Tag: book review

Don’t Tell Mama!

gr4c5Leave a comment

Dont Tell MamaBarreca, Regina. Ed. Don’t Tell Mama! The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing. New York: Penguin. 2002.

I like reading anthologies in between the longer stuff. It makes both books read faster, if that makes sense. Don’t Tell Mama! is a mix of stuff it takes me forever to read and the stuff I could read all day. True to days of our lives, some stories are better than others. One of my favorite stories was from Louise DeSalvo, from Vertigo. It’s a simple story about bringing a man home for dinner and having reason to be angry at mom. Looking back on the scene, Louise says “If I could do that night over, I would remember these things and I would look across the table at my mother and say, Thank you. Thank you very, very much” (p 140). It touched me because there have been many times in my life when I’ve tried to please someone and thought my mother was playing the fool, going overboard to the point of embarrassing. Now, I realize she was nervous for me; wanted the best for me; anxiousness led to exaggeration. Another quote that hit home for me was, “self-loathing became my second skin” from Mary Saracino’s Ravioli & Rage story (p 488). Been there, done that. Or. “So whenever I was being chased, I’d head straight for the library. The library became my asylum, a place where I could go crazy and be myself without my family finding out” from Fred Gardaphe’s The Italian-American Writer: An Essay and an Annotated Checklist (p 222).
But, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are stories of humor, too. Chris Mellie Sherman’s story, “How to Marry an Italian-American Man” (p 496) is better described as what to do with him once you’ve landed an Italian-American husband. It’s damn funny and worth reading outloud to your spouse, Italian descent or not.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust chapter simply called “Italian American Writers” (p132).

1959

gr4c5Leave a comment

Davis, Thulani. 1959. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. 1992.1959

Part novel, part historical rampage 1959 is 100% rich in descriptive imagery. 1959 is the story of Katherine “Willie” Tarrant, a coming of age girl growing up in racially divided Turner, Virginia. She has all the typical angst of any twelve year old – boys, makeup, popularity, daydreams driven by movies and celebrity fanfare. Woven into Willie’s world is the climate of the times. Segregation and integration push-pull of a racially divided era. While some of Davis’s story is told in first person from Willie’s point of view, much of the political, historical meat of the story is third person – conversations Willie overhears, meetings she eavesdrops on and situations she couldn’t have possibly been in. (Like during a sex scene and towards the end of the novel when Cole gets shot on a desolate road outside Turner.) There were times when I couldn’t believe a twelve year old was my guide, “With each grind your thighs would become sex weapons blowing away his cool” (p56). What kid speaks like that? “Death brought out banquets as if the mourners were starved by their loss, and yet the grievers never ate” (p 195).
What made this book such a page turner for me (I read it in less than a week) was the tension of the times. It builds slowly with the talk of school integration and builds after eight black college boys sit at a white only Woolworth’s counter, quietly demanding service. Davis masterfully weaves fictional characters with the undeniable historical truth of what really happened. I could hear the dogs bark, feel the sting of hate, see the bravery in the protester’s faces. Even though school integration didn’t happen for another six years, 1959 proved to be the catalyst for change and Davis captured it brilliantly.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Southern-Fried Fiction: Virginia” (p 209).

Ahab’s Wife

gr4c5Leave a comment

Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab’s Wife or, The Star-Gazer. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.Ahab

This took me forever to read! I tried to twice before starting the BookLust Challenge and practically groaned when I saw it on “the list.” It’s not that it isn’t a wonderful book. It is. It’s beautifully written for sure. The only problem is that is it so long! Una’s marriage to Ahab, the namesake title, Ahab’s Wife doesn’t come to pass until page 359! There’s a bit of back and forth on the timeline but all of that is explained at the end.
My other “issue”? Una’s life experiences are shocking yet she handled every single one with heroic resolve. Nothing fazes her for very long. Her father committed suicide, her mother froze to death, her first born died, her first husband went mad, she experienced cannibalism first hand, she braved hurricanes, blizzards and fires. Laced in with all the events are the scientific, political, and sociological happens of the era. Una is submerged in it all: slavery, the womens movement, astronomy. Many famous people parade through the second half of the novel.  
Despite the length of Naslund’s story, I loved the language. There were passages that held my attention and caused me to read them over and over. “I have ever feared the weathervane in me. I point toward Independence, isolation. Sometimes I rotate- my back to Independence – and I need and want my friends, my family. with a force like a gale” (p190). I too, find myself wanting to be alone much of the time. Yet, when I need the ones true to my heart the longing comes over me strong and hard. I can relate. Another passage I identified with was on the very next page, “The very atoms I’m made of come apart in a kind of sparkle. A cloud of sparkle propelled by will” (p191). It reminded me of that partical theory I have.
Probably the best part of Ahab’s Wife or, The Star Gazer is the many, many references to literature. If I had more time I would create a reading list from everything Una mentions in her narrative. Shakespeare, Keats, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass to name a few…

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lustin the chapter of  “Lines that linger, sentences that stick” (p143). Pearl points out the opening sentence “Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.” 

Climate of Treason

gr4c5Leave a comment

Climate of TreasonBoyle, Andrew. The Climate of Treason. London: Hutchinson, 1982.

Maybe it was a bad idea to read Treason at the same time as Children of the Souls: A Tragedy of the First World War. I started to get the accounts confused when Treason started mentioning Cambridge and All Souls. Of course there would be overlap. Of course there would be similarities. Both take place during World War I, after all. What I didn’t expect what the recruitment of Cambridge students. But, even that should have made sense to me. Soviets would want intellectuals for their spies. The smart boys.
Treason does have funny moments in between the seriousness of Communism and spying. One such spy was subject to a shake down and described the moment as thus, “all three men made a dive for it, spreadeagling themselves across the table. Confronted by three pairs of buttocks, I scooped the scrap of paper out of my trousers, a crunch and a swallow, and it was gone” (p 155). I could picture the moment and had a good laugh out of it.
Something I hadn’t considered before reading Treason  was the duality of a spy’s life. A “controlled schizophrenia” (p.190). To avoid detection, to be as underground as possible, the outside world must view the traitor’s political thinkings, cultural ideals and patriotic enthusiasm to be on par with their own. The traitor has to exert enough energy to convince both sides he is on their side and their side alone.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the ever-funny chapter “Spies and Spymasters: The Really Real Unreal World of Intelligence” (p 223).

A is for Alibi

gr4c5Leave a comment

Grafton, Sue. A is for Alibi. New York: Henry Holt & Co., Inc. 1982.

My mother-in-law was surprised to see me reading a Sue Grafton mystery. Mysteries have never been my thing. I don’t think she was convinced even when I explained that it was a Book Lust recommendation. I kept saying things like “I have to…” and “it’s on my list…” and still I got the skeptical stare. I’ve decided to loan her my “lists” in other words, my Lust books because I also have to read the F & Q books from Grafton.

I was struck by how much I have in common with Kinsey Millhone, Grafton’s main character. She dedicates Sundays to herself. I used to dedicate Friday with the same to do list: “laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping. I even shaved my legs to show that I still had some class.” (p82) Kinsey runs even though she’s not good at it. She has conversations with her body when she runs. Me, too – although I could call mine arguments and not conversations. She’s big on breakfast. She drives fast. She even feels the same way I do about dogs if not plants. “I don’t know a lot about houseplants, but when all the green things turn brown, I’d take that as a hint.” (p. 33) Me, I’m a plant person. I may kill one or two along the way but if one dies I consider it suicide, taking one for the team.

Seriously, similarities aside I liked Sue Grafton’s first “alphabet” mystery. Kinsey is cool, as she should be. The mystery she was trying to solve had all the important gun on the table elements: murders, clues, infidelities, suspicions, low lifes, and more sex. My only disappointment? I had the culprit picked out before the end. Why? He was too good to be true.

BookLust Twist: Pearl has a huge mystery list in Book Lust. A is for Alibi comes from the chapter called, I Love a Mystery” (p 117).

7 1/2 Cents (with Spoiler)

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bissell, Richard.  71/2 Cents. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953.Bissell

This was a fun read. I loved the wit, the humor of Bissell’s main character, Sidney Sorokin. He’s the new superintendent of the Sleep Tite Pajama factory in lovely, just-not-Chicago, Junction City, Iowa. With a sharp sense of humor he tells his story of romance and industry, ulcers and alcohol.  
The “gun on the table” in 7 1/2 Cents  is an unavoidable strike if the workers don’t get a 7 1/2 cent raise. At the center of the controversy is Sid’s girl, Babe. She’s a worker in the Sleep Tite factory and the ring leader for a industry-ending slow down. She’s beautiful, smart and funny. Of course she leads Sid around by the you-know-what. He’s so smitten he not only gets her her 7 1/2 cent raise he proposes to her in the end. You many think I spoiled the entire story, but I didn’t. There’s more to the book that inspired the musical “The Pajama Game.”

BookLust Twist: From the chapter “The Book Lust of Others” in More Book Lust (p.34). 7 1/2 Cents was mentioned as an aside. Bissell’s other book, “High Water” was the featured read in the chapter.

Children of the Souls

gr4c5Leave a comment

MacKenzie, Jeanne. The Children of the Souls; a Tragedy of the First World War. London: Chatto & Windus, 1986.WW2

When I first read about Children of the Souls; a Tragedy of the First World War in Book Lust I was excited to read it. Nancy Pearl described it as a book that “looks at the effects of World War I on a group of upper-class intellectuals” (p 251). Thanks to Tufts University I was able to borrow this book for a month and I needed a month just to even get into the story. Children of the Souls is sectioned into two parts. Part one sets up the lives of the intellectuals, The Souls. For the first 137 pages there is barely a mention of tragedy and even less of war (and the book is only 262 pages long). Like Pearl said these are the wealthy, the upper-class of England and author MacKenzie goes on and on about their schooling (all at Cambridge), their parties and socialite psychologies. I had a good laugh over the language when thinking of it in 21st century terms, “no one has molested me at all yet,” (p33) and, “I think there is something obscene about him, like the electric eel at the Zoo…” (p106).
It was hard to think of these people as tragic when one of their weddings was described as such, “With eight bridesmaids wearing dresses copied from Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ the splendour was almost regal and overwhelming” (p112) and the description of their social lives is as follows- “parties of all kinds were now the warp and woof of their lives.” (p132)

Parts I and II are separated by photographs of the Souls. I studied their faces, thought about their lives. I couldn’t relate. They lived in a time I’ll never see, in a country to which I haven’t been. Their pictures were as foreign to me as green skinned aliens. I couldn’t even imagine a conversation between us. I’m sure it was the wealth, the high society that built the barrier and limited my imagination.

Part II introduces the politics behind World War I. Let the seriousness begin! What surprised me the most was how quickly everyone died. The first half of the book doesn’t mention the war and the second half is spent killing everyone off, one by one. I was disappointed I didn’t have more about how they experienced the war. Did their intelligence help them? Their wealth couldn’t save them.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust and the straightforward chapter about, “World War I Nonfiction” (p 251).

36 Children

gr4c5Leave a comment

36 childrenKohl, Herbert. 36 Children. New York: New American Library, 1967.

I read this one in two days. Not only is it a short book, but it’s a simple read; a good read. As I read it I wondered if anyone ever tried to make a movie of it. Everyone loves those “based on a true story” dramas and this one has all the tantalizing details. Kohl is white and young and thinks outside the box when teaching (think Dead Poets Society). His students are angry black teenagers from wrong side of the tracks (if you can call poverty stricken East Harlem the “wrong side”). Kohl reaches them through creativity, sensitivity and an unwillingness to conform. There’s even romance involved since it was at this time Kohl meets his future wife. It takes him time to earn the students’s trust but…by the time he does his bonus is friendship. The kids respond to him; soon the teaching and learning works both ways between students and teacher. One of my favorite parts was when the kids put together a newspaper and distribute it school-wide. When they receive criticism (narrow minded, of course) they continue to produce the paper. They just don’t distribute it to the powers that be.
Another unique detail of 36 Children that I adored is Kohl’s inclusion of his students’s letters and stories (complete with illustrations). He gives them vitality and personality by including more than his view of them. It’s as if to say “you don’t think these kids are talented? Don’t take my word for it. Read for yourself, then!” There is imagination and intelligence…and potential in every word.
It’s not a fairytale story. It doesn’t have the happily-ever-after ending. Kohl learns that one year with the students isn’t enough. The “System” is bigger than he bargains for and it can easily undo all the good (= trust) he has established. In some cases that’s exactly what happens. It’s win-some, lose-some.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Teachers and Teaching Tales” (p 231).

Amy & Isabelle

gr4c5Leave a comment

Strout, Elizabeth. Amy & Isabelle. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

Amy & IsabelleBy sending me a copy last year, my sister introduced Amy & Isabelle way before Nancy did. An advanced reader copy, in fact. This was a BookLust reread because I couldn’t remember how it ended (one of the book lust rules is remembering the story). I think I read it too fast the first time around. That always happens to me with the really good ones. I tear through words and pages and chapters because I need to know What Happens Next. And Next. And Next. I think I’ve said it before, but I sift through words, looking for phrases that catch my imagination, rattle my heart. I underline them to lay claim to them. My favorite from Amy & Isabelle is from page 232, “…and then roof of her life collapsed…” I also to admit I was excited to see the words ‘jesum crow’ (p.224). I spell it j-e-e-z-u-m but I think the phase is a Maine thing through and through. (Amy & Isabelle takes place in Maine.)

Isabelle and Amy are in a typical mother-daughter relationship. Amy is a coming-of-age 16 year old. This is the story of her alienation from her mother, thanks to an exploration of sexuality that her mother, Isabelle is not ready to admit her daughter is capable of, much less ready for. They live alone with each other and must deal with their love/hate struggles without the distraction or guidance or stability of a man to call husband or father. The psychology of this story runs pretty deep. When Amy gets her period for the first time her mother shoves pamphlets at her, thinking it’s better than how her mother handled it by not saying anything at all.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter, “It was a Dark & Stormy Novel” (p128).

About Time

gr4c5Leave a comment

Davies, Paul. About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

About TimeI am often snagged by great one-liners. Here’s one of my favorites from About Time. “We are slaves of our past and hostages to the future” (p23). It’s a standard idea. Nothing too dark or deep. What I liked was the mental imagery of being tethered to the past. I have this particle theory and it somehow applies.

I have to admit, I categorized tagged this book on librarything as “attempted” because after 88 pages I sent it home. Maybe I’m too distracted by the other books I’m reading. Maybe I’m too distracted by all things work. Maybe I’m just too distracted. Period. Whatever the reason, I am bored by this book. There are parts that fascinate me. Einstein’s “twin” theory is amazing. But, for the most part it’s like watching paint dry. It doesn’t interest me the way it should. This is the first book I’m using the “50 page Rule” on. See Rule #2.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust‘s chapter called “Science Books for the Interested but Apprehensive Lay Person.” Pearl elaborates on p. 212 saying, “About Time…makes a mind-boggling topic as understandable as it can be for nonphysicists. (If you only had time to read it.) Well, I attempted to make the time!

House of Sand & Fog (w/ sorta spoiler)

gr4c52 Comments

House of Sand and FogDubus III, Andre. House of Sand and Fog. New York: Vintage, 2000.

The whole time I was reading this I kept thinking two things. First, why can’t these people communicate, and how much am I missing because I’m not understanding the culture? What’s getting lost because I’m lost on the psychology? I kept mentally screaming, “you simply are not getting it!” first at one character, then another and another.

From the very beginning of this novel I felt as if I were a puppet – being played by both and all sides. I felt sorry for everyone involved and couldn’t decide who deserved my sorrow more. The Iranian family because Father had to work two jobs and they lived beyond their means behind a veil of pride and culture? The down-on-her-luck girl who lost her house because she wasn’t on top of her A game? The cop who was stuck in a loveless marriage and displayed Robin Hood crookedness whenever he saw fit? Everyone in our society who can’t pronounce Middle Eastern names? The drowning in paperwork county that messed everything up in the first place?

It’s the story of misunderstanding. When Kathy Nicolo loses her house to the country for owed taxes on a business she never had the miscommunications begin. When her house is sold to Massoud Amir Behrani the misunderstandings continue. Things become further complicated by Lester Burdon, a deputy sherrif who does things his own way. Caught in the web are Behrani’s family. Innocent and slightly less obsessed.

When people start to die, I decided I was sorry for everyone involved. Most of all I was sorry for the lack of communication whether it was complicated by culture or not.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust (p.129): Included in the chapter “It Was a Dark & Stormy Novel.”

6 Nightmares

gr4c5Leave a comment

6 NightmaresLake, Anthony. 6 Nightmares. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 2000.

The subtitle to this book is, “Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How America Can Meet Them.” Yikes. What was even more yikes for me was the fact that this book was written in 2000…October. Not even a year before the attacks of September 11th, 2001.  It gave me such goosebumps to read this Book Lust pick. Lake states things like, “If such an attack occurs [wmd], we must be able to say, looking back on this period, that we did everything we could to prevent it and to deal with its devastating consequences. The hard truth is that we are not doing so” (p. 21). While the U.S. hasn’t been hit with the kind of weapon of mass destruction Lake means, it’s sobering to think commercial flights were turned into weapons with “devastating consequences” less than a year after those words had been published.

In addition to scaring the bejeezus out of me, Lake writes lyrically and with humor. “The collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire has lifted the lid on a seething cauldron of suppressed hostilities” (p113). I loved this imagery. Seething is one of my favorite words, probably because I do the verb so often. This passage reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “This House is on Fire” (2001) from her album, Motherland. In it she states, “you go passing wrong for right and right for wrong. People only stand for that for just so long.” There’s that seething again.
The humor came with a little pun-intended remark, “…in this case we wanted to saddle up, and Chirac did not put Descartes before our horse” (p.150). It made me giggle at an otherwise tense moment. Comic relief? There were hundreds of little tongue-in-cheek gigglers. I just liked that one the best.

Lake pointed out many different opportunities for the U.S. to be at risk. He lists past enemies as well as potential future ones, giving careful reason for each threat. He doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, but he certainly gives us something to think about.

BookLust Twist: From chapter 9/11 in Book Lust. Pearl recommends this as “background reading” (p172).

Music Lesson

gr4c52 Comments

Weber, Katharine. The Music Lesson.

Music LessonI picked up Weber’s second novel after reading her debut novel Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. In Objects I fell in love with the narration immediately. The writing was so fluid I hoped everything Weber wrote would read the same way.  
I liken Music Lesson to that of a second kiss. It’s not as good as the very first one yet still highly enjoyable. When I found out it was part of the Book Lust Challenge I almost put it on my “must reread” list because I liked it so much.
It’s the story of Patricia. She guards a stolen painting in a cottage in Ireland. Alone. Alone with her troubled past and complicated future, Patricia has time to contemplate the crossroads. The stolen painting becomes more than just “art” to her. It guides her through a metamorphism and an awakening.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust under the heading of “Irish Fiction” (p126).

To learn more about one of my favorite authors, Katharine Weber, go here.

Child of Darkness

gr4c5Leave a comment

Child of DarknessFurui, Yoshikicki. Child of Darkness; Yoko and Other Stories. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1997.

I’ll be the first to admit it. In the beginning pages I wasn’t connecting to this book at all. The first story, “Yoko”,  opens with a nameless, faceless, ageless man hurrying down a mountain. He comes across a women sitting on a rock in a ravine. She’s stuck, not by a force of nature, but a force of her own mind. She can’t move from her perch and needs him to help her get down. Later she blames the incident on acrophobia. What’s interesting is this is the one place in the entire story where the same scene is described from both her and his point of view. Later her issues are only described as an “illness” and the word acrophobia never resurfaces. It is suspected that the illness is shrouded in vagrity because the Japanese view mental illness as a taboo subject. Yoko is a strange woman. Sane one minute, paralyzed by her illness the next. The rest of the story is how the nameless, faceless (now we know he is young) man copes with a relationship with Yoko. Half accepting her mental state as is, half wanting to “cure” her.

The next story also deals with mental illness but from the perspective of someone who is dying of cancer (also a taboo subject in Japan). I am more sympathetic towards the cancer victim. There is a sense of insanity when you have been told you have the disease. I can only imagine what depths your psyche would sink to when you are told it’s terminal.

The third and final story is also about sinking into insanity. This time a
These stories, translated by Donna George Storey, also includes her critiques. It’s interesting to rewalk the stories with an analytical map. It’s like seeing a city for the second time after you learn it’s history. Everything looks different.

BookLust Twist: Under the heading “Japan Fiction” Nancy Pearl calls Child of Darkness “dark.” Yup (p. 32).

Is There a Nutmeg in the House?

gr4c5Leave a comment

David, Elizabeth. Is There a Nutmeg in the House; Essays on Practical Cooking with More Than 150 Recipes. New York: Viking, 2001.Nutmeg

Elizabeth David writes with humor. She also writes about cooking. My kind of book. Sorta. In the rules of the Book Lust Challenge, I said that I wouldn’t read cookbooks from start to finish. I would read the intros and “skip” the recipes. I didn’t want to try every recipe; didn’t want to be David’s version of a Julia Child fanatic. Here’s the issue I have with Nutmeg. Essays run seamlessly into recipes and commentaries. I end up reading about how to make mayonnaise (my archenemy) step by step.
Nevertheless, I have learned interesting things such as:
          *the potato is an aphrodisiac, capable of advancing a man’s “withered state” (p. 73). I kid you not.
          *Nutmeg is underrated and people should carry graters with them to utilize this spice more often (p. 93). 
          *David hates garlic presses as much as I do (p.51). 
Probably one of the best things I’ve learned from reading David’s Nutmeg isn’t really a lesson. It’s more of an affirmation – to “not to despair over rice” (p.139). While I don’t despair over any kind of rice per se thanks to Alton Brown and a whole episode dedicated to the grain, David’s words ring true with me on a deeper level, “Every amateur cook, however gifted and diligent, has some weak spot, some gap in her knowledge or experience which to anyone critical of her own achievements can be annoying and humiliating.” This statement even knocks the great ones down a notch. Ever seen Bobby lose a throw down? You get what I’m talking about.

BookLust Twist: Nancy Pearl adds this to her “Food for Thought” chapter in Book Lust (p.91) and goes on to say, “…Elizabeth David not only shares her love of food and cooking  but writes so evocatively that you can smell and taste the ingredients and dishes as she describes them.”