ivy, the more massive the mansions, and the more important the man inside (p 196).

Reason read: Canada Day is celebrated in July.

Author fact: Richler is known for his satire.

Book trivia: Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was made into a movie in 1974 and starred Richard Dreyfuss. Yup. I could see that.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Canadian Fiction” (p 50).

In the Graveyard of Empires

gr4c5Leave a comment

Jones, Seth G. In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan. Read by William Hughes. New York: Blackstone Audio, 2010

Jones starts In the Graveyard of Empires going back to Alexander the Great’s march into Afghanistan. This is to put Afghanistan’s tumultuous history into perspective. Readers shouldn’t be worried a historical quagmire because Jones moves through the early bloodshed pretty quickly. Around the time of the Soviet invasion he slows the tempo down and goes into more detail. One of the things I appreciated about Jones’s writing is that he manages to stay pretty objective, hardly inserting himself into the analysis, despite his personal ties to the region. He stays true to the subtitle, “America’s War in Afghanistan” of which he had no military part. He served as advisor to the commanding general of the U.S. Special Ops Forces. His work is heavily supplemented by countless interviews and extensive research. You can read more of his profile on the RAND corporation website.
For me, the hardest section to read was not about the attacks on September 11th, 2001, but rather when international aide workers came under attack in 2003 and 2004. Five Medecins Sans Frontieres workers were kidnapped and executed. These are a group of people who dare to deliver aid where few others are willing to go.

Reason read: travel sites list July as the best time to go to Afghanistan. No offense, but is there really a good time to go to Afghanistan in this day and age?

Author fact: As mentioned earlier, Jones has a profile on the RAND site and is listed as the director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center.

Book Audio trivia: this is the first audio book I have listened to where the narrator doesn’t have some kind of accent.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires (nonfiction)” (p 5). Sound familiar?