Category: BookLust II

Zel

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Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 1996.

Zel is the very creative retelling of the fairy tale classic, ‘Rapunzel.” In Napoli’s version Zel and her mother live in isolation in the Swiss countryside, far away from human contact. Mother does her very best to give Zel everything she needs in the hopes of binding Zel to her forever. As her daughter reaches maturity mother realizes Zel will have an important decision to make, marry and raise a traditional family, or follow in her mother’s footsteps and sell her soul to become a witch. Afraid Zel will make the “wrong” decision Zel’s mother locks Zel in the tower everyone knows from the traditional story. Napoli does a clever job at including small details from the original story including the obsession with lamb’s lettuce.
The very first thing I noticed about this book was its voice structure. Zel is told from the point of view of three different characters: Zel (in third person present), Konrad (in third person present), and Zel’s mother (oddly enough, in first person present). In the beginning I wanted to complain about it, but by the end of the third chapter I found it ingenious. Through Zel’s mother’s thoughts you get the incredibly twisted psychology of love and obsession. The story wouldn’t have been as dark and dangerous if all voices were the same. We needed to see mother’s reasoning for locking Zel away in the tower. This psychological insight allowed us see the story from a different angle and not lean on the original story of Rapunzel.

Favorite lines (all from ‘Mother’), “Such crass people, whose warmth can be bought with a coin” (p 16), “Panic teases my skin” (p 59), and “I live the life I would have have lived if I never had Zel in the first place. Only it is far worse – for I know what I have lost” (p 142).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Fractured Fairy Tales” (p 94).

In the Wilderness

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Barnes, Kim. In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.

In the Wilderness is Kim Barnes’s ode to her childhood. Within its pages she gives reason to what made her experiences growing up so different from yours or mine. Deep in the logging camps of Idaho Barnes is confronted with parents who sign on to a religion movement with such fervor that it feels like an overnight shift in ideals. Indeed, Barnes can remember her mother’s pierced ears – here today, gone tomorrow.
Kim Barnes writes with the fluidity of water. Her words flow and paint a seamless picture. Part of the reason why I liked In the Wilderness so much was because Barnes was able to portray her family and home life without compromise. She didn’t shy away from revealing short-comings and failures. She didn’t try to gloss over the hardness of her upbringing or surroundings. At the same time, despite the difficulties, the love and respect she has for her childhood is abundantly clear. Another aspect of the memoir that struck a chord with me was the naked truth about sex and the realities of coming of age. Barnes addresses her first preteen crush as openly as discussing what she wore to school. It is stark and unflinching. In some places I am reminded of  Ariel Moore (do you remember her? She was a Reverend’s daughter from the movie ‘Footloose’ in 1984), and in others I am reminded of myself. I too had a shaving incident very reminiscent of Barnes’s experience and I also hid under the covers later at night listening to rock and roll until the batteries dropped dead.

Favorite lines, “I felt around for grief or sadness to match my mother’s but all that I came to was the sense of something gone from the world” (p 60), and “Guilt had been replaced by a simple and practical aversion to consequences” (p 179).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Idaho: And Nary a Potato to be Seen” (p 122).

Are You There God?

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Blume, Judy. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. New York: Dell, 1970.

What woman in her 40s or even 50s doesn’t remember reading Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret? Seriously. If you were anything like me, all you could focus on were the parts of the story related to sex and the human body. I remember being insanely embarrassed by “the cotton ball” incident. So much so that I didn’t even attempt it myself (although I was tempted, being so flat-chested and all). What I don’t remember is being that anxious to grow up. Maybe because in some ways when I was Margaret’s age I was already way ahead of her when it came to certain life experiences.

Margaret Simon is a well-rounded eleven year old who has just moved from Manhattan to suburbia New Jersey. She quickly makes friends with three other girls her age. All four of them are in a hurry to have breasts, get their periods, and kiss boys. Margaret learns about all these things by keen observation, but what she really wants to know in detail is religion. With her mother’s side of the family being Christian and her father’s side Jewish, Margaret doesn’t know what to be. She has been raised without a religion which her friends think is cool but Margaret disagrees. She is so desperate to fit in she feels she needs to decide on religion to be like everyone else. The irony is every night Margaret talks to “God” about her hopes and fears without really knowing who she’s talking to.

BookLust Twist: From  More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Best For Boys and Girls” (p 21). Yes, I double-dipped from the same chapter in one month.

Okay – since this book was (and still is) so freaking popular I am very surprised it hasn’t been made into a movie…something for the Oxygen or Lifetime channel. An after school special? Think about it – it covers sex, puberty, religion, interfaith marriages, morals, social class distinction…

Eyes of the Amaryllis

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Babbitt, Natalie. The eyes of the Amaryllis. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.

This is a grade school book – one that I have never met. It’s part fantasy, part familiar and all cute. What captured my attention was Babbit’s understanding of the power of the ocean. Even though this is a book for children she captured the strength, the beauty, the danger, and the lure of the sea.

Jenny Reade is sent to Cape Cod to care for her grandmother Geneva, who has broken an ankle. Jenny is completely out of her element. Years earlier her sailor grandfather was lost at sea. Because Jenny’s father has never come to terms with losing his father he barely visits his mother, who has remained in their seaside house, and he has never brought Jenny to meet her grandmother. As a result Jenny has never seen the sea.
The story takes on a mystical air when Jenny’s true task comes to light. She is not there to care for Geneva while she is off her feet like her father thinks. She has been summoned to watch for her grandfather’s ghost ship. Geneva strongly believes that her dead husband will send her a sign from the depths of the ocean, so every night Jenny walks the beaches in search of such a sign.

Favorite line: “It takes what it wants and it will keep what it has taken, and you may not take away from it what it does not wish to give” (p 5). Babbitt is talking about the ocean, of course.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Best For Boys and Girls” (p 21).

Incidentally, Babbitt is a Smith College alum.

Firewall

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Mankell, Henning. Firewall. Trans. Ebba Segerberg. New York: The New Press, 1998.

I have to say it again. I think something got lost in the translation of this book.

Kurt Wallander is a Swedish detective trying to solve a series of mysterious deaths. At first the only common factor is the time frame in which these people died. A man falls dead after using an ATM, a cab driver is beaten to death, and someone has apparently committed suicide at a power station all within a matter of days. But, as the investigation continues pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Somehow the picture reveals an absurd terrorist plot.

What makes Firewall so entertaining is Kurt Wallander’s personality. He is a short tempered detective, good at what he does but not as great at being a divorced dad to his near-adult daughter. She finds him overbearing and lonely. I found Wallander and his Swedish police work very strange. For starters, Wallander is accused of not doing things by the book and for the most part those accusations hold true. Over and over he considers sharing information about the various investigations with his colleagues but over and over again he finds reasons not to. Also, computers connected to the crimes aren’t confiscated, potential witnesses and suspects aren’t detained for questioning, and despite rooms being searched several times, key evidence is not discovered right away. Case in point: an office was searched several times and yet Wallander finds a postcard under a computer keyboard days later.
I found some parts of Firewall predictable. Wallander is single. At his daughter’s urging he joins a dating service. Within days he gets a letter from a potential match. Right away I knew this “response” was trouble, for the letter is slid under his door – no return address or postmark. Wouldn’t Wallander have read how the service works and wouldn’t he have found a nondescript letter without a postmark a little suspect?
All in all Firewallwas a good vacation read. It was fast paced and highly entertaining.

Favorite line: “A person who died eventually became a person who had never existed” (p 7).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Crime is a Globetrotter: Sweden” (p 59).

I Don’t Know Why I Swallowed the Fly

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Maxwell, Jessica. I Don’t Know Why I Swallowed the Fly: My Fly Fishing Rookie Season. Seattle: Sasquach, 1997.

Jessica Maxwell takes on fly fishing. I Don’t Know Why I Swallowed the Fly is an account of her very first year learning the sport. As with any hunting sport Jessica needed to learn how to think like her prey. She needed to teach her body, muscle, bones and nerve, to perform the movements necessary for a perfect, flowing cast. As psychological as the game of golf, Jessica found herself untangling the intricacies of throwing out the flawless line. Rod and reel in perfect harmony with human dynamics. Aside from Jessica’s expanse of humor throughout I Don’t Know Why.. I was drawn to the vibrant imagery of the landscapes around her. I adored the way she described, nature – especially when it came to light. Sunlight, especially. Her words had a way of dancing like rays on water, sparkling and bright.
But I Don’t Know Why… isn’t just about one woman’s fly fishing adventure. Jessica subtly deals with the loss of her father with poignant memories and in the end, revelations about the man who shaped her future with a simple love for nature and of course, fishing.

I don’t know anything about fly fishing so, for me, this was a nice 101 about a typically male-dominated sport.

Favorite lines: “Every day somebody somewhere becomes obsessed with an idea that won’t turn them loose” (p 50), “Now the radio static was so bad, Sting sounded like Bob Denver” (p 101), and “My mind was gone to the joy of the memory of what was for a moment so long ago but couldn’t last, and to the pain of what could have been but wasn’t” (p 214).

Small question for Jessica: where is the wrong side of Oregon? I couldn’t find it on a map…

Side note: Make no mistake about it. I always at least glance at the acknowledgments. They are usually a long blahblahblah list filled with family names and “I’d like to thank my editor…” It’s like looking at a yearbook from a school you have never heard of. Names and faces mean nothing. Jessica Maxwell’s acknowledgment page is another yearbook, but a fun one. True, it’s all names I don’t know, but for once Jessica made me want an introduction.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Gone Fishin’ (p 101).

Writing Dangerously

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Brightman, Carol. Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy and Her World. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1992.

Mary McCarthy was born on June 2nd, 1912. Hence my reasoning for picking up her biography by Carol Brightman this month.

Mary reminds me of my friend, Ruth. Beautiful, outspoken inasmuch as she says what she feels, means what she says. In addition, she doesn’t take sh!t from anyone, yet has a heart of gold. She laughs when anyone else would have crocodile tears. She can confront fights with fire. She’s popular with the men with a come-hither glint in her eye and has no time for sugar cookie lies. Need I say, independent yet fidelis. I think I would have gotten along with Mary had I been in her day or she in mine.

Mary McCarthy was an outspoken critic of practically everything around her. From her humble beginnings as a self-proclaimed abused orphan Mary quickly grew into a witty writer and reporter with a constant comment about the world around her. No subject was off-limits whether it be about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her uncle, her contradictory religious views, losing her virginity at age 14, a scathing look at her peers in academia, Communism or war. Carol Brightman often quotes McCarthy to support her biography using both McCarthy’s fiction and nonfiction. Two sections of photography round out an already very thorough account of the controversial Mary McCarthy.

Favorite word, “bildungsroman” ( a genre of novel of complete self-development).

Favorite quote: “One of Mary McCarthy’s legendary attributes is that no matter how much fire and brimstone she and her fictional heroines traverse before they see the light, they never seem to get burned” (p 58).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, Literary Lives: The Americans (p 145).

Zorba the Greek

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Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek. Trans. Carl Wildman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952.

I will be the first to admit it wholeheartedly. I did not enjoy Zorba the Greek. There, I said it. I am beginning to feel I have a built in prejudice against translated stories because this is not the first time I have said this. Something gets lost in the translation. I am sure of it. Not only that, but this time I was bored. Supposedly, Nikos Kazantzakis’s Last Temptation of Christ is more exciting. I can only wait and see.

Lines I did happen to like, “And I’m making it snappy so I don’t kick the bucket before I’ve had the bird!” (p 36), and “The mischievous demon in the wine had carried her back to the good old days” (p 37).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “The Alpha, Betas, Gammas of Greece” (p 9).

Wobegone Boy

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Keillor, Garrison. Wobegon Boy. New York: Viking, 1997.

It is strange to (finally) read something written by Garrison Keillor. For years and years and years I have heard wonderful things about Lake Wobegon Days and it seems,  for even longer, I have heard Keillor on NPR radio. Yet – nothing in print has been before my eyes or in my hands. Ever. Go figure.

John Tollefson is the manager of an academic public radio station. He has an idyllic life that is boring him to tears. His job, his home, his relationships, all are going well – so well that he no longer feels like he is in the drivers seat. Coasting through everything his life lacks depth and more importantly, it lacks meaning. John, with the help of his can’t-commit-to-marriage girlfriend Alida, sets out to make his life more interesting by opening a farm restaurant and other daring risks. John is perpetually guided by history, the life stories of his ancestors – a butcher, publisher, politician, among a wild cast of others, and a philosophical slant unlike any other.

While the plot of Wobegon Boy is a little slow and laborious, the voice is exceptional. As John Tollefson tells his story you cannot help but often laugh out loud. The sly wit and juicy humor radiate from every page. I wanted to quote line after line until I realized I what I really wanted was to quote the entire book.

Here are a few of my favorites: “Lake Wobegon was a rough town then, where, all on one block, for less than five dollars, you could get a tattoo, a glass of gin, and a social disease, and have enough left over to get in a poker game” (p2). See, by page 2 it’s funny! Here’s another one, “You could romp naked in periodicals and copulate on the carpet, and the librarians would be grateful if, after climax, you took down a magazine and thumbed through it” (p 7-8). Knowing the importance of circulation statistics, yes. Yes, we would be grateful.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (Minnesota)” (p 28).

You Make Me Feel…

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Newman, Judith. You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman: Diary of a New (Older) Mother. New York: Miramax Books, 2004.

There are three reoccurring themes in You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman. Judith likes to portray herself as an over-forty, unhappily married,  yet wealthy woman with a moral on parenting: be careful what you wish for. While she is extremely funny about it, she is constantly criticizing her husband, John, for not being around more to help with twins, born after seven years and & $70,000 worth of IVF procedures. As an over-sixty man living at a different address, what exactly did she expect? He’s not about to change. Judith handles the trials and tribulations of raising twins with more aplomb and name dropping than any new mom I know. Having a $250 a day nanny certainly helps!

Favorite funny lines, “If he’s like most men I’ve known he’ll spend the rest of his life thinking of his dick as a masterpiece anyway. “Yes, honey, that’s art,” I said” (p 215).

My only complaint? Newman tries so freakin’ hard to be funny all the time that the tenderness of what she has (supposedly) longed for for so long gets lost. There were glimpses of caring at times, like, when she describes thinking her babies are beautiful. But, on the whole, it was if Newman was constantly “on” all the time. I never really thought I saw the real mother because she was veiled behind a thousand jokes.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Nagging Mothers, Crying children” (p 172). Appropriate for Mother’s Day, don’t you think?

April ’10 was…

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April was that kind of month that just flew by without warning. When Just’ Cause is over I will get back to writing in the real sense… for now here is the literary month of April.

For books it was:

  • Affliction by Russell Banks ~ can’t wait to see the movie
  • Belshazzar’s Daughter by Barbara Nadel ~ speaking of movies, this should be one
  • Truth & Bright Water by Thomas King ~ probably my second favorite read of the month
  • South Wind Through the Kitchen by Elizabeth David ~ a collection of “best of” Elizabeth David
  • Without End by Adam Zagajewski ~ a collection of poetry
  • Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian ~ my favorite read of the month

For poetry it was:

  • “Luncheon on the Grass” by Carl Phillips (In the Blood, 1993.)
  • “Rebus” by Jane Hirschfield (Given Sugar, Given Salt, 2002.)
  • “Hospital” by Karl Shapiro (Poems: 1040-1953, 1953.)
  • “A Secret Life” by Stephen Dunn (Landscape at the End of the Century, 1999.)
  • “The Welcoming” by Edward Hirsch (Earthly Measures, 1994.)
  • “Prophet” by Carl Dennis (Practical Gods, 2001.)
  • “Funeral II” by — (New & Collected Poems, 2000.)
  • “Days of Pie and Coffee” by — (Shroud of the Gnome, 1997.)
  • “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski (Without End, 2002)
  • “Kaddish” by Allen Ginsberg (Kaddish and Other Poems 1958 – 1960, 2001)
  • “Wisdom of the Desert Fathers” by Katha Pollitt (the mind- body problem, 2009)
  • “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins (Sailing Alone Around the Room, 2002)

For poetry set to music it was Natalie Merchant’s long awaited Leave Your Sleep. This is the track listing for the fantastically amazing album:

Part I

  1. Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience by Charles Causley
  2. Equestrienne by Rachel Field
  3. Calico Pie by Edward Lear
  4. Bleezer’s Ice-Cream by Jack Prelutsky
  5. It Makes a Change by Mervyn Peak
  6. The King of China’s Daughter by Anonymous
  7. The Dancing Bear by Albert Bigelow Paine
  8. The Man in the Wilderness by Mother Goose
  9. maggie and milly and molly and may by E.E. Cummings
  10. If No One Ever Marries Me by Laurence Alma-Tadema
  11. The Sleepy Giant by Charles Edward Carryl
  12. The Peppery Man by Arthur Macy
  13. The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe

Part II

  1. Adventures of Isabel by Ogden Nash
  2. The Walloping Window Blind by Charles Edward Carryl
  3. Topsyturvey World by William Brighty Rands
  4. The Janitor’s Boy by Nathalia Crane
  5. Griselda by Eleanor Farjeon
  6. The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson
  7. Vain and Careless by Robert Graves
  8. Crying, My Little One by Christina Rossetti
  9. Sweet and a Lullaby by Anonymous
  10. I Saw a Ship A-Sailing by Anonymous
  11. Autumn Lullaby by Anonymous
  12. Spring and Fall: to a young child by Gerard Manley Hopkins
  13. Indian Names by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

For LibraryThing’s Early Review program it was: a browse through a weight training book. Full review coming next month…

For fun it was: The Book of Calamities by Peter Trachtenberg

“Funeral II”

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Szymborska, Wislawa. “Funeral II.” New and Collected Poems. New York: Mariner Books, 2000. p 206.

This poem disturbed me to the core. To read it quite literally it is people standing around before (or after, or anytime in between) a funeral and gossiping. This sort of thing happens all the time. Events like funerals and weddings bring people together. Conversations are bound to happen, especially when people haven’t seen each other since the last milestone – wedding, or funeral…
I think what disturbed me the most is that I could identify with it so readily. I, too, have stood around making small talk; commenting on the people strangers around me. Call it catty. Call it human nature. It happens.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Poetry Pleasers” (p 189).

Downcanyon

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Zwinger, Ann Haymond. Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995.

When I first heard about Downcanyon I was romanced by Nancy Pearl’s description of it in More Book Lust, “Even if you’re not actually doing down the rapids of the Colorado, this book will make you feel as if you are” (p 173). I don’t know what I was expecting after reading that quote. Something pulse-pounding and riveting, I’m sure. I was sort of disappointed.

Downcanyon is a wonderfully illustrated down-the-river adventure, but I would suggest using it as more of a reference book or guide than a white-rapids read. The map is fascinating and it was certainly fun to read the travels along it. But, my favorite parts were the rest areas, the stopping for the night. Zwinger took that opportunity to focus on the flowers, the reptiles, and the animals and the rock formations. It is here that Zwinger zeros in on the very nature of things (the foraging and nesting of bumblebees, for example).
Another pleasing point to Downcanyon was the addition of quotes from other explorers before each chapter. It’s as if Zwinger is giving a nod to those who went down the Colorado with far less in every sense. Less equipment, less experience, less education. Those who went before were more daring, more adventurous, and without a doubt, put themselves in far more danger. Downcanyon is the exploration of the Colorado River for Zwinger and Zwinger alone.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Nature Writing” (p 173).

“Kaddish”

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Ginsberg, Allen.”Kaddish.” Kaddish and Other Poems; 1958-1960 San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2001. 7.

This took me forever to read. I think part of the reason was I wanted to find the absolute right moment to read it. I know that sounds odd, but consider this: “Kaddish” is said to be autobiographical. That, in and of itself, is extremely interesting to me because of how interesting and controversial Ginsberg was and still is to this day. Secondly, “Kaddish” is about mourning the passing of Ginsberg’s mother, Naomi Ginsberg. She was schizophrenic and  Natalie Merchant’s line “praise a crazy mother’s son” (King of May, Ophelia – 2006) only eludes to Naomi’s troubled mind. Thirdly, there is the religious aspect of Kaddish to consider, and finally, the poem “Kaddish” is said to be Ginsberg’s finest work. Having said all that it should be obvious why I wanted to devote my complete and undivided attention to reading it.

At first read “Kaddish” seems to be all over the place with only two central themes running through it: the death of Naomi Ginsberg and the strain her mental illness put on Ginsberg as a child. After the second reading I began to see how much of an influence art and history also had on the author. He is haunted by his mother’s fears of Hitler and the inability to escape the past. Her history is his history. By the third reading I was so moved by the descriptions  Naomi’s “treatments” that I couldn’t read any more.

One of these days I will research “Kaddish” to the fullest. I will find out why Naomi was afraid of Louis. I will discover the answer to the riddle of the Key in the window. Someday I will know what phrases like “Grand Canyons of asshole” and ” Lung Stew, & Stenka Razin” mean. Someday soon.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “The Beats and Their Generation” (p 17). PS ~ I should note this was not indexed in More Book Lust but since it was mentioned in the chapter I wanted to include it.

“Wisdom of the Desert Fathers”

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Pollitt, Katha. “Wisdom of the Desert Fathers.” The Mind-Body Problem. New York: Random House, 2009, p.76.

If my father were alive he would want this poem to read “Wisdom of the Dessert Fathers” because he had such a voracious sweet tooth. Don’t know why I decided to say that. Just felt it was right. (And, and. And! I refrain from inserting a, “so there!”)

The first three times I read “Wisdom of the Desert Fathers” I almost wished desert were spelled with a double s. I didn’t get it at all. The wisdom of a dessert father I would get because they would say things like, “it is best to eat your whoopie pie before the broccoli,” or “ice cream melts faster in the sun,” or “there’s no such thing as bad chocolate.”  That kind of wisdom I can wrap my brain around and eat wholeheartedly. This desert stuff is something dry and different. I need to step outside the literal because maybe the word ‘father’ is not patriarchal in nature, but rather spiritual…dare I say religious?

I do. The more I read “Wisdom of the Desert Fathers” I saw religion in the picture. It was if the narrator was saying, “If you follow the scripture too closely life will pass you by.” You take the wisdom of the fathers quite literally and life happens without you. It was the line, “Even the demons hardly come round anymore with their childish bribes of money and sex” (p 76) that did it. I highly doubt I am right about this.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Poetry Pleasers” (p 188).