Category: BookLust I

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

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West, Rebecca. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: a Journey Through Yugoslavia. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.

I have to say it otherwise it’s the elephant in the room. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a huge book. Over 1,100 pages long. Actually, it’s 1,181 if you include the index and bibliography. Craziness. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way… Despite the length Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was, for the most part, a pleasure to read. I have to admit I didn’t finish it. I ran out of steam halfway through. However, West has a great conversational tone to her writing which levels out the dryness of the subject. Anyone who can insert the phrase “political cantankerousness” when discussing the battle of the Mohacs in 1526 is okay in my book.

Quote I liked, “He is perpetually drunk on what comes out of his mouth, not what goes into it” (p 41).

Reason read: If you are in the mood to visit the Balkans, July is supposedly the best time to go.

Author fact: Rebecca West was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield which I think is a beautiful name. According to the author bio in Black Lamb she was in a romantic relationship with H.G. Wells for ten years. Interesting.

Book trivia: Even though this is considered a travel book there are no maps, illustrations or photographs. Nothing of the sort.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in “Balkan Specters” (p 34) and again in “Lady Travelers” (p 143).

Charlotte Gray

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Faulks, Sebastian. Charlotte Gray. New York: Vintage International, 1998.

Charlotte Gray is a independent Scottish woman determined to make a difference in the effort to liberate France during the Nazi occupation of World War II. Starting out as a receptionist for a doctor in London, she quickly realizes she is meant for bigger and better things after she meets RAF pilot Peter Gregory. Falling hopelessly in love with him after a short yet passionate affair, she is determined to find him after his plane goes down behind enemy lines. Dyeing her hair and assuming a new identity is only the beginning for Charlotte, especially after she assumes the role of live-in housemaid to an ailing and eccentric Jewish artist. Throughout Charlotte’s search for Peter she is faced with many harsh realities about war and her own past. The big mystery is whether or not she will find peace or Peter or both.

Quotes I liked, “It’s the normalcy of everything that seems so treacherous” (p 161) and “Memory is the only thing that binds you to earlier selves; for the rest you become an entirely different being every decade or so, sloughing off the old persona, renewing and moving on” (p 379).

Reason read: to continue Faulks’s story (started with Birdsong in June).

Author fact: at the time of Charlotte Gray’s publishing, Faulks lived in London, England.

Book trivia: Even though Charlotte Gray ends the trilogy, it could be read independent of The Girl at Lion d’Or and Birdsong. Even though minor characters are the same, the story lines are different enough. However, the mention of Stephen Wraysford was like meeting an old friend in a foreign city.

Another book trivia: Charlotte Gray won the “Bad Sex” award but I happen to think the sex in Birdsong was more titillating.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Sex and the Single Reader” (p 219). Charlotte Gray was lumped into the final paragraph because it was nominated for Britain’s annual Literary Review Best Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Faulks won in 1998.

Killer Inside Me

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Thompson, Jim. The Killer Inside Me.

Lou Ford is a young deputy sheriff with a big secret. He has what he calls a “sickness.” In truth, he is a sexual sadist and a homicidal sociopath. After having rough sex with a prostitute he finds all of his urges have come back. Years earlier he attacked a child. When his foster brother took the blame for the crime, Lou thought his secret was safe, especially when his brother died in a construction “accident.” He got away with it until he decided to blackmail the men who supposedly murdered his brother. Things get complicated and the bodies start piling up. Ford is a strange man (never mind the fact he’s a killer). He speaks in cliches all the time and he has an ego the size of Alaska. He thinks that he has covered up each and every crime and hasn’t left a shred of evidence that could implicate him in any way. It’s strange to read this in the 21st century. So many different forensic techniques we take for granted today (DNA, for one) were not available back in the 1950s. Even methods like the polygraph and fingerprinting have been greatly improved since their invention.

Best lines, “Out here, if you catch a man with his pants down, you apologize…even if you have to arrest him afterwards” (p 6).

Reason read: June is National Short Story month.

Author fact: Thompson also wrote The Grifters which is on my list.

Book trivia: The Killer Inside Me was made into a movie with a pretty cool website here.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Les Crimes Noir” (p 67). Interestingly enough, this is one of the stories in Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s which is also on my list.

Down There

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Goodis, David. Down There. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s. New York: Library of America, 1999.

David Goodis is a great storyteller. The story opens with a man, bloodied and dazed, running from two unknown men. Throughout most of the plot you don’t know who is who. Is the running man a good guy or is he bad? Why do the men chasing him want him so badly? They are relentless in their pursuit. You don’t know who to root for. But, the story isn’t really about the man being pursued. When he escapes into a seedy bar where his brother is playing piano, the attention shifts to the piano player. Now, caught in the middle of the pursuit is younger brother, Eddie. Growing up, Eddie had very little to do with his rough and violent brothers. While they followed a life of crime, Eddie became a Carnegie Hall pianist. For the past three years he has been just a simple piano player in a bar called Harriet’s Hut. Out of family loyalty, Eddie helps his brother escape and plunges headlong into the trouble is he has been trying to avoid for years. There is a reason he no longer plays Carnegie and that ugly truth comes back to haunt him. Throughout the story there isn’t enough character development to care about Eddie or his family. You don’t know if they are the good guys or not. Enough bad things have happened to Eddie to make the reader sympathetic to his plight, but not enough to sit on the edge of a seat, hoping and praying for his survival. I rooted for the plucky waitress, Lena, who attaches herself to Eddie and refuses to take no for an answer. She was gutsy and valiant and never wavered from her character.

Reason read: June is National Short Story month and even though this isn’t exactly a short story, it’s brief enough to throw on the list.

Author fact: One of the most fascinating things about Goodis (according to Wikipedia (yes, I’m quoting Wikipedia), is that most people didn’t know Goodis had been married for a brief time. It wasn’t until a divorce document was found that people really believed it.

Book trivia: Down There is also known as Shoot the Piano Player which was made into a movie.

BookLust Twist: from Crime Novels: American Noir listed in Book Lust in the chapter called “Les Crime Noir” (p 65).

Birdsong

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Faulks, Sebastian. Birdsong. Read by Peter Firth. New Hampshire: Chivers North America Audio Books, 2000.

Birdsong is broken into seven different sections covering three different periods of main character Stephen Wraysford’s life, 1910, 1916 – 1918, and 1978 – 1979 (the last being through the eyes of his granddaughter, Elizabeth). When we first meet Stephen in 1910 he is a young Englishman sent to France to observe operations at a textile mill in Amiens. It is there that he meets the beautiful and lonely Mrs. Isabelle Azaire. From the moment they meet, their attraction to one another is instantaneous and unavoidable. Even an innocent activity like pruning in the garden speaks volumes of what is to come. It isn’t long before the two give in to their carnal desires and commit adultery. If you are shy about sex scenes, there are a few you may want to skip. The second encounter in the library is pretty racy! The attraction between the lovers is so strong that Isabelle runs away with Stephen, only to be wracked by guilt causing her to leave him a short time later. We don’t know what happens to this couple after Isabelle’s leaving. This is a mystery that hangs over the next section of Stephen’s life.
When we meet up again with Stephen it is six years later and he is a soldier, sent to work in the tunnels below enemy lines. This section of the book, covering World War I, is incredibly graphic and haunting. Faulk’s portrayals of battle are as realistic as they are heartbreaking, especially in the claustrophobic tunnels. Interspersed between Stephen’s World War I experiences is the life of his granddaughter, Elizabeth. When she becomes curious about his life she sets out to learn all that she can. She ends up learning more about herself in the process. History repeats itself and comes full circle for Wraysford’s legacy.

PS ~ I like the way Peter Firth reads. His voice is really pleasant. But, unlike Kirsten Potter, who read The Locust Eaters, Firth doesn’t even attempt a French accent! He does an Australian one pretty well, though.

Reason read: Austria started World War I on June 28, 1914.

Author fact: Faulks is also a journalist.

Book trivia: Birdsong is actually the second book in a trilogy. I didn’t find that out until I entered it into LibraryThing. Bad news and good news. The bad news is that the first book is not on my list. However, the good news is that the third book, Charlotte Gray, is…so I’ll read two-thirds of the trilogy. Pearl makes no mention of these two books being connected.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War I (fiction)” (p 250).

As an aside, I always think of the Grateful Dead when I hear the word “birdsong” and I am filled with nostalgia. When my husband and I were first dating I took him home to Monhegan. He brought along a video camera and made a music video of the island with Birdsong playing in the background. The video starts with me sitting on the floor in the old apartment trying to pack. So long ago!

Dancer with Bruised Knees

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McFall, Lynne. Dancer with Bruised Knees. San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.

This is an extremely difficult book to read and I can see why Nancy included it in her chapter, “Families in Trouble” (Book Lust, page 83). Sarah Blight is a middle aged photographer getting over a bad breakup. You, too, would call it a bad breakup if your ex’s new lover puts out your eye with a pool stick. But, it gets worse. Sarah’s coming of age and childhood weren’t that kind either. A mentally ill mother, brother accused of a gruesome murder, an uncle who committed suicide…the list goes on. Even the farm cats weren’t safe from abuse. What happened to the cats, by the way, was one of the worst parts about the story. If you are an animal lover it’s tough to take. Oddly enough, despite all the drama I was in love with Lynne McFall’s writing. The Blight family (aptly named) is every family you have ever known. Dancer with Bruised Knees is a short book, around 215 pages, but one that will stick with you long after you finish the final page.
One of the things I loved about McFall’s book is that she likes music. You can tell by the way she references songs. I counted over 15 songs and that wasn’t counting the hymns. I would love to make a mixed tape of all the music she references.

I was finding passages to quote left and right. I loved McFall’s writing that much. Here are just a few, “Now that there’s no choice I am stupid with grief” (p 1), “He was involuntarily retired” (p 3), ” I was raised an atheist with a sympathy for religious ritual” (p 5) and “But even those who are difficult need to be loved, and in that I am no exception” (p 17). I could go on and on with all the passages I loved but I said that already.

Reason read: June is National Family Month so go spend time with that brother, even if he is suspected of murdering his third ex-wife and stuffing her body in a garbage can!

Author fact: At the time of Dancer’s publication McFall was a philosophy teacher at Syracuse.

Book trivia: Parts of Dancer appeared in Story magazine.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Families in Trouble” (p 83).

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.

Trail of Tears. Manifest Destiny. Phrases and words we have heard before, definitely learned about in high school but, I’m guessing, the origins of which we haven’t given much thought. Bury My Heart at Wounded  Knee has a subtitle of “an Indian History of the American West”  and what a sad history it is! Before each chapter in the book is a snapshot of what shape the country was in that historical moment. A great deal was going on as it was during the American western expansion and the discovery of gold, starting in 1860 when the Navaho leader, Manuelito, was beaten down until surrendering to the white man. It’s a shameful book to read. So many broken promises. So many different times a white man approached a tribal leader with negotiations and treaties that only ended in bald faced lies. This was a difficult book for me to read.

Reason read: May is History Month and boy, is this some ugly history!

Author fact: Dee Brown’s real name is Dorris Alexander Brown and he died in 2002.

Book trivia: The portraits of each tribal chief is pretty amazing. Many thanks to the Smithsonian for the courtesy of reproduction. Tosawi or Silver Knife of the Comanches is my favorite.

BookLust Trivia: from Book Lust in the chapter called “American History: Nonfiction” (p 21).

Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg

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Keating, H.R.F. Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg. New York: Doubleday, 1971.

You know you are in for an interesting ride when one of the first sentences of the book reads like this, “From the moment that he had been landed with the business only the afternoon before he had raged at the lack of anything he could get his teeth into, and now that the chance was near he was going to let nothing delay him” (p 1). In a word, delicious.
It has been fifteen years since the wife of a prominent local official unexpectedly passed away. At the time, it was ruled an accident, the ingestion of bad lime pickles or something. But, suspicions have arisen about her death and Inspector Ghote is ordered to look into it a bit more closely. Only, no one wants him there. Even the local Swami is fasting until Ghote leaves town. This is a comedy in every sense of the word. Ghote arrives in town under the guise of a salesman of a new chicken feed product. He carries a carton of eggs on the back of his bicycle to “assist” with his disguise. Problem is, no one is buying it and Ghote doesn’t stick to his story all that well. Ghote comes across as a bumbling idiot at times, believing everything a suspect says, confronting the wrong witness, always one step behind his quarry. A whole lot of nothing seems to happen. Until it does. His life is threatened. He can’t trust anyone, including the people who hired him because no one is who they seem to be.

Reason read: this is going to sound strange, but I had too many titles to read for National Mystery Month (which is in January), so I searched for other reasons to read some of them. May is Egg Month. Don’t ask me how I know that. Since “egg” is in the title, I’m reading this in May.

Author fact: Keating has a website here. It’s a very clean site. Not much below the fold. I like that.

Book trivia: According to the website I am reading the sixth Ghote book.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called ” I Love a Mystery” (p 120).

French Revolutions

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Moore, Tim. French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France. Read by Andrew Wincott.  Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 2009.

Funny. Funny. Funny. I like that Moore’s writing is unapologetic snarky. If you are sensitive to sarcasm and foul language, stay away! This book is lightly peppered with words only a hearty rant could benefit from. Take a slightly out-of-shape, thirty something year old British guy who gets it into his head he can ride the Tour-de-France. Outfit him with a bike and ridiculous clothes and the fact he has no idea what he’s doing. Suddenly you’ve got a beyond hilarious story. Tim Moore ignores all common sense reason and sets out to bike all 2,256 miles of the race before the actual professionals take the stage. Each chapter is a different leg of the Tour and what’s great about Moore’s account (aside from his incessant bellyaching) is the historical perspective he gives along the way. He isn’t shy about providing graphic descriptions of the trials and tribulations of the male body after eight to ten hours in the saddle, either. I could open French Revolutions any page and find something hysterically funny, and more often than not, off color.

Quotes: As I said, nearly every page had something worthwhile and funny, but here are just a few of my favorites: “Sadly, Dennis was an awful boy who cheated at Monopoly and avenged yet another Belgian victory in that year’s race by running amok in our flower-beds with the big lawnmower, so I did not at the time ascribe positive attributes to the focus of his obsession” (p 5), “I didn’t know whether to be glad or sad when I looked down while grabbing for a towel and saw that the elemental rigours of the day had apparently inspired my genitals to eat themselves” (p 116), and “The blathering torrent of self-pity was by this stage a staple of our telephonic encounters, and she listened patiently, as, dispensing with respiration or punctuation, I stated that I was in a town with no hotels, that she had the hotel book, and that having cycled 94,000 miles I had forgotten how to speak French” (p 255).

As an aside, I don’t know why all my audio books are read by people with accents.

Reason read: May is Bicycle Month…so go out there and ride!

Author fact: Moore has an incredibly patient and understanding wife named Birna.

Book trivia: Moore makes mention of taking photographs while “on tour” but sadly, none of them make the book. Not even one of himself.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Bicycling” (p 35). Simple and to the point.

Sex and Suits

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Hollander, Anne. Sex and Suits: the Evolution of Modern Dress. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1994.

Let’s clear up one thing right away. Fashion is not just the clothes you wear. Since I was none the wiser before reading this book, I am truly one of the unfashionable. I would never cut it on Rodeo Drive.
Anne Hollander takes the history of fashion, and more specifically, the history of the tailored suit, thread by thread. In the beginning clothes for men and women were equally elaborate and meaningful. It wasn’t until the late eighteenth century when a divide between the sexes started to emerge. Fashion for men became simpler while women’s wear got more complicated. Styles for women boasted of sexuality while men were more subtle and subdued. Women took advantage of male fashion and twisted it to suit their statements. As with anything, the lines are being blurred again as men find inspiration in styles designed for women. One of the most fascinating points Hollander makes about dress for man and women is the phenomenon of identical identity. She argues that if men are dressed in identical tuxedos their unique faces would stand out in relief, just as women dressed in a variety of styles would all have the same face.

Quotes I liked, “Fashion in dress is committed to risk, subversion and irregular forward movement” (p 14), and “It corresponds to one very tenacious myth about women, the same one that gave rise to the image of the mermaid, the perniciously divided female monster, a creature inherited by the gods only down to the girdle” (p 61).

Reason: The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week takes place in May

Author fact: Hollander is an art historian. Makes sense that she would write about fashion. Fashion = art sometimes.

Book trivia: Sex and Suits has great illustrations and photographs of fashion. My favorite is the back cover; a woman leaping in the air with a raised umbrella over her head and pointed toes.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Do the Clothes Make the Man (or the Woman)? (p 75).

Herzog

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Bellow, Saul. Herzog. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1964.

Moses Alkanan Herzog is a man experiencing a midlife crisis. His coping mechanism is to write letters in his head; if they make do it to paper, they are letters he most often does not mail. With each letter comes a flashback to a particular monumental time in Herzog’s memory. Most of his reminiscing centers on his two failed marriages and all the relationships to which he cannot commit. He is a well intentioned, extremely intelligent yet sad man. An example: sometime after the divorce from his second wife Herzog visits a friend and her husband on Martha’s Vineyard. Soon after arriving he realizes his friends are way too happy for his state of mind. He decides, moments after arriving, he he must leave immediately. Instead of facing his well-intentioned friends to explain the mistake, Herzog writes a note and slips away unnoticed. There is a singular self-satisfaction in the fact that he makes it back to New York City by 11pm. Herzog has a heart and deeply cares, despite the fact he is so misunderstood. When he suspects his daughter is being abused he travels to his ex-wife’s home to confront the abuser. His motives are good even though the end is not what he intended.

Confessional: I have this friend who passed away over a year ago. I don’t know why, but at times, Herzog reminded me of him. Maybe it was the multiple marriages and all the exotic relationships with women?

Favorite lines, “A person of irregular tendencies, he practiced the art of circling among random facts to swoop down on the essentials” (p 18), and “A free foot on a summer night eases the heart” (p 194). This last line totally made me think of my husband.

Reason read (April 20th – May 4th): Mr. Bellow passed away in April of 2005 and May is National Jewish American month. In this (rare) instance I am reading one book in two different months. It just worked out that way.

Author fact: Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for literature.

Book trivia: Herzog won the National Book Award for fiction and was a New York Times best seller (also named top 100 of all “Time” by Time Magazine).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish American Experience” (p 132).

Seeing in the Dark

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Ferris, Timothy. Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

The night sky has always held a mystical place in my imagination. I had the thrilling good fortune to grow up in a place unpolluted by artificial light. No street lights to cut the night sky, no blinking traffic lights, no neon signs burning from storefront windows. Very few private homes had electricity so at most a soft glow from candles or kerosene lamps would emit from a window or two. That’s it. It was easy to look up into the Milky Way and get lost among its population of stars. To quote Natalie Merchant, “the stars were so many there, they seemed to overlap.” My favorite line her Maniacs song, The Painted Desert. Reading Seeing in the Dark set my memories on fire. I can remember stretching out, flat on my back, searching for satellites. We made a game of it. Who could first spot the unblinking light that moved so silently across the universe? But! I am so far in the weeds with this review.

Back to my last book for April…Ferris writes with such an easy style. This isn’t just about deep space, astronomy and star gazing. It is not dry and didactic. This is a memoir about Ferris’s childhood cardboard telescope dreams becoming reality. He takes us back to when he was just a kid, looking up in the Florida night sky, dreaming about rockets and moon walks; witnessing his first solar eclipse. It’s about sharing conversations with other amateurs, proving once and for all amateur stargazers really know what they are doing, despite not having the big buck telescopes and high-end gadgets. Seeing in the Dark is also about the collaborations between backyard stargazers and the people who have the money to make research happen. Take Brian May, for example. If he hadn’t been a musician be would have been an astronomer. Because of his success with his band, Queen, he has been able to support his hobby of backyard stargazing with better technology than the average hobbyist. Lastly, Seeing in the Dark is broad-based educational. I learned of a new place I want to visit, the Roden Crater in Arizona and I learned the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. I think too many people use those words interchangeably. Ferris cleared it up for me, once and for all.

Quotes I liked, “Love affairs can make you reckless and scar you for life, but what is life without love?” (p 82), “To put your eye or any other part of your anatomy at the focal point of a telescope pointed at the sun is like volunteering to be an ant under a magnifying glass” (p 76), and “…Charon, which orbits Pluto, which probably isn’t a planet” (p 104).

Reason read: April is National Astronomy month.

Author fact: Ferris has been nominated for a Pulitzer and four of his books are on my reading list.

Book trivia: It’s such a bummer that Ferris didn’t include any celestial photography. I love the night sky.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Astronomical Ideas” (p 27).

Winners and Losers

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Quigley, Martin. Winners and Losers. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961.

Winners and Losers is such a stoic story! In Part I: Soldier, we first follow the life of Damon Mitchell as a staff Sergeant and patrol leader in World War II. It is while he is behind enemy lines in Germany that he learns of his younger brother Johnny’s death. In Part II: Boy, we jump backward in time to Mitchell’s teenage years to when his father loses his job in the Great Depression and family dynamics start to change. Damon must go out and get a job to help support the family. It’s at this point in the story we learn how close Johnny and Damon are as brothers and how removed Damon is from friendships and other meaningful relationships. In Part III: Man, Damon is becoming more and more successful. As he moves up the corporate ladder he becomes lonelier and lonelier. He is winning and losing at the same time.

Lines to like, “Long ago Damon had learned that asking questions just got you information” (p 37). Later in the story, if you are paying attention, you will notice just when Damon learns that lesson. One more, “They were precariously alone in the room” (p 217).

Reason read: April is National Sibling Month and Winners and Losers has two brothers. The story isn’t about them as brothers, though.

Author fact: This is really depressing but my copy of Winners and Losers didn’t come with any author information. So, I guess my author fact is that Martin Quigley isn’t plastered all over the internet.

Book trivia: My copy of Winners and Losers traveled from the Florida State library. Again, not a very popular author around here…

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “My Own Private Dui” (p 165). Pearl puts this in the category of “Books that are simply treasures and ought not go unread” (p 165). Also, from More Book Lust in two chapters, “Friend Makers” (p 95) and “Oh, Brother!” (p 180).

Illumination Night

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Hoffman, Alice. Illumination Night. New York: Berkley Books, 1987.

“Simon can hear the sound of pine cones hitting the ground, or bones breaking” (p 4). You know you are in for a wild ride when you read that early-in-the-book sentence because, at that moment you haven’t learned that Simon, at age four, has just heard the result of woman trying to fly. There are so many things you don’t know…yet. I should also add that Illumination Night is a really fast read. I read the first 80 pages before coming up for air. My entire lunch break flew by without my eyes lifting from the page once. Alice Hoffman is one of those authors that can suck you into a story within the first few sentences. Once you are hooked you can’t escape the story or the characters. This is a story of relationships. A grandmother, trying to understand her 16 year old granddaughter. They live next door to a married couple trying to live with their insecurities and unmet desires. All of the characters become entangled with one another when the teenager sets her sights on seducing the husband. And then, this part sounds like the punchline to a joke, a giant walks into the picture…Seriously, this is a simply beautiful story about relationships, the ones with healing and faith in them.

Reason read: Hoffman’s birthday is in March. I tried to read this two years ago. Actually, to be more precise I tried to listen to it on cd two years ago. Every disc was so scratched; damaged beyond repair that it was impossible for me to continue. I sent the whole thing back to the owning library and took it off my list for what was supposed to be one year. One thing led to another and I’m only now getting back to it…in print.

Author fact: Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors.

Book trivia: Alice Hoffman signed this copy of Illumination Night. Very cool.

BookLust Twist: from all three Lust Books! In Book Lust in the chapter called simply “A…My Name is Alice” (p1); in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Marriage Blues” (p 162); in Book Lust to Go in the chapter simply called “Martha’s Vineyard” (p 142).

Life in the Air Ocean

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Foley, Sylvia. Life in the Air Ocean. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1999.

Life in the Air Ocean is made up of nine short stories that are all interconnected.

  • “Cave Fish” introduces Daniel to the reader. Husband to Iris, he is a veteran and has a baby daughter. “Her eyes slipped back and forth like a cave fish” (p 10). I have no idea what that means.
  • “Boy Wonder” takes us back to when Daniel was an abused boy.
  • “Life in the Air Ocean” is from Iris’s point of view. “Iris knew she was dawdling on the side of madness” (p 33).
  • “Elemenopy” is Ruth’s story and alludes to a sinister secret.
  • “Off Grenada” introduces us to three year old Monica as the new addition to the Mowry family. Older sister, Ruth, is now seven years old. “Stilts of electricity were walking over the water” (p 74).
  • “Cloudland” is ominous. Allusions of sexual abuse and alcoholism are repeated.
  • “State of the Union” addresses Iris’s alcoholism and growing paranoia that her husband is cheating on her. At this point, her children have grown (Monica, the youngest, is in college) and she barely has contact with them.
  • “History of Sex” is told from Ruth’s point of view in first person and is probably the most disturbing of the stories.
  • “Dogfight” is told from the youngest daughter, Monica’s point of view.

All along bits and pieces of the story are drawn out. Ruth is a baby without a name of gender for the first two stories. It’s like a peep show where only tantalizing tidbits are introduced. As the curtain goes down on one story, you hope it opens to reveal more in the next. This was a difficult series of stories to read. Depressing doesn’t even begin to describe it. I feel like I read this and winced all the way through it.

Reason read: March is National Family Month and Pearl lumped this book in the chapter “Families in Trouble” (see Twist).

Author fact: While poking around the internet I found an epub book called Cave Fish: Stories by Sylvia Foley. It’s a free download. Hmmmm…

Book trivia:

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Families in Trouble” (p 83). I wasn’t looking forward to reading this because Pearl called Life in the Air Ocean “…one of the most depressing books” she has ever read (p 83). Oh joy.