A Good Man Is Hard to Find

gr4c5Leave a comment

O’Connor, Flannery. Collected Works. Sally Fitzgerald, ed. Library of America, 1988.

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a compilation of ten short stories by Flannery O’Connor. In order they are “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “The River”, “The Life You Save might Be Your Own”, “A Stroke of Good Fortune”, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”, “The Artificial Nigger”, “A Circle in the Fire”, “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”, “Good Country People”, and “The Displaced Person.” All ten stories have three significant things in common: a Southern twang, underlying religious tones and lots of interesting and deep characters with problems, some problems more obvious and serious than others. The title, A Good Man is Hard to Find comes from the first short story in the compilation (my favorite) and is a phrase first uttered by a restaurant owner outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He is discussing a serial killer on a rampage last seen somewhere in Florida. The rest of the stories center mostly in the rural areas surrounding the south, especially Atlanta, Georgia.

Favorite lines: From “A Good Man in Hard to Find” – “the trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled” (p 138).
From “The River” – “He seemed to be mute and patient, like an old sheepdog waiting to be let out” (p 155).
From “The Life You Save Might Be Your Own” – “She was ravenous for a son-in-law” (p 177).
From” “A Stroke of Good Fortune” – “…in a voice of sultry subdued wrath” (p 184. Okay, that wasn’t a complete sentence but I liked the wording. From “Good Country People” – “She took all his shame away and turned it into something useful” (p 276).

Author Fact: Flannery O’Connor continues to inspire people in all forms of artistry. Just Google her name and see the interesting things that pop up.

Book Trivia: A Good Man Is Hard to Find was referenced in an 1994 episode of the Simpsons.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106).

Nop’s Trials

gr4c5Leave a comment

McCaig, Donald. Nop’s Trials. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1984.

Nop’s Trials was not what I expected. I was thinking since it was primarily about a Border Collie named Nop that it would be sweet and gentle, like the breed itself. Indeed, the story definitely has warm and tender moments – like when Nop is communicating with other friendly dogs – but there is definitely a harsher side to Nop’s Trials. If you know anything about Border Collies you know they are working dogs, used on farms to corral livestock like sheep or cattle. They are so agile and smart and quick to learn that people have created competitions to showcase their training abilities. These competitions are called “trials” and McCaig uses the word “trials” to steer the reader to this mode of thinking. In reality, Nop’s “trials” stem from the competition but are more of the “trials and tribulations” variety. Because Nop is a prize winner, always taking first place at the trials, a vicious man named Grady Gumm is hired to steal Nop from his owner, farmer Lewis Burkholder. This is to prevent Nop from ever competing again. Grady is an unscrupulous dog owner himself who keeps dogs for fight-to-the-death matches so pretty soon into the story there is a violent scene. I have to admit it shocked me. The good news is that Nop escapes Grady only to bounce from one trial to another. He encounters many walks of life, dog lovers and dog haters alike.
But Nop’s Trials isn’t just about Nop and his misadventures. It also delves into Lewis Burkholder’s life without Nop. It portrays a man as a farmer, a father and a husband as well as a dedicated dog owner who never gives up on Nop. The story examines the relationships between man and land, father and pregnant daughter, father and son-in-law, as well as husband and patient wife. Life’s lessons are masterfully played out while Nop’s fate remains a mystery.

Author Fact: McCaig lives pretty much the same way as Burkholder – on a farm in Virginia with Border Collies.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter obviously called “Great Dogs in Fiction” (p 105).

Mists of Avalon

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. New York: Del Rey, 1982.

The first time I read The Mists of Avalon I was in high school. We were studying literature written by women; literature that made an impact one way or another. Marion Zimmer Bradley was in the company of women like Margaret Atwood, Robin McKinley and Ursula K. Le Guin. Guess my teacher liked fantasy.

The Mists of Avalon is a retelling of the story of King Arthur, only King Arthur isn’t really a major character. It’s all from the point of view of the women in his life – King Arthur’s sister, mother, grandmother and wife, among others. The battle isn’t over the throne or with warring neighbors, but rather the differing religions. Patriarchal Christianity is locked conflict with Matriarchal Druid magic. It’s an interesting twist of politics and feminist rule. But, Bradley also explores other conflicts in society like fate versus free will, and magical powers versus realism.

Probably the thing that took me by surprise was the subtle use of incest, rape and other sexual situations within the text.

Book Trivia: While The Mists of Avalon has garnered much praise it is also been criticized as being “feminist propaganda.” It is the retelling of King Authur from the perspective of the key women in the story; namely Morgaine, Gwynhefar, Igraine and Viviane.

Author Fact: Marion Zimmer is a New York woman, born in nearby Albany. She died of a heart attack in 1999.

BookLust Twist: Pearl dedicates a whole paragraph to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon in Book Lust in the chapter called “King Arthur” (p 137), although King Arthur plays a very minor part in the story.

Beyond the Bedroom Wall

gr4c5Leave a comment

Woiwode, Larry. Beyond the Bedroom Wall: a Family Album. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1975.

I was in love with Beyond the Bedroom Wall in the very first chapters. The detail with which Woiwode described the midwest landscape was beautiful. The story opens with Charles Neumiller going home to bury his father. In his mind he pictures every detail of the landscape he is returning to. I also appreciated the reverent description of Charles preparing his father’s body for the funeral. It was painstaking and loving and uncomfortable, just how a burial should be. From there, though, the story fell apart. The next section is told from the point of view of Charles’s son, Martin’s girlfriend, Alpha. I lost interest right around the middle Alpha’s diary, right after she marries Martin. The idea of a story about multi-generational family is one I normally take to. Maybe it was the length and the attention to detail that did me in. Moderation is key and too much of a good thing can be bad, even when it comes to descriptive words on a page.

One of the best lines, “My existence is a narrow line I tread between the person I’m expected to be and the person who hides behind his real self to keep the innermost antiquity of me intact” (p 9). Now, who can’t relate to that?

Author Fact: Woiwode is tenured at SUNY – Binghamton.

Book Trivia: Woiwode published a volume of short stories called Neumiller Stories. I can only assume these short stories are about the same Neumiller family as in Beyond the Bedroom Wall.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains (the Dakotas)” (p 106).

December ’11 is…

gr4c5Leave a comment

December started off with a little drama. We call the week before exams “Dead week.” It has nothing to do with being deceased or wearing tie dye. It simple means the week of no class assignments, no papers due, no tests, no early exams. Nothing is supposed to be happening that week. Hence, dead. It’s an internal term not used campus wide and no one outside the library would get it. Except…my new guy posted the hours of “Dead” week on every campus announcement he could find: students, staff, faculty, admin, you name it. They all got it. Lucy, you have some ‘splaining to do! Of well. It could be worse. Last week someone thought we stole a leather chair from the Trustees room.

Anyway, December is the month I go quietly insane. I am brimming with good intentions and somehow get knocked sideways. All those intentions are knocked out of me at the 11th hour (i.e. Christmas Eve). For reading it’s not much better:

  • The People’s History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons ~ in honor of the first Chief Justice being appointed in December (John Jay).
  • Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis ~ for the same reason (hey, I’m in a legal mood).
  • To What End: Report from Vietnam by Ward Just in honor of Just’s birth month
  • A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor ~ in honor of Southern Fiction

That’s it. That it is all I really have planned for the month. Nothing too earth shaking, shattering or whatever. I think I’ll do enough of that on my own, thank you very much.

November ’11 was…

gr4c5Leave a comment

Where do I begin with this freakin’ month. It went by way too fast, I’ll tell ya that much! When I look back on what I read, what I did, it’s all a gigantic blur. I am still mourning the loss of my cousin; still haven’t found the strength to search death certificates to find out what really happened to him. Maybe I, deep down in the depths of my soul, really do not want to know how he met his demise. Maybe I am not strong enough to handle the truth or his tortured life.
I’m also in denial about the runner I used to see everyday on my way into work. His case is a little harder to wrap my heart around. He is a complete stranger who made an impact on me with his little red hat and bony knees. I don’t know his name. I don’t know if he’s dead or alive. All I know is that the tenacious, determined soul I saw every morning is gone. I have to admit I am a little less inspired to start each day.

Given all that, my reading hasn’t been inspiring either:

  • Death at an Early Age by Jonathan Kozol (oh how ironic). I enjoyed this as much as anyone could reading about an underfunded urban school trying to serves underprivileged kids.
  • Primary Colors by Anonymous. This is one book that I actually read during the proper month – on honor of Election month, something political.
  • Victorian Lady Travellers by Dorothy Middleton. I think I mentioned this before but I was really disappointed Middleton used so many quotes from the ladies she was writing her about. They wrote more of the book than she did.
  • By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think when I read this I was looking for some relief from the woe-is-me I had been reading earlier.
  • Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This was a reread from my high school days. If I had been following the reading schedule this would have been read in December in honor of King Arthur but since this wasn’t about King Arthur per se I guess I am okay.
  • Beyond the Bedroom Wall by Larry Woiwode. My one incomplete of the month. I just couldn’t get into it. Shame on me.
  • Nop’s Trials by Donald McCaig. Shame on me (again) for ended with another tearjerker of a story. Yes, it ends happy but it definitely has it’s sad moments.

So, there is it. What else happened in November? I got to see some really great music – Futhur and Bela Fleck (not together, although that would have been freakin’ ah maze ing). Kisa and I tried to make it up to Monhegan for Thanksgiving but ended up being here. Again. Sigh. Of course the weather was perfect for days afterward….c’est la vie.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

gr4c51 Comment

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. By the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: HarperTrophy, 1971.

If you know the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder you know these two things. Little House on the Prairie is not the first book in the series (Little House in the Big Woods is) and By the Shores of Silver Lake is the fifth book in the nine-book series. You also know “the Laura series” are both autobiographical and historical fiction.

By the Shores of Silver Lake is a continuation of On the Banks of Plum Creek. From Plum Creek the Ingalls family has moved to Silver Lake so that Charles Ingalls, the patriarch of the family, can help with the building of the transcontinental railroad. The Ingalls family is to become the first settlers in the town of De Smet, South Dakota. Told in third person by middle daughter, Laura, the shores of Silver Lake is an exciting place to be. She is happy to be out of the big woods and away from Plum Creek. Despite Laura’s mother’s admonishments to be lady-like and demure, Laura is irrepressible. She loves to run wild across the grasslands and go exploring. One of my favorite scenes is the wild pony ride she takes with Cousin Lena. Her spirit is as big as the unsettled territory her family has arrived to claim. She appears brave and adventurous although, interestingly enough, she would die if anyone knew she is afraid of meeting new people.

Maybe I’m too jaded by how kids are today, but I had to roll my eyes at how happy the Ingalls family always seemed to be. When Mary “happily” offers to do her sister’s chores I had to stifle a gag. What sister these days would be so gracious, so gleeful to take on extra chores not her own?

Author fact: one of the things I learned about Ms. Wilder is that she and I share a birth month. She was born and died in February.

Book Trivia: By the Shores of Silver Lake won a Newbery Honor award in 1940.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains (The Dakotas)” (p 107).

The Stand

gr4c5Leave a comment

King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: Signet, 1980.

I think it goes without saying that The Stand is a super-long, super detailed book and the critical attention paid to character development and personality nuances plays a huge roll in its length. The other component to its heft is the fact it takes a long time to build up to the meat of the plot. The Stand contains three books, “Captain Trips”, “On the Border”, and “The Stand”. “Captain Trips” is the introduction to an influenza-like plague and its fast-paced spread of infection. You won’t look at another sneeze or cough the same way again after this. “On the Border” is convergence of the plague survivors; the good and the evil alike. They are all brought together by a shared dream of an elderly women. In the final book, “The Stand” the surviving society must take a stand on where their civilization will end up – on the side of good or evil? It’s drawn out to the point of ad-nauseam but the writing is fantastic.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from The Stand: “Denninger looked and acted like the kind of man who would ride his help and bullyrag them around but lickspittle up to his superiors like an egg-suck dog” (p 59). I just love the word bullyrag and lickspittle isn’t so bad either!

Book Trivia: Many different adaptations of The Stand exist. My favorite is a comic book series.

Author Fact: King used to haunt the halls at the University of Maine, Orono. He wouldn’t remember me but I served him coffee once in the Bear’s Den.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the lengthy chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213). I think Pearl intended The Stand to be horror.

Victorian Lady Travellers

gr4c5Leave a comment

Middleton, Dorothy. Victorian Lady Travellers. New York: E.P. Dutton  & Co., Inc., 1965.

It is apparent almost immediately the genuine admiration in Middleton’s voice as she describes the lives and accomplishments of each “Victorian Lady Traveller.” Each chapter is dedicated to a different prominent adventurer between 1830 and 1936, seven in all: Isabella Bird Bishop, Marianne North, Fanny Bullock Workman, May French Sheldon, Annie Taylor, Kate Marsden and the ever-famous Mary Kingsley. Middleton dedicates approximately 22 pages to each woman (including considerable chunks of quotations from each explorer’s book or journal, if she has authored one). Granted, it’s a short book so I wish Middleton had written more and quoted less.

But, speaking of quotes – Quotes from the sections on my two favorite travelers, first Isabella Bird Bishop: “In her seventieth year she ordered a tricycle because she needed more exercise” (p 53). Second, Mary Kinsley: “Avoiding the hippos, the ran into crocodiles, and the scene took on a striking resemblance to the pictures of intrepid explorers in the story-books of her childhood” (p 160).

My one other “criticism” is that I wish the photographs could have been as carefully organized as the text. For example, chapter one is all about Isabella Bird Bishop. The reader is drawn into her adventures, immersed into her life and no one else’s, so it is a little unsettling to come across a picture of Marianne North in the same chapter.

Interesting side note: out of the seven travelers covered in Victorian Lady Travellers four of them were born in October. Very cool.

Author Fact: Dorothy Middleton died on February 3rd, 1999.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travelers” (p 142). Duh.

Primary Colors

gr4c5Leave a comment

Anonymous. Primary Colors: a novel of politics. New York: Warner Books, 1996.

The anonymity of Primary Colors appeared calculated on many different levels. It gave the author the ultimate freedom to insert truth into fiction and fiction into trust and never check the difference. No credentials on the author’s part would guarantee the lack of fact-finding, allowing the author to come as close to the truth as fiction would allow. It is obvious Primary Colors is based upon Bill Clinton and his first presidential campaign in 1992.
Jack Stanton is a young, charismatic southern-state governor with very human vices. He has a weakness for food and pretty women. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Sound like anyone you knew in the 90s? His wife is smart, unflappable; the one one comes up with the soundbites whenever the governor is interviewed. Primary Colors is told from the point of view of his presidential campaign employee, Henry Burton. Henry is idealistic about his candidate and wants to believe he’s a man of his word, but as word and action soon start to contradict Henry must make a choice.

Best quotes: “Never attack an opponent when he is in the process of killing himself” (p 156) and “This was, if you could stand back from it, a wonderfully intricate game” (p 157).

Author Trivia: Joe Klein was adamant he didn’t write Primary Colors even after he was “outed” by a writing analyst. Weird.
Book Trivia: Primary Colors: a novel of politicswas made into a movie in 1998, starring John Travolta – never heard of it.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Politics of Fiction” (p 189).

Last to Die

gr4c5Leave a comment

Grippando, James. Last to Die. New york: Harper Collins, 2003.

What do you do when your town is rocked by a freak pre-Halloween snow storm that knocks out power for a seriously long time? In my case, read. A lot. I was able to finish Buddenbrooks, read Last to Die cover to cover and start Immortal. But, enough about the great reading opportunity. About Last to Die:

Last to Die is a suspense murder mystery with an interesting plot. It’s not your typical “Victim found murdered so who dunnit?”
Jack Swyteck has the unenviable task of defending his best friend’s brother, thug-turned-angel, Tatum Knight. Knight is suspected of killing a woman, shooting her dead in broad daylight. He admits that the deceased, Sally Fenning, did approach him to play hit man but swears he turned her down. Little brother Theo believes him. It’s when Knight is named in Sally Fenning’s 46 million dollar will that things get complicated. For this is no ordinary bequeathment. While five other individuals are named in the will they are all people Sally hated and only one of them can inherit the money; the last one standing. Soon, as one would expect, people start to die.
What makes Last To Die truly interesting is the cast of characters. Every person has a unique story to tell and a past to hide.

Author Fact: Grippando (like Grisham) was a lawyer first before turning out legal thrillers.

Book Trivia: Last to Die is actually the third Swyteck book. The series starts with The Pardon (1994).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Legal Eagles in Fiction” (p 134).

Death at an Early Age

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kozol, Jonathan. Death at an Early Age: the Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967.

I think the subtitle says it all; a nonfiction account of a first-time fourth grade teacher in a less than stellar school system in Roxbury, Massachusetts. “They had desks and a teacher, but they really did not have a class” (p 29). While Kozol is talking about a physical space (he had to share a large auditorium with three, sometimes four other activities (including drama and band practices), I really think he was also referring to the lack of togetherness as a group. There wasn’t a sense of community. There wasn’t a unified eagerness to learn. Nothing bound them to the reason they were there. This is to say nothing of the lack of support Kozol received as an educator from his peers and administration. He was constantly criticized for the amount of time, resources and energy he gave to “the Negro student.” Death at an Early Age is a continuous report of the different instances of abuse and neglect the students endured, culminating with Kozol’s unjustified dismissal after the inclusion of a Langston Hughes poem, “The Landlord.”

The line I could relate to the most: “One of the most grim things about teaching in such a school and such a system is that you do not like to be an incessant barb and irritation to everyone else, so you come under a rather strong compulsion to keep quiet” (p 31).

Another great line, “It is the sense that you cannot do a great many things right but that you can do almost anything wrong” (p 49).

Author Fact: Kozol has a really cool website here.

Book Trivia: Death at an Early Age was awarded a National Book Award in 1968.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Teachers and Teaching Tales” (p 230).

I find it really bizarre that I’ve read such a title so soon after the death of my 41 year old cousin.

Altered Carbon

gr4c5Leave a comment

Morgan, Richard. Altered Carbon. New York: Random House Digital, Inc., 2003.

I think this is the first book I have read that is considered cyberpunk.

In a world where you can pay off a cab driver with the swipe of your thumb, have psychosurgery to get over trauma, and go to places like Mi’s Wharfwhore Warehouse lives former UN Envoy, Takeshi Lev Kovacs. It is a world that centers on a multi-planetary society hundreds of years into the future. Earth is just one location where the plot takes place. In this futuristic environment human souls and personalities can be digitally stored and reloaded into new bodies after bodily death. The only group to not benefit from this cyber-eternity are Catholics. Since they believe in souls going to either Heaven or Hell after death they wouldn’t have anything to pass onto a new body.
To say that the plot is complicated is an understatement. Laurens Bancroft has seemingly committed suicide. All evidence points to this except Bancroft himself doesn’t believe it. He has a new body and limited memory and thinks he has been murdered. He has hired Takeshi Kovacs to solve his mystery.
This passage sums up the entire story: “You’re a lucky man, Kovacs…One hundred and eighty light years from home, wearing another man’s body on a six-week rental agreement. Freighted in to do a job that the local police wouldn’t touch with a riot prod” (p 45).

Something true, even in this world: “The human body is capable of quite remarkable regeneration if stored correctly” (p 243).

My favorite line in the whole book: “I thought I might die, but I hadn’t expected to be bored to death” (p 1,145).
Most profound sentence: “For a moment something ached in my, something so deep-rooted that I knew to tear it out would be to undo the essence of what held me together” (p 1,410).

This time, reading an e-book was a little more frustrating. There were a few spelling and punctuation mistakes and absolutely no copyright information whatsoever.

Author Fact: Morgan is crazy young, born in 1965.

Book Trivia: Altered Carbon won the Philip K. Dick award for best novel in 2003.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called  “Plots for Plotzing” (p 183).

Buddenbrooks

gr4c5Leave a comment

Mann, Thomas. Buddenbrooks: the Decline of a Family. Translated by H.T. Lowe-Porter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931.

To sum up Buddenbrooks it is a four-generational story about the downfall of a middle class family. There is no storyline other than following the lives of the Buddenbrooks from 1835 to 1877. The Buddenbrooks are a typical family. They have their problems like everyone else. Faulty business deals, unstable health, failed marriages, partnerships made and broken. My favorite parts involved daughter Tony and her relationships with her family and the men who pursued her. The way her father simultaneously protects her and throws her to the wolves is eyebrow raising, but pretty typical of a father-know-best attitude. It is no secret that this saga doesn’t end well (just look at the title).

Quotes that struck a thought: “Hopes, fears, and ambitions all slumbered, while the rain fell and the autumn wind whistled around gables and street corners” (p 45), “She had never given him either great joy or great sorrow; but she had decorously played her part beside him for many a long year…” (p 68), and “Her face had the expression children wear when one tells them a fairy story about then tactlessly introduce a generalization about conduct and duty – a mixture of embarrassment and impatience, piety and boredom” (p 215).

Author Fact: Buddenbrookswas Mann’s first book, written when he was just 26 years old.

Book Trivia: An adaptation of Buddenbrooks was made into a movie in 2008.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade” (p 175).

Johnny Tremain

gr4c5Leave a comment

Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain: a Story of Boston in Revolt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

This is another one of those “reread a few times” books. I can remember having a crush on Johnny when I was 13 or 14. I’m not exactly sure why. I don’t think the idea of 18th century garb was what got me. But, there was definitely something about goody boy Johnny with his artisan ego that appealed to me.

Johnny Tremain may not be the most creative of titles for Esther Forbes’s John Newbery Medal award-winning book, but it’s most appropriate as it tells the story of two years in the life of fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain. Johnny is one of several silversmith apprentices living with the Lapham family in Boston, Massachusetts. The year is 1773 and silversmiths are in high demand. Johnny is the most gifted artisan for someone so young and he knows it. The other apprentices are jealous until one day there is an accident and Johnny’s right hand is badly maimed by molten silver. Ultimately, he loses his place with the Laphams and must find other means of employment. It isn’t long before Johnny finds a second calling. He is good with horses and becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety. This job brings him into the company of important men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock. It is at this point where famous events in history like the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington are woven into Johnny’s story. Fact and fiction are seamless.

Favorite lines: “Human relations never seem to stand completely still” (p 173) and “Green with spring, dreaming of the future yet wet with blood” (p 255).

Author Fact: Forbes was a Massachusetts woman.

Book Trivia: Johnny Tremain won the Newbery Medal in 1944.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Historical Fiction for Kids of All Ages” (p 114).