Category: Fiction

October 2009 is…

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October is a full month of spooky. October is a small 5k charity run and a 10k walk. October is homehome and everything emotional. October is also Mary’s memorial, the death of a few trees (finally) and the end of warmer weather. For books October is the hope of:

  • Crocodile on the Sandbank  by Elizabeth Peters ~ in honor of National Crime Prevention month
  • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan ~ in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month
  • The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis ~ in honor of October being Group Reading Month
  • Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis ~ in honor of Halloween (sci-fi being a little scary to read)
  • A Fine and Private Place by Peter Beagle ~ in honor of Halloween ( a story about ghosts)
  • House on the Strand by ~Daphne Du Maurier~  in honor of National Starman Month

For LibraryThing ~ I did get an October Early Review book. As always, I don’t want to name it until I actually see it.

September 09 was…

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September 2009 was…Back to school. I spent the first part of the month concentrating on hiring for the library and avoiding tragedy. Kisa and I took a much needed vacation – first to Fenway park (go Red Sox!) and then to Baltimore for a little getaway. September is the month I will always mourn my father, but now I add Mary Barney to the list of tears. As I have always said, everything bad happens in September. This year was no different. As you can tell, I buried myself in books.

The Escape was:

  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ~ I had completely forgotten how disturbing this book was!
  • The Reivers by William Faulkner ~ a southern classic that almost had me beat.
  • A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby ~ funny tale about a first-time expedition
  • Out of the Blue: the Story of September 11, 2001 From Jihad to Ground Zero by Richard Bernstein and the staff of  The New York Times ~ an unsettling journalistic account of what really happened on 9/11/01.
  • The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough ~ a nonfiction about what happens when mother nature meets bad human design.
  • Off Balance: the Real World of Ballet by Suzanne Gordon ~ a nonfiction about the ugly side of dance.
  • Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler ~ magical book about three very broken people (in honor of real character month).
  • A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay ~ Hay’s first novel – one I couldn’t put down it was that good! This was on the September list as “the best time to visit Canada.”
  • Native Son by Richard Wright ~incredibly depressing. I’m almost sorry I read it this month.
  • The View From Pompey’s Head by Hamilton Basso ~ a last minute pick-me-up, read in honor of Basso’s birth month (but also doubled as a “southern” read).

For LibraryThing and the Early Review program: Day of the Assassins by Johnny O’Brien. Geared towards teenage boys, this was a fun, fast read.

For fun, I read a quick book called Women Who Run by Shanti Sosienski . Since our flight to Baltimore was only 40-some-odd minutes I didn’t want to bring a lengthy read. This was perfect.

Native Son

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I don’t know what my problem is. As if September isn’t hard enough I have to go and read a series of really depressing books. First I read Out of the Blue by Richard Bernstein – about the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Then I read The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough- about the tragedy of May 31, 1889. Then I read Off Balance by Suzanne Gordon – about the tragedy of the world of ballet. Now I have read Native Son by Richard Wright – and even though it is fiction (unlike the other books) it is still a tragedy. I just couldn’t believe the trouble main character Bigger gets himself into.

I realize the point Richard Wright is trying to make is one of social injustice and how racism can lead innocent people down the wrong path. I realize there is a sociological lesson to be learned from Native Son. Bigger Thomas is portrayed as a 21 year old African American sent out to work for the white man so that his mother and younger siblings have a place to live. With the 1930s as the backdrop it is portrayed that the African American man of that era has a choice – either be a church-going, loyal and submissive type, or a jaded, violent, hardened criminal type. There is no chance for anything in between. Yet, Bigger tries. He is constantly trying. Unfortunately, he is haunted by a paranoid hatred of white people. His fear that they are always out to “get him” gets him in touble time and time again. He is constantly thinking the worst of everyone around him and that causes him to make terrible decisions. There is rape, murder and the death penalty in this book.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “100 Good Reads by Decade: 1940s” (p 177).

Student of Weather

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Hay, Elizabeth. A Student of Weather. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000.

A Student of Weather is a car without brakes. No. A Student of Weather is a car without brakes set at the top of a very tall hill. No. A Student of Weather is a car without brakes set at the top of a very tall hill…and someone gives it a push. This is what is was like to read Elizabeth Hay’s first novel. It started off easy enough, slow enough, gentle enough, harmless enough. Then, without any warning at all it is careening crazily almost out of control. Impossible to stop. Stopping the read proved impossible, too. I seriously couldn’t put it down.

As mentioned before, the story starts out simply. Maurice Dove is a researcher, come to study the weather of Saskatchewan. He stays with the Hardy family – Ernest and his two daughters Lucinda and Norma-Joyce. Both daughters, despite being very young, fall in love with Mr. Dove. From there, simplicity comes to a halt.  A Student of Weather is a novel full of contrasting themes. While Lucinda is fair-haired, beautiful and virtuous Norma-Joyce is dark-haired, impulsive and outspoken. While both sisters find ways to fall in love with their visitor, both also find ways to hate each other. Even the landscapes within the story are contrasting. Norma-Joyce’s childhood prairie home cannot compare to the bustling city of her adulthood, New York City. As time progresses and Norma-Jean grows to be a woman with a child of her own, even her child is a conflicted in personality – both shy and loud simultaneously.

On the surface this seems like a love story – two sisters vying for the affections of a traveling man who loves neither of them. Digging deeper it is a story of betrayal and survival. It is the story of pain and loss and the idea that not every broken heart gets mended.

There were many, many, many favorite lines. Here are some of the best:
“Had she been able to , she would have kept the water he washed in, the skin that flaked away, the warm breath that hovered in the cold air above his head, his footprints in the snow” (p 96). I love how each item becomes something less obtainable. Had I written the line I would have reversed the order of the last two items.
“Maybe that’s all anyone wants in the end, to be remembered rather than overlooked’ (p 112). Simple line, but I loved it.
“She understood that you can pass from summer to winter in someone’s mind without even leaving the room” (p 172). Tragically beautiful. Been there, but who hasn’t?
“But returning is never easy, and nor is September” (p 283). Since I can add a car accident and a death to September sadness, I agree. Completely.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in two different chapters. In ” Canadian Fiction” (p 50) and again in “First Novels” (p88).

Sarah Canary

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Fowler, Karen Joy. Sarah Canary. New York: Plume Book, 2004.

In a word – fascinating. On the first day reading this book I got 50 pages in before I realized I had only wanted to read the first chapter. I wanted to get my toes wet – not jump all the way in. From the moment Sarah Canary begins there is nonstop action in the most surreal way. The entire book is written like a mystery. For starters, there are the poems of Emily Dickinson at the beginning of each chapter. They are not there for show. Each poem serves as a clue to the storyline. Then, there is the structure of the story itself. Fowler writes in such a lyrical manner that it was easy to want to quote the entire book: “Chin was a small ant, picking his way over the melodic body of the world” (p 12), for example. Another aspect of Sarah Canary I enjoyed is the idea that every main character is an outcast of sorts. It is interesting to try to discover the peculiarity of each character. It becomes easy to do because character development throughout the story is strong. Sarah Canary is not without humor, as well: “Dr. Carr would have liked to see the insane on horseback, too…but he tried to deal in realities” (p 38).
It all begins when a strange woman wanders into Chin Ah Kin’s railroad camp. She is dirty and wild-looking and speaking in a series of chirps, clicks, grunts and sighs. As a white woman she is an unwelcome sight in a Chinese labor camp. Chin unwillingly becomes responsible for taking her back, but back to where is unknown. Along the way Chin and the wild woman (nicknamed Sarah Canary because of her sing-song noises) encounter different people who, in their own inexplicable way, are drawn to Sarah and develop an overwhelming desire to become attached to her for one reason or another.

Some of the many, many quotes I enjoyed: “His heart refused to  return to his chest” (p 15), “If you let go for an instant, your soul would fly to it. If you could walk inside that combination of light and ice, its beauty would blind you” (p 32), and “Chin was stabbed with the sharp edges of homesickness” (p 245).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Real Characters” (p 197). Pearl called this a book people either loved or hated…sorta like cilantro.

ps ~ I enjoyed Sarah Canary so much that I added Karen Joy Fowler as a favorite author on LibraryThing.

Day of the Assassins

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O’Brien, Johnny. Day of the Assassins.Somerville: Templar, 2009.

Any action/adventure series geared toward teenage boys needs to be fast paced. It requires suspense, daring escapades, narrow escapes, and of course, a little violence. Day of the Assassins has all of that while cleverly inserting a history lesson along the way. In order for character development and foreshadowing, Day of the Assassins starts off slow. Jack Christie is a typical video-playing teenage boy who comes from a broken home. While he doesn’t really understand the nature of his parents divorce, he is smart enough to know when his questions are being evaded by mom. Interesting enough, all will be revealed when Jack and his best friend, Angus, are transported back in time to the year 1914, right before the start of World War I. Suddenly, they find themselves in Sarajevo with the bad guys one step behind. The only problem is Jack and Angus don’t know who to trust. Everyone who appears to be on the right side turns out to be a traitor of sorts. It’s a cat and mouse game played out through the days and events leading up to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Day of the Assassins is cleverly enhanced with photographs, maps, background information and an author explanation for the book.

I am assuming Angus was supposed to be named Albie in an early version – either that or there is a typo on the map on page 193.

Reivers

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Faulkner, William. The Reivers. New York: Vintage, 1990.

I’ve never had great luck with Faulkner. It takes me longer to read anything he has written because of his plots, character genealogies, and confusing dialogues. The Reivers was no different. Scottish for robbers, The Reivers blends a tangle of genealogies – everyone seems to have some blood link to someone else- with a complicated, detail packed plot and lots of run-on, rambling conversations. The Reivers is told from the point of view of eleven year old Lucius Priest. He gets involved in first the theft of Grandfather’s automobile, then after running away to Memphis, prostitutes, horse smuggling and the long arm of the law.  Then there is something about a stolen gold tooth. Trust me, it’s funny. In the beginning I found plot and dialog cumbersome. It took me several chapters to get into the cadence of Faulkner’s writing, but once I settled in and became familiar with his style it was highly enjoyable.

Moments I liked: “I’m sure you have noticed how ignorant people beyond thirty or fourty are” (p 5). I have no idea why this struck me as funny…I’m beyond 30 or 40!
“…they-we-would load everything into pickup trucks and drive two hundred miles over paved highways to find enough wilderness to pitch tents in; though by 1980 the automobile will be as obsolete to reach wilderness with as the automobile will have made the wilderness it seeks” (p 21).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Southern Fiction” (p 222). You don’t get more southern than Faulkner!

Incidentally, this was Faulkner’s last book. Somehow, I find that sad.

Metamorphosis

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Kafka, Franz. “Metamorphosis.” Franz Kafka: the Complete Stories.Ed.Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Schoken Books, 1971. 89-139.

What a freaking sad, sad story (or novella, if you will). Even though I read this once in high school and twice in college I wanted to refresh my memory about the details. From my previous readings I remember Gregor woke up one morning to find he had transformed into a bug. Instead of being concerned about the multiple legs, hard shell and the fact he couldn’t turn himself over, Gregor was more upset about sleeping late, missing the train and being late to work as a traveling salesman. This was a key point in the story. I also remember his parents and sister not being all that supportive of his transformation. This also was a huge point in the story. His family was repulsed by his appearance and refused to consider him part of the family. Their neglect of him gets worse and worse until dirty and broken, he succumbs to starvation and the injuries sustained when his father threw an apple at him. What I didn’t remember was the nitty-gritty psychology of it all. Gregor’s resentment about being the bread winner for the family, how underneath it all he felt like a bug even before the metamorphosis, and ultimately his family’s complete exclusion of Gregor as an insect. The other detail I had completely forgotten was how freeing Gregor’s death was to the family. They moved on without a single regret.

To mark Gregor’s severe denial of bugness: “This getting up early, he thought, makes one quite stupid. A man needs his sleep” (p 90). Only Gregor is no longer a man, but an insect.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust twice. Once in the chapter called, “Czech It Out” (p 70), and once in the chapter called, “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade (1910s) (p 177).

September 09 is…

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Because I’m still up to my eyeballs in this hiring thing I have a huge, ambitious list but I doubt I’ll actually get to all of them. I ended up with two classics, though:

  • The Reivers by William Faulkner ~ in honor of Southern Gospel month
  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ~ in honor of (supposedly) the best time to visit Kafka’s homeland, the Czech Republic
  • The Johnstown Flood  by David G. McCullough ~ in honor of hurricane season (and we’ve already had two blow up the coast)
  • Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler ~ in honor of “real character” month (guess I’ll have to elaborate on that during the review. Even I’m not sure what I mean by that!
  • Out of the Blue: the Story of September 11, 2001 From Jihad to Ground Zero by Richard Bernstein ~  need I say why?
  • Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby in honor of National Travel Month

 

For LibraryThing Early Review – just got word that I received one for September. Yay. I won’t name the book until it  actually shows up on my doorstep. I’ve had two no-shows so far and nothing is more disappointing that planning to read an exciting book and not have it arrive! 😦

For fun ~ nada. Although I heard Monhegan made it into Yankee magazine. I’ll have to check that out at some point.

August ’09 Was…

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For the sake of sanity I have to recap the entire summer. Summer as we think of it in terms of the calendar, not the temperature. June. July. August.
June can only be thought of as a dark and hellish tunnel. In that case, July was the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. As a result, August was not only getting out of the dark and hellish tunnel but moving as far, far away from it as possible. August was an amazing month!

August was music (loved the Avett Brothers and had a great time at Phish). August was homehome with my best boys. August was also a group of good, good books:

  • The Moviegoer by Percy Walker ~ interesting story about a man watching life go by rather than living it.
  •  Turbulent Souls: a Catholic Son’s Return to his Jewish Family by Stephen J. Dubner ~ this was fascinating.
  • The Professor and the Madman: a Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ~ another fascinating nonfiction with great illustrations.
  • The Mutual Friend by Frederick Busch ~ a novel about Charles Dickens that I couldn’t really get into.
  • Those Tremendous Mountains: the Story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by David Freeman Hawke ~ another nonfiction, this time about the Lewis and Clark Expedition (like the title says).
  • Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Expery ~ all about war-time aviation.

For the Early Review Program:

  • Sandman Slim: a Novel by Richard Kadrey ~ absolutely crazy good book.
  • Off the Tourist Trail: 1,000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives ~ an amazing travel book! Really beautiful!
  • Finished reading Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni ~ part political, part personal, this was great.

For fun:

  • My First 100 Marathons: 2,620 Miles with an Obsessed Runner by Jeff Horowitz ~ funny and informative, too!
  • Running and Being by George Sheehan ~ funny and sarcastic and informative all at once!

Wind Sand & Stars

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Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Wind, Sand and Stars. New york: Time Reading Program, 1939.

It wasn’t a stretch for me to read this in honor of National Aviation Month. This book is all about war-time flying, but it also is shrouded in mystery. Five years after writing Wind, Sand and Stars (originally published in French as Terre de Hommes) Saint-Exupery went missing after a mission over southern France. He was never heard from again. Where did he go? Another tantilizing mystery is whether Wind, Sand and Stars is fiction or nonfiction. Part philosophy, part action adventure, all in the first person it is impossible to tell. Could it be semi-biographical in the sense that some of the events are real but names and places have been changed to protect the innocent? I wasn’t able to extract fact from fiction.
Another interesting fact about Wind, Sand and Stars was the fact that once the book was published in France in 1939 Saint-Exupery rushed off to the United States to write two extra chapters. It was if he could never be satisfied with the finished product and wanted to keep writing and writing.

Nevertheless, Wind, Sand and Stars was incredibly enjoyable. I could have quoted nearly the entire book, but here are a few favorite lines: “We waited to hear the rest, but no word sounded. And as the seconds fell it became more and more evident that “no” would be followed by no further word, was eternal and without appeal, that Lecrivain not only had not landed at Casablanca but would never again land anywhere” (p 9), and “Fate has pronounced a decision from which there is no appeal” (p 23).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Flying Above the Clouds” (p 89).

Mutual Friend

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Busch, Frederick. The Mutual Friend: a Novel. Boston: David R. Godine, 1983.

While this book received rave reviews from publications like The New York Times and The Village Voice I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it was the raw violence. Or the disturbing sex scenes. I’m not sure. I found it troublesome. Probably the best part was the mastery of voice. For the most part, the entire story is told from the point of view of George Dolby, Charles Dickens’ right hand man. There is a chapter told by a maid and another by his wife…But, let me back up.

The Mutual Friend is the story of Charles Dickens at the height of his fame and the end of his life. While on his book tour Dolby is his tour manager, friend, guardian and sounding board. It’s Dolby who mostly reveals the drama in Dickens’ life. The health-draining stress of the tour, his practically nonexistent marriage, troubling health issues, oppressive poverty, and faltering ego. But, not all of The Mutual Friend is told from Dolby’s point of view. Probably the most disturbing chapter is that of Barbara, the maid. She starts out as a prostitute who prefers women. When Dickens looks for a Jewish maid, Barbara works her way into his household and seduces his son. Another chapter is told from the viewpoint of Dickens’s wife. The demise of their marriage is sad and poignant.

From Kate’s chapter: “He approached me, then, and his scented breath, the cologne he wore, the smell of the lavender sachet with which his clothing was fragrant, all came down to me as a rush of memory floods upon the heartsick widow who opens and closes her solitary cupboard to remind herself that once she was someone’s wife” (p 84).
Another disturbing line: “…and I looked at the dazzle on the surface of the river and saw what lay beneath – the bones of dogs, the limbs of babies, the sewage of civilization” (p 161).

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

Moviegoer

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Percy, Walker. The Moviegoer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

I felt like I was doing this book a disservice by reading it. I was bored half the time and I really couldn’t tell you why. I guess I didn’t fall in love with the main character as quickly or as easily as I wanted to. What is there to say? Binx “Jack” Bolling is a 29 year old stock broker who dates his secretaries. He’s good at what he does so he earns everyone (including himself) a lot of money. He appears to be a shallow man who spends most of his free time going to the movies. The majority of the story takes place in New Orleans which was fun. I have always been fascinating by that area of the south.
For the most part The Moviegoer was a social commentary on a man who prefers to watch life from the sidelines. He doesn’t spend a great deal of effort actually getting out there and making things happen. He has no clue who he is. Probably the most telling moment of the story is when Binx is being questioned: “‘What do you love? What do you live by?’ [he is asked.] I am silent'” is his reply (p 226). He can’t even answer the question of what he holds sacred, of what makes him live.

Best funny lines, “Oh the crap that lies lurking in the English soul” (p 26). Anytime someone uses the word “lurking” in a sentence I’m a fan. “Whenever I feel bad, I go to the library and read controversial periodicals” (p 100). The librarian in me loves the fact he goes to the library and he used the word periodical!

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and mentioned three times: first, in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 65). I was supposed to read The Moviegoer with The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (which I already read), The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, and A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee. All four books represent being more of a spectator to life than a participant. The second time The Moviegoer is mentioned in Book Lust is in the chapter “New Orleans” (p 168), the reason why I read the book in August. The last place The Moviegoer is mentioned is in the chapter “Southern Fiction” (p 223).

Sandman Slim

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Kadrey, Richard. Sandman Slim. New York: Harper Collins, 2009

This book was brought to me by the Early Review program at LibraryThing. This is my 27th? book. I think. Sometimes writing these reviews scares the crap out of me. What if I have no clue what I’m talking about? What I love a book although I don’t understand it? Such is the case with Sandman Slim.I honestly do not know how to describe this book. Horror? Fantasy? Supernatural? Funny as all hell (pun totally intended)? Kadrey has the sarcasm and biting wit that keeps Sandman Slim down to Earth, yet the violence and creatures main character James Stark encounter is nothing short of unearthly. Stark is back from Hell (literally), although he calls it Downtown. He prowls his way through LosAngeles witha score to settle with the magic circle – particularly one Mason Faim – responsible for killing his girlfriend, Alice. James has ammunition, a fortune-telling coin (reminiscent of the Joker in the latest Batman flick), a black bone knife, an infernal key that unlocks more than just a simple door and a 200 year old friend named Vidocq. Sandman Slim is full of interesting characters and Kadrey takes full advantage of bringing them to life even when they should be dead (James himself walks around withtwo bullets rattling around in his ribcage). My favorite scenes are the flashbacks with Alice. The entire time I was reading Sandman Slim I kept thinking it would make a great movie. I would cast Anthony Bourdain as the lead.

Another thing I wanted to add is that this copy looks and feels good. I don’t know about you, but I love when a good just feels good in my hands.

Line I hope is kept: “She goes into the kitchen, rattles some drawers, and comes back with a hefty kitchen knife. Nice. She’s getting into the spirit of things” (132). This is a scene when James is trying to convince someone she can’t hurt him. Literally. Love it.

Scarlet Letter

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Literary Classics, 1987.

I had to write a book report on this in high school (who didn’t?) then I had to write a critical analysis complete with symbolic meaning and themes in college. I don’t remember what grade I got on the high school paper. Not to brag, but I’m sure it was an A because high school lit classes were easy. In college my paper received a B+/A- because a) I didn’t quote the professor teaching the class (he was an authority on The Scarlet Letter apparently), and b) I didn’t delve deeper in the sexual side of Hester. 19 year old me wanted to concentrate on sin and the effects of that sin on everyone. To me, that’s exactly what The Scarlet Letter is all about.

The Scarlet Letter opens with Hester Prynne being led to the stocks. She is the sinner and as a result is being publicly ridiculed. Her crime is having an adulterous affair that resulted in the birth of a baby girl. She not only won’t disclose the father of her child, but she won’t repent for her affair. She is condemned to wear the letter ‘A’ as a punishment, as a constant reminder to the community that she is an adulteress. While there is residual shame, Roger Chillingworth does not want the public to know Hester is his wife. There is honor in Hester’s scandal – because she refuses to give up the name of her lover. Dignity prevails and she outwardly bears the burden of shame alone. Her lover also shoulders the guilt of sin in his own way as he plays an important part of the community.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, “Literary Lives: The Americans” (p 144). Second, “Wayward Wives” (p 231).