Category: BookLust I

Raising Holy Hell

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Olds, Bruce. Raising Holy Hell. New York: Harry Holt & Company, 1995.

At first glance this book scared the crap out of me. For starters, the cover. It’s an illustration based on a photograph of John Brown. It’s blurry and staring and Mr. Brown looks like he’s on fire. Maybe he is? I’m not sure. Then there’s a blurb from Robert Olen Butler on the back, “…is a brilliant novel about the complexities of hatred…the hatred of hatred…” The hatred of hatred sounds, well, harsh. But it’s the truth.

Defending Raising Holy Hell: I have to say this upfront. I read this along side Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks so I find myself making comparisons instead of writing a review strictly about Raising Holy Hell. Since I have such a persistent problem I think I should list the comparisons, if only to get them out of my system and move on:

  1. Cloudsplitter is long – well over 700 pages whereas Raising Holy Hell is barely over 300.
  2. Cloudsplitter is long winded – long sentences, long chapters, heavy with words and details. Raising Holy Hell is choppy – pages of lists, pages with 2-3 simple quotes. One page contained less than a dozen words “One year before the Ferry. One year and counting down” (p 196).
  3. Cloudsplitter is told from the point of view of Owen Brown, John Brown’s third son. Raising Holy Hell comes at the reader from every angle. Told from the point of view of wives, sons, interviews, prayers, articles, diaries, etc. It’s this last point I want to focus on the most.

Raising Holy Hell is unique. Bruce Olds tells John Brown’s story from every direction. Quotations, mythology, folk tales, court transcripts, lists, poetry,  diary entries, letters, interviews, Bible quotes, historical data, advice, agreements, and the perspectives of stepmother, father, first wife, second wife, eldest son, younger sons, daughters, neighbors, friends, Frederick Douglass, past Presidents, all piece together to tell not only the tale of Harper’s Ferry, but of the biography of John Brown, the man. Perfect for someone with a short span of attention!

Book Trivia & author fact: Raising Holy Hell is Bruce Olds’s first book but not his last.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Biographical Novels” (p 38).

Cloudsplitter

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Banks, Russell. Cloudsplitter. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.

Aside from its daunting size (well over 700 pages) this was fascinating to read. Owen Brown, the third of John Brown’s sons, tells the story of his father’s controversial life, beginning with Owen’s own childhood. Cloudsplitter opens with a written apology to Miss Mayo, a young Columbia University student who had been rebuffed by Owen after she traveled to his remote mountainside home in Altadena, California in hopes of inviting him to a reception. After chasing Miss Mayo away Owen is feeling the pressures of mortality, for he is not a young man anymore, and decides to tell his entire story from start to finish. While he is apparently ambivalent to his father’s tragic path of life he is deeply reflective and apologetic, detailing the process of how his father become of of history’s most complex antislavery agitators and martyrs. Owen desperately wants to appear open and honest by saying, “I will tell all” over and over again. Seeing as how Cloudsplitter is told from the point of view of John Brown’s surviving son it is safe to say the story was not meant to be yet another retelling  of the famous yet failed raid on Harper’s Ferry specifically. It is more accurately an illustration of how one man’s religious beliefs can grow to become the catalyst for one of the most well known events in history, in this case, the anti-slave movement. While Banks’ style of writing is, at times, rambling and contradictory (a reflection of Owen’s ability to tell the story) he is able to seamlessly weave nonfiction into fiction; reality into imagined to create a vivid political and cultural 19th century landscape.

One of the reoccurring themes of Cloudsplitter is guilt, guilt driven by religion, guilt driven by family obligation and guilt driven by society. As the child of John Brown, Owen is pulled in many different directions by his guilt and it apparent in every story he tells.

Profound lines: “I was, during those first few weeks…precariously balanced between opposing commitments which were set to create the shape of the rest of my life, and I knew that not to chose between them would lead me inescapably to a resolution that expressed not my will, but my father’s” (p 199), “It was the year that Lyman Epps and I finished our elaborate dance, and I went howling into the wilderness, leaving wreckage and smoldering ruin behind me” (p 536), and “Our specialty would be killing men who wished to own other men” (p 549).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Biographical Novels” (p 38).

ps~ I have read four out of five of the Russell Banks books on my list.

Cross Creek

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Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. Cross Creek. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.

Cross Creek is an examination of place, first and foremost. The early pages remind me of conversations tourists have had with us Islanders; as natives who have stubbornly defended our “inconvenient” and “curious” ways of life. Cross Creek is a rural parse of Florida where alligator, snake and toad hunting is the norm. The bugs bite more than the snakes and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is in the thick of it all. Set in the early 1940s when racial inequality was at an all-time low Rawlings’s story is cringe inducing and belly splitting. Her employees are one step away from slaves and she views them as such. Poverty is a way of life in Cross Creek and yet Rawlings embraces it. Her humor outweighs the poor and the prejudice. If you need proof, read the chapter called “A Pig is Paid For” (p 97). How Rawlings blithely explains the pleasure of shooting her neighbor’s pig is funny.
Cross Creek is full of one-liners. Here are a few to illustrate what I mean. “Madness is only a variety of mental nonconformity and we are all individuals here” (p 2), “It is always bewildering to change one’s complete way of life” (p 18), and “I do not understand how any one can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to” (p 37). My favorite line comes after Rawlings conquers her fear or snakes, “I had done battle with a great fear, and the victory was mine” (p 174).

Author Fact: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is a big deal to the people of northeast Florida. In 1983 Universal Pictures released a movie of her life. In 2007 her home at Cross Creek was declared National Historic Landmark (for $6 you can enter the national park named after her and have a guided tour of her house). In 2008 the United States Postal Services released a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings commemorative stamp.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads: Decade By Decade (1940s)” (p 177), and also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Florida Fiction” (p 89), which is misleading because Pearl is including Rawlings in the chapter because of The Yearling, which is fiction and mentions Cross Creek which is not.

Les bouts de bois de Dieu

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Ousmane, Sembene. God’s Bits of Wood. Trans. Francis Price. Botswana: Heinmann, 1960.

God’s Bits of Wood has multiple layers. At face value it is a story of a Western African 1947-8 railroad strike. The story focuses on several key players but the most important individuals are Ibrahima Bakayoko, a locomotive engineer who becomes the union leader during the strike, and on the other side of the conflict, Dejean, the French colonial manager. Because the story takes place in several different areas (Bamako, Thies and Dakar) the overall impact of the strike is generalized to a population. The story reaches past an African railroad strike in order to analyze clashes that go beyond worker/employer relations. The social economic and political contexts are analyzed and illustrated. It is more than a description of the initiatives of the railroad workers versus the initiatives of the colonial administration. Feminists have a field day with re-imagining gender relations as the women of West Africa transform themselves into powerful members of society – the social function to the story as it pertains to Sengal and Africa as a whole.

I have to admit it was driving me nuts that I didn’t understand the title “God’s Bits of Wood.” I needed to know what it meant. I was picturing a forest, a campfire, a dilapidated shack. All things wood…in bits. I was happy to learn, early on, that the wood of  God’s bits of wood are actually people. Gotcha.

Favorite lines: “And the men began to understand that if times were bringing forth a new breed of men, they were also bringing forth a new breed of women” (p 34). I think that sums up the entire book.
Other favorite lines: A line from Hadrame, “This strike is a war if eggs against stones!” (p 42).

Author fact: It was interesting to read that Ousmane has been a fisherman, a plumber, a bricklayer, an apprentice mechanic, a docker, as well as a trade union leader and a filmmaker in addition to be a successful writer.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “African Literature in English” (p 16).

Flint

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Eddy, Paul. Flint. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000.

Flint starts with violence. The plot itself is a little complicated but the writing is superb. Grace Flint is the proverbial Nancy Drew only not as wholesome. Okay, she swears a lot and she has a plastic face. She is the literary answer to silver screen’s Laura Croft. Dark and dangerous. Working as an undercover agent, Grace is exposed during a particularly dangerous sting operation and nearly beaten to death. That’s how Flint begins. The rest of the book fills in the gaps of who Grace really is (tough, beautiful, haunted) and who she isn’t (social, secure, stable). It follows her on her quest for revenge (because, of course, she survives the beating) as the men who framed her nip at her heels. There are many twists and turns to Flint and it gets a little complicated at times, but the writing and character development keep you on the edge of your seat.

Most frightening “movie moment” is on page 64. I can picture the scene perfectly: A man on the the run from the law must flee again. He needs to get on the move again and soon. As he is just about to feed his dogs he wonders who should take care of them when he runs. He wonders if he shouldn’t them instead.

Best conundrum: Grace is having sex with her separated husband who has a child out of wedlock with another woman. “If your husband cheats on the mother of his bastard son…does that mean you are having an affair?” (p 88).

Author Fact: I was shocked to learn Paul Eddy died of an infection after suffering an aneurysm at the age of 64. He was in the process of writing another thriller and had already written over 60,000 words. Bummer.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Action Heroes” (p 5).

Blind Descent

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Barr, Nevada. Blind Descent. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998.

This was the perfect book for a curl up on a snowy, sleeting, icing kind of weekend. The plot is fast paced and uncomplicated so I was able to read it in just two days. Barr’s attention to detail and description of caves and caving had me riveted. Anna Pigeon is a park ranger who has been called to help with a friend’s rescue from a subterranean cave. Anna is extremely claustrophobic and therefor not an experience caver. The location in the cave where her friend was injured is so difficult to get to I questioned why she was allowed to accompany rescue personnel on this dangerous mission. It seemed implausible that she would be allowed to participate just because her injured friend requested her. When rescue turns into murder Anna is determined to solve the mystery. Because Anna Pigeon is a reoccurring character in other Nevada Barr books her character development evolves a little at a time and the reader never gets the full picture of Anna from one book. One other detail I was bothered by was Anna was convinced her friend, Freida, has been murdered and yet she spends a great deal of time concentrating on a second murder of someone she just met. I would have thought the focus would have been more on her friend.

Favorite lines, “Gravity seemed more virulent when one’s back was turned to it” (p28) and “Where there was humor there was a fighting chance of remaining sane” (p 65).
A sign of the times (1990s), “Having babies out of wedlock was an epidemic among the poor and a fashion trend among the rich” (p 128).

Author Fact: Nevada Barr spent time as an actress and, like Anna Pigeon, as a park ranger.

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

Postscript ~ Did I mention that I can’t stand it when someone marks up a library book? Someone went through the entire book and changed every male specific word to a more politically correct alternative. Take the word “gunman” for example. Someone crossed it out and wrote “shooter” above it. “Rifleman”  was changed to “Killer.” You get the picture. I find this altering of the text offensive. If Barr wanted to write without gender bias she would have. I practically gloated when I found one “man” unchanged on page 102.

Jane Eyre

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Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Signet Classic, 1982.

Who hasn’t read Jane Eyre? Who hasn’t fallen in love with plucky, adventurous, moral, Jane? It’s a story everyone knows. When we first meet Jane she is ten years old and living with her deceased uncle’s family. She is despised by her aunt and cousins and considered lower than a servant (at least a servant earns her wages). As a result of Janes’s disharmonious and sometimes violent relationship with the Reed family Jane is sent away to a boarding school. From there Jane is trained as a governess and sent to the employ of Mr. Rochester. Because this is a romance it is obvious Jane and Mr. Rochester will fall deeply in love. Because this is a classic romance it is obvious there will be conflict. The conflict is Mr. Rochester is already married to a mentally ill and violent woman he keeps locked in an attic. Ever virtuous Jane leaves Mr. Rochester until telepathy steps in and Jane feels the need to rush back to Mr. Rochester. She arrives in time to see that Bertha has set the Thornfield mansion on fire and committed suicide. Mr. Rochester is blinded and loses a hand in the blaze. Jane promises to never leave Mr. Rochester again. Their love is triumphant and they live happily ever after. Of course, this is the much-condensed version!
The story of Jane Eyre has been widely criticized for its unrealistic episodes of ghosts and moments of 6th sense. Critics find it unbelievable that Jane is able to travel from one place to another as quickly and as efficiently as she does and it is downright miraculous that she finds a cousin who coincidentally has family wealth to bestow on her. Despite these criticisms Jane Eyre remains a lasting favorite. Obviously, there is a fan base willing to see the value of the suspension of belief.

Author Fact: Charlotte Bronte was one of six children born in the Bronte family. She tried her hand at being a governess (for ten years) before giving it up to write. She died at age 39 in pregnancy. Bummer.

Book Trivia: Jane Eyre has been transformed into movies, plays, operas, symphonies, ballets, and operas no less than 35 times. It has inspired countless retellings, spin-offs and songs. Its popularity resonates with young and old, men and women making it one of the best-loved classics ever.

BookLust Twist: Jane is very popular with Ms. Pearl. It is mentioned four different times between Book Lust and More Book Lust.. From Book Lust it is mentioned in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 64). I was to read Jane with Wide Sargasso Sea (of course) by Jean Rhys and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Also in the chapter called “Romance Novels: “Our Love is Here To Stay” (p 204). From More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in the chapter called “Brontes Forever” (p 34) and then again in the chapter called “Fractured Fairy Tales” (p 94).

Belly of Paris

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Zola, Emile. The Belly of Paris. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1996.

The “Belly of Paris” is quite literally a giant receptacle of food merchants. It is a humungous food market brimming with a wide array of delicacies of all shapes and sizes. In the first 50 pages I counted no less than sixty different types of food described in colorful detail. The word ‘vegetable’ alone appears over twenty times. Everything from fruits to fish, vegetables to cheese is laid out before the reader. Like the true anatomy of a stomach, from this belly of bounty wastes, filth and toxins are dispelled. There is a clash of the glorious and the gory. All of this in incredible detail serves as the backdrop to the story of Florent.
Florent has escaped from exile to return to his beloved Paris. On the verge of starvation he finds himself in a sea of food in Les Halles Centrales. From there he makes his way to his half-brother’s butcher shop that specializes in pork products. At this point Florent must decide how to live as a fugitive and a man always on the run. As he re-establishes himself in the community he is caught up in jealousies and dramas and must constantly struggle to survive.
Above all else, Belly of Paris is a story of contrasts – the richness of the market’s abundance versus the poverty and fifth of the lower classes who shop there.

Line that best illustrates Florent being swallowed by the Belly of Paris, “And at last he came to a standstill, quite discouraged and scared at finding himself unable to escape from the infernal circle of vegetables, which now seemed to dance around him, twining clinging verdue about his legs” (p 42).

Book Trivia: The Belly of Paris is the third in a series of twenty books that make up Les Rougon-Macquart. The series analyzes the effects family relations and economic status have on one family.

I will be honest. I am a little irritated I didn’t do my homework concerning Belly of Paris. I should not have read Ernest Alfred Vizetelly’s translation. From what I have read his version is not a true or exact translation. Now I am wishing I read Mark Kurlansky’s version because it received better reviews. It bothers me to think I am not reading Le Ventre de Paris as it was written. Never mind. It’s my fault for not studying French beyond first year.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Dickens of a Tale” (p 73).

Night Soldiers

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Furst, Alan. Night Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988

I have to admit this took me a little time to get into. The story starts off in 1934 with a violent bang. Khristo Stoianev is a Bulgarian teenager who witnesses the brutal beating and subsequent killing of his younger brother, Nikko. Nikko, only 15 years old, was used as an example of a growing power. Using this tragedy as a vehicle for change, Khristo is drawn into the NKVD, the Soviet intelligence service. From there he is sent to serve in the Spanish Civil war (although it is curious to note during his training he was taught English and French, not Spanish). Meanwhile,the political arena is heating up. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia are arm wrestling over real estate in Eastern Europe. Stalin is starting to purge the undesirables and this is to include Khristo so he flees to France.
Furst paints a stunning picture of eleven years of Eastern European history complete with French underground guerrilla operations, lavish love affairs, the never ending quest for power and multidimensional aspects of war.

Most telling line, “But these were political times, and it was very important to think before you spoke. Nikko Stoianev spoke without thinking, and so he died” (p 3).
Favorite line, “The nasty scene at the Finnish embassy refused to leave his mind, and he and Andres had decided to drawn their war in a bottle of Spanish gin” (p 161).

Author fact: Alan Furst was born on February 20th, 1941. He has an ongoing love affair with Paris.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called  “World War II Fiction” (p 253) even though WWII isn’t the focal point of the the story.

Ain’t Nobody’s Business

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Wesley, Valerie Wilson. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.New York: Avon, 1999.

While Kisa drove from 42 8′ 55″ N/72 36′ 29″ W to 44 6′ 13″ N/69 6′ 33″ W I read Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do. Four straight hours until I ran out of daylight and I ran out of words. It was the kind of reading that had me asking what would happen next. Not because the story had me on the edge of my seat in suspense, but because I had grown to care about all the characters and truly wanted to know how all their lives worked out. The biggest emotion everyone had in common was the desperate need to find the true meaning of love. Then there was the telling of how they went about finding that love.

First, there is 44 year old Hutch who ups and leaves his wife Eva, at two in the morning. He has no idea why he has to leave but he also knows there is no way he can stay. As he says, he lost his joy. No one is more baffled by Hutch’s behavior than Hutch himself, but leave he must. Eva, his second wife of ten years, oscillates between sheer rage and utter despair as she copes with a huge house she hasn’t a clue for to maintain. Hutch runs to Donald, his best friend, who is constantly cheating on his seemingly perfect wife yet Donald’s seemingly perfect wife seems like a perfect match for Hutch, especially in his confused state of mind. Eva seems best suited for her own daughter’s ex-boyfriend. It’s a merry-go-round of emotions and relationships and no relationship combination is spared: mother-daughter, father-son, best friends, lovers, old married couples, newlyweds…Everyone is looking for something just out of reach and ignoring what’s right in front of them.

Favorite line, “Raye’s eyes could always shake loose his truth” (p 41).

Two observations: The story starts out with Eva’s aunt hoo-doo magic. There is mention of dried twigs and a Vick’s VapoRub smell. I would have liked that hoo-doo to be more present throughout the story. Also, Wesley always seemed to be one stop ahead of me. Eva works as a librarian. She started out as a volunteer then asked for a paying position and got it. I questioned where was library school and the formal degree. In the very next chapter Eva’s boss is urging Eva to go to library school. There is another scene where Eva’s car breaks down and she is left stranded on the side of the road. I immediately wanted to know where her car phone and/or AAA membership was. Wesley explained those details soon enough, as if she was reading my mind.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 13). The “She” in question being the authors.

Another Song About the King

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Stern, Kathryn. Another Song About the King. New York: Random House, 2000.

Silvie Page has the kind of mother we all dread having. The kind of mother we probably already have memories of. The kind of mother that loves us to death. Outwardly appearing to have our best interests in mind but really are so caught up in themselves that their intentions are inwardly mean and controlling. Best friends forever as a way to minimize and manipulate. Silvie’s mother, Mimi, is just that woman. When Silvie was a child it was in the way Mimi wanted Silvie to be just like her, only just not as pretty or talented.  It’s in the way she phones an adult Silvie (with a calling code that meant she should pick up no matter what) only to say ‘wear red on your first day on the job.’ All of Silvie’s life her mother has kept her in emotional limbo – one minute loving and sweet, the next competitive and conniving. Silvie tries different tactics to “escape” her mother’s grasp, starting with changing how she addresses her mother from mom to Mimi, as a way to distance herself from a blood relation. Throughout Sylvie’s life there is another shadow that looms just as large. Elvis. Mimi has an ongoing obsession with a date she had with Elvis when she was 16. It is her worst kept secret, one that in times of stress, she hauls out and elaborates on until finally the lie is bigger than the truth. She even has blue suede shoes and a crimson cape to illustrate her never-wavering loyalty to the king.
There is so much more to Another Song About the King than meets the eye. Beyond a complicated mother-daughter relationship there is an element of self-discovery and forgiveness. I couldn’t put it down.

Lines that snagged me: “I was successful in the womb – obedient and nimble, turning somersaults in those jelly seas of color and sleep” (p 9), “I’d come to lose my mother and find myself, to put some distance between her dreams and mine” (p 24), and, “But, I was sure I would lose, and winning, I knew in my bones, would raise the stakes with my mother in a game I didn’t want to play” (p 81). There were many, many more tantalizing lines, but I’ll let you find them.

Author Fact: Another Song About the King is Kathryn Stern’s first novel.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Elvis On My Mind ” (p 78).

Citizen Soldiers

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Ambrose, Stephen E. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army From the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 -May 7, 1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Stephen Ambrose has the uncanny ability to take you back in time. His words pick you up and carry you hook, line and sinker, back to June 7, 1944 and forward through the great and terrible World War II. However, Citizen Soldiers is not a dry account of strategic war maneuvers. It is not a blah blah blah play by play of how Germany’s armies moved along the western/eastern slope while the Allies pushed further north or south. Those things did happen but Citizen Solders is more than that. It’s as if you have been dropped in the middle of hand to hand skirmishes or have the ability to eavesdrop on Hitler’s frequent phone arguments with a subordinate. You get to know people, places and events as if you are talking to the soldiers themselves, dodging bullets in the snow-covered country side, and witnesses skirmishes first hand. For once, the photographs and maps included do not make the storytelling vivid, they only enhance the words.

The version I read included an afterword where Ambrose talks about the reactions he has received upon publishing Citizen Soldiers. To me, this afterword was humble and gracious and yet, had an air of protective authority.

Things that made me go hmmmm. Little reminders that WWI and WWII were not really that far off. For example,  “There [Stoob] discovered that he had been wounded in the same small French village as had his father in 1914 – also in the head and leg” (p 111). There were also moments of humor: “Cooper examined the wreckage in the train and was surprised to find that invaluable space had been taken up with women’s lingerie, lipstick, and perfume, instead of desperately needed ammunition and food. “The Germans apparently had done a good job of looting all the boutiques in Paris when they pulled out”” (p 112), and “In Paris the whores put away their English language phrase books and retrieved their German versions” (p 205).

Author fact: Stephen Ambrose was born in the month of January, hence the reading of this book at this time.

Book Trivia: Citizen Soldiers was a New York Times bestseller.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Nonfiction” (p 253).

I, Robot

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Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Del Rey, 1950

I Robot is a series of science fiction short stories that are linked together by the introduction. Dr. Susan Calvin is being interviewed about her career with U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men, Inc. The short stories are her memories of different cases involving robots. For example, Gloria is an eight year old child who was brought up with a robot as a protector and playmate, until her mother decided the relationship wasn’t “normal” and had the robot sent away. A reoccurring theme in all stories is the “three laws of robotics: #1 – A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. #2 – A robot must obey orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. #3 – A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law.” My favorite story was a catch-22 of the laws. In the story ‘Liar’ a robot named Herbie could read human minds. In following the three laws of robotics he would tell people what they wanted to hear to avoid hurting their feelings. When cornered by the laws Herbie was trapped. He couldn’t answer questions that would lead to hurting the humans and yet he couldn’t avoid answering their questions because that would hurt them as well.

Favorite lines: “‘It’s about time you got the red tape out of your pants and went to work'” (p 65), and “He had once jumped out of the window of a burning house dressed only in shorts and the “Handbook.” In a pinch, he would have skipped the shorts” (p 66).

Author Fact: Asimov has published books in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal system – all but in the 100s (philosophy and psychology). But, here’s the interesting thing: Asimov wrote a forward in a book classified in the 100s so he really has published in all ten of the major categories of the Dewey Decimal system! Other facts about Asimov are he was born on January 2, 1920 and he was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University.

Book Trivia: I, Robot was the inspiration for two movies. One starring Robin Williams (‘Bicentennial Main’) and one of the same name starring Will Smith.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Mechanical Men, Robots, Automatons, and Deep Blue” (p 151). Obviously.

Two in the Far North

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Murie, Margaret E. Two in the Far North. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.

Murie starts her first book, Two in the Far North with a look back at her first visit to Alaska when she was nine years old in the year 1911. The writing is full of exuberance and excitement. Her enthusiasm oozes from the pages and offers a unique perspective on the birth of an Alaskan frontier town from a child’s point of view. As she grows into an adult and returns from college the emphasis shifts to marriage (1924) and following her biologist husband as he does field research in the untamed parts of her beloved Alaska. On each expedition you can tell she never loses that joy from exploring everything that makes Alaska unique. (I can’t even tell you how many times she uses the word ‘happy’ to describe everyone and everything around her.) Murie’s chronicle of life in the Alaskan wilderness is honest and passionate from start to finish.

Favorite lines, “There was one wonderful spring when people had to move out of  their houses on Front Street, and rowboats were the thing, but this was fun only for the children” (p 54), “A rocking chair and a bed with springs are to be enjoyed whenever met” (p 210), and “If man does not destroy himself through his idolatry of the machine, he may learn one day tp step gently on his earth” (p 357).

Favorite Murie illustrations: p 167, p 195, and p201.

Author Fact: Margaret Murie had so many interesting facts about her I couldn’t chose just one. For starters, she lived to be 101! She studied at Simmons College in Boston for a short time (one year). There is a movie about her life called “Arctic Dance.”

Book Trivia: Two in the Far North is Murie’s first book and it is illustrated by her husband, Olaus.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Alaska” (p 17). Duh.

In the Gloaming

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Dark, Alice Elliot. In the Gloaming: stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

When I first saw Ms. Dark’s photo on the inside jacket of In the Gloaming I thought it was a gloomy picture and hoped the stories inside would not reflect the author’s sad expression. In a way it was a premonition. Of all the stories in In the Gloaming only two were not tinged with sadness and general dissatisfaction. Every story is comprised of three components: characters with dilemmas or decisions to make, human interactions that depend on the outcome of the dilemma or decision, and a sparse plot serving as a thin backdrop to the character conflict.
Case in point: Mother and son get to know each other in the title story. Son is dying of AIDS while father slips out of the picture. Mother’s dilemma is whether to acknowledge her son’s inevitable demise or pretend his life has hope. Another example, in “The Jungle Lodge” two sisters are on vacation in the Amazon. One sister has the dilemma of whether or not to tell the other she had been raped while discovering her sister’s improper relationship. One last dilemma. In “Close” a man’s dilemma is which woman to continue a relationship with, his pretty mistress or his pregnant wife while learning his childhood home is up for sale.Each dilemma or decision has an impact on the supporting characters.

Favorite line, “There was something about the way they were touching that seemed to surpass the medicinal purpose they’d claimed” (p 54).

Author Fact: Alice Elliott Dark has her own blog on blogspot. I checked it out and was surprised to see only 15 posts, but then again it was only started in September 2010.

Book Trivia: The title story was made into a movie for HBO starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeves. Yes, another movie I have yet to see.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “My Name is Alice: (p 1). Funny thing, In the Gloaming was somehow omitted from the index of Book Lust. It should have been indexed between In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz and In the Kingdom of Air. Oh well.