Tag: Fiction

Belshazzar’s Daughter

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Nadel, Barbara. Belshazzar’s Daughter. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2006.

The pronouncement, “The Donna Leon of Istanbul” meant nothing to me, I am sorry to say. It didn’t make me like to book any better. Nor did the curious “icon” information. According to the publisher the icon of a gun meant I was holding a book from the “Hard Boiled” category, meaning the language was going to be stronger, the bad guys a little badder, the violence a little more graphic. An “R” rating, if you will – only I would give this book an “X” rating for the weird sex scenes. Natalia seems to like her sex with a gun and rough…and that’s all I’ll say about that.

The overall story of Belshazzar’s Daughter was a little tedious. Technically, there is no daughter of Belshazzar in the story. It’s the story of Englishman Robert Cornelius and his obsession with Natalia Gulcu. It is also about Inspector Ikmen and his quest to solve the brutal murder of an elderly Jew. Robert Cornelius happens to be in the area when the crime is committed and becomes a suspect due to his prejudice-laced past. The crime scene is overly horrific and obviously hate-driven with addition of a giant swastika, but Inspector Ikmen isn’t convinced. Using historical profiling, Ikmen starts to unravel the mystery of who killed Leonid Meyer. At the same time Natalia’s family history is revealed. Their history is stranger than even the murder.

With the addition of several smaller plots Belshazzar’s Daughter is a drawn-out thriller-mystery. The sex scenes are over the top while the characters are watered down to the point of stereotyping. First, I found myself annoyed with just the character of Robert and his blinded obsession with the heaving bosoms of Natalia, but by the end I didn’t care for any of them.

BTW: I didn’t find any quotes that jumped out at me.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “Crime is a Globetrotter: Turkey” (p 61).

“Hospital”

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Shapiro, Karl. “Hospital.” Poems 1940 – 1953. New York: Random House, 1953.

Maybe it’s because I have been watching HBO’s miniseries, “The Pacific.” Whatever the reason I have become more in tune with World War II literature. Both fiction and nonfiction. Written about vets. Written by vets. When I first picked up Karl Shapiro’s Poems 1940 – 1953 I had a feeling these poems would center around war, specifically World War II and the Pacific Theater. I wasn’t that far off. For the Book Lust Challenge I had to read “Hospital.” Scanning the table of contents I passed poetry with such titles as “Elegy for a Dead Soldier”, “The Gun”, Homecoming”, “V-Letter”, and “Troop Train” so it didn’t surprise me that “Hospital” had a wounded military feel to it. After a little more research I discovered that yes, Shapiro did serve in World War II, specifically in the Pacific.

There is nothing obvious in “Hospital” that screams war, and yet there is a frantic need to answer the questions of death. Where does one go after life has ended? Who deserves to die? And what is to become of the soul? Pain is addressed early. Nurses controlling and caring.

Favorite line, “These reached to heaven and inclined their heads
While starchy angels reached them into beds…” (p 78).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter, “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 103). Here’s the funny thing – Shapiro’s poem, “Hospital” is only mentioned to explain the title of the small package: Fabulous Small Jews by Joseph Epstein (which I will read in May).

April ’10 Is…

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April is all about getting the garage ready for gardening. April is the confidence to pack winter clothes and get the snow tires off the car. April is leaving the heat off and taking off the sweater; driving with the windows down. The birds are getting louder and the mornings are coming earlier. I’m hoping to spend some time outside reading. Here are the books I hope to conquer:

  • Affliction by Russell Banks~ In honor of two different times: March (Banks’s birth month) and April (National Sibling Week is in April).
  • Truth and Bright Water by Thomas King ~ In honor of National Dog Month
  • Downcanyon: a Naturalist Explores the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon by Ann Haymond Zwinger ~ in honor of Earth Day and nature writing
  • Belshazzar’s Daughter by Barbara Nadel ~ April (believe or not) is the best time to visit Turkey (weather-wise, political ramifications aside).
  • South Wind Through the Kitchen by Elizabeth David ~ April is National Food Month

If there is time:

  • Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory by John Feinstein ~ April is Youth Sports Safety Month

And of course, April is National Poetry Month so as usual I am trying to read as much poetry during this time frame as I can. I can’t go without saying Natalie Merchant is releasing “Leave Your Sleep” this month – a collection of poetry centered around children and childhood. Natalie once said it was poetry written for, about, and by children. I guess that sums it up nicely. One poem she included on her album was one I already read for the Book Lust Challenge: “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

For LibraryThing and the Early Review Program I have an interesting (and well-timed) nonfiction: Fundamental Weight Training by David Sandler. I’m looking forward to reading it. I’m hoping it will be user-friendly and very informative.

March ’10 was…

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When I sat down to first write “March ’10 was…” I suddenly became exhausted by the very idea of it. Not sure why. Could it be that 300+ books later and I am finally losing steam? Am I becoming weary of the process? I wasn’t not sure. This recap was designed to keep myself accountable to the “Fill-in-the-blank Is…” post. Something to check back in with, designed to ask myself, “How does what I really read by the end of the month compare to what I set out to accomplish at the beginning of the month?” Truth be known, it has been fun to see how far off the map my reading has taken me. Titles that were so far off my radar are a joy to remember at month’s end. So, in answer to my own questions – no I don’t think I’m burnt out, losing steam, becoming weary of the process. I think I needed to put it back into perspective…kind of like hiking up that bra strap that has slipped out of place…

  • Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban ~ turtles and strange relationships. What’s not to love?
  • Goodnight, Nebraska by Tom McNeal ~ this should have been a movie
  • Jennifer Government by ~ this will be a movie, I swear
  • Making of a Quagmire by David Halberstam ~ one reporter’s take on the political firestorm and other events that led up to the Vietnam war and beyond…
  • An Armful of Warm Girl by William M. Spackman~this was so bizarre…
  • King Lear by William Shakespeare ~ classic.
  • The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ~ in honor of Florida becoming a state in the month of March

Here’s something really cool. I started reading Affliction by Russell Banks because it was on my March list (Russell Banks’s birth month) but it’s also on my April list. That means I can continue reading  Affliction in April…That doesn’t happen that often.

For LibraryThing and the Early Review Program I was able to finish two books:

  • No Instructions Needed: An American Boyhood in the 1950s by Robert Hewitt, and
  • The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach.

Just a note on The Man From Saigon ~ It was very interesting to read this at the same time as reading a nonfiction about the same topic.

March was also a month of healing, getting sick again, seeing good, good drums, the weather getting warmer…and lots of training walks!

The Yearling

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Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to get a copy of The Yearling with illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. It’s the edition I remember from my childhood, with “Penny Tells the Story of the Bear Fight” (p54) being my favorite. I remember thinking it was the perfect illustration of story-telling and could easily take place in a fish house on a remote island.

The Yearling is tragic. It’s the story of Jody Baxter, a twelve year old boy growing up in Florida in the late 1800s. Jody’s family is poor. While living remotely is a blessing for privacy it is hard on employment and sustainable nourishment. The Baxters depend on their farm animals for food in the leaner months. It’s this food supply that drives the story of The Yearling. First, there is the emergence of Old Slewfoot, a bigger than life grizzly bear that manages to kill the family’s prized sow. This sow, Betsy, would have been responsible for offspring that could have sustained the family through the upcoming long winter months. Then, later in the story, there is the dilemma of Flag. Through a series of events young Jody has come to adopt a fawn, a pet he has dearly wanted. As this fawn grows it creates conflict within the family. He begins to eat their hard earned corn supply and the corn, like Betsy’s offspring, was supposed to feed the Baxter family throughout the colder months. Ma Baxter is the iron will of the family. She sees the trouble the family is in are in if Flag continues to eat them out of house and home. When she takes matters into her own hands Jody childishly runs away. His return is one of adult understanding. This is ultimately a story of emerging maturity, of new knowledge and acceptance of sacrifice.

Favorite line: Penny Baxter, Jody’s father is about to set out to hunt Old Slewfoot. He tells his wife, “Don’t look for us ’til you see us” (p 26). This reminded me of a saying I first heard on Monhegan, “Hard tellin’ not knowing.” Classic old timer wisdom.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Florida Fiction” (p 89). I have to admit, aside from the alligator jerky there was little to remind me of Florida…

Armful of Warm Girl

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Spackman, William M. An Armful of Warm Girl.New york: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

Barely 130 pages, this was a silly little book. I found myself rereading sentences because I wasn’t sure what I just read. The entire text seems to be written in a tongue-in-cheek manner. To sum up the plot of An Armful of Warm Girl, it is about a man who, after being divorced by his wife, flees to New York City where he hasn’t been in over seventeen years. There he bounces from place to place looking for a substitute for his wife. He has many to chose from since upon his arrival to New York he is instantly attracted to just about every young girl in a skirt. After re-establishing a relationship with one such woman he is pointedly pursued by yet another woman. In the end he has to decide between the two.

I didn’t really have any favorite quotes. There is a great deal of gushing and carrying on in the dialogue. It would have been funny to quote some of that, but out of context it really wouldn’t have made much sense. For a sample of what I mean go to page six when Nicholas Romney rings up his adult daughter in New York. She can hardly believe her “darling daddy” is in town…without mummy.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” (p 13.) I love the title of this book, but it would have been more appropriate to call it “Which Girl is the Warm Armful?”

Man From Saigon

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Leimbach, Marti. The Man From Saigon. New York: Doubleday, 2010.

This was an interesting read for me due, in part, to the fact I was reading The Making of a Quagmire by David Halberstam at the same time. Leimbach’s descriptions of Vietnam mirrored Halberstam’s almost perfectly. The rainy, muggy climate, the poverty stricken communities, the brash (trying-to-be-brave) military presence, but above all, the reporters trying to capture the atrocities of politics and war while remaining mentally sound and physically safe. Of course, Leimbach’s story is a bit less intense with the addition of an adulterous romance threaded through the bomb blasts and sniper attacks. Susan Gifford is a green reporter trying her hand at covering the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. When she is taken captive by the Vietnam Communists, the Vietcong, along with her photographer, Hoang Van Son, the plot thickens. Susan is suddenly confronted with a profound and deep relationship that was originally a professional partnership forged out of necessity.

There are, of course, a few lines that became my favorite. The one I hope makes it into the final copy is “It was a feeling of being trapped and desperate, of having been cornered by her own mistakes” (p 6). Been there. Done that.

Jennifer Government

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Barry, Max. Jennifer Government. New York: Doubleday, 2003.

Jennifer Government is fast paced and thrilling. Max Barry has everything from corporate greed, kidnapping, the NRA, and of course, murder. Set in the plausible near future there is a level of sexiness to the way Barry writes. He makes his characters move around each other in a cat and mouse manner, always flirting while outsmarting each other. In the center is Jennifer Government. She lives in a world where people take the place of their employment as their last names (Hack Nike and Jennifer Government and Billy NRA to name a few), 911 won’t respond to emergencies unless the capability for payment can be established, and taxes are outlawed. Jennifer could be the next Laura Croft, fighting old demons and new crimes. So, when her daughter is kidnapped things get personal. But, that’s the climax of the story. It all starts with Nike cooking up a marketing scheme to build of street cred for a new line of $2,500 sneakers by committing murder…

 Favorite quotes, “but he liked New Zealand, he really did. At first he was apprehensive; it was so far away, tucked down in the bottom of the world like something Australia coughed up” (p 22), and “Companies claimed to be highly  responsive, Jennifer thought, but you only had to chase a screaming man through their offices to realize it wasn’t true” (p 285).

Then there is this favorite scene: Hack is trying to tell the police his girlfriend might have killed someone with a toaster. The agent is not listening, arguing with Hack for not having an appointment (p 69-70). It’s an amusing scene but it gets even funnier. Hack finally gets to see a different agent. Hoping to be taken seriously he again tries to report the murder. Only this time the new agent is preoccupied with the capabilities of the toaster. “Can you do bagels in that?” he asks. I can just see the scene played by Nicholas Cage (as Hack) trying desperately to get someone to check on an alleged murder and Steve Martin as the second agent distracted by a bagel-toasting toaster.

I love that there is a Max in Max Barry’s story. It’s a small part, but a highly effective one.

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

Goodnight, Nebraska

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McNeal, Tom. Goodnight, Nebraska. New York: Vintage, 1999.

This could have been a movie for me. It is the coming of age, and redemptive story of Randall Hunsacker. Although he is just a teenager Randall has been sent to Goodnight, Nebraska to turn his life around. He has escaped a violent past and left behind a broken family in Salt Lake City. Redemption is not what Randall is seeking, at least not at first. Goodnight is a small tight-knit community and Randall’s inclusion is not readily welcomed. He rebels with ridicule in letters to his sister and remains a mystery in school. The only place Randall allows himself to feel anything is by being violent on the football field. Over the course of ten years Randall slowly starts to settle down with a wife and an occupation. It is during this time that Randall realizes redemption is what he needed all along.

My one complaint? At one point the story breaks away from Randall and follows his wife, Marcy, when she decides she needs a fresh start. After Randall starts drinking and becomes progressively violent she leaves Randall behind and escapes to California. There is no real explanation for Randall’s behavior and you almost want the marriage to fall apart.

Favorite lines – one really short and one really long: “Me. I believe in me” (p 126), and “…there are some kinds of love, the ones we’re all after, that are meant for open air and natural light, but there are other kinds too, more than we’d like to think, that come out of the dark and drag us away and tear parts from our bodies, kinds of love that work in their own dim rooms, and harbor more sad forms of intimacy and degradation and sustenance that those standing outside those rooms can ever dream of” (p 260).

BookLust Twist: From more Book Lust in the chapter called, “The Great Plains: Nebraska” (p 108).

Wall of the Sky

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Lethem, Jonathan. The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye: stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1998.

I like that way Nancy Pearl describes Lethem’s style of writing. Basically she says (in Book Lust) you never get the same book twice. Even within his short stories in The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye you don’t get the same short story twice. Nothing is the same. Even the style of writing is different. Like a box of chocolates with only one candy containing chocolate…

Here’s a list of the short stories:

  • The Happy Man ~ a weird sort of deal-with-the-devil story about a man who is dead, but isn’t.
  • Vanilla Drunk ~ a story that mentions Michael Jordan over 40 times.
  • Light and the Sufferer ~ brothers, an alien, drugs and New York City. What’s not to love?
  • Forever, Said the Duck ~ a virtual party where virtually no one is who they say they are.
  • Five Fukcs ~ I have no idea how to describe this story. It’s all about getting screwed over…
  • The Hardened Criminal ~ a very strange story about a man who ends up in the same prison cell as his father…only his father is built into the cement wall.
  • Sleepy People ~ there is a group of people who sleep through anything…including sex.

Because of Lethem’s copyright statement I am not going to quote favorite lines (and yes, I had a few). Just leave it that I liked the entire book (even though I would have liked more description about the Sufferer from “Light and the Sufferer”).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Jonathan Lethem: Too Good To Miss” (p 145).

Turtle Diary

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Hoban, Russell. Turtle Diary. New York: Random House, 1975.

I love Russell Hoban’s work. When Turtle Diary didn’t arrive at the library in time for my surgery I promised myself I would read it anyway – no matter when it came in. It was supposed to be a February book in honor of two things – Hoban’s birth month and a birthday gift to myself (being about sea turtles and all). Instead I read it in one day on March 2nd.

Turtle Diary is alternating diary entries about a singular subject. Two lonely Londoners are captivated by three sea turtles at the London Zoo. William G. and Neaera H.  both write about how lonely they look and what it would be like to free them from captivity. Soon their fascination turns to a mutual obsession and wordlessly they begin to hatch a plan…with the inside help of a senior zoo keeper. What is remarkable about William and Neaera is their ability to rationalize their off-kilter worlds. The way they think, feel, and interact with the relationships around them is poignant and sad.

Favorite lines from William: “There must be a lot of people in the world being wondered about by people who don’t see them any more” (p 16), ” Maybe I’m just one of those people so accustomed to being miserable that they use the material of any situation to fuel their misery” (p 68), and “No place for the self to sit down and catch its breath” (p 95).

Favorite lines from Neaera: “I live alone, wear odds and ends, I have resisted vegetarianism and I don’t keep cats” ( 11), “I’m always afraid of being lost, the secret navigational art of the turtles seems a sacred thing to me” (p 31), and “Polperro seemed to me like a streetwalker asking for money to maintain her virginity” (p 38). Someone else had underlined that sentence, too.

PS ~ this was made into a movie, too.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Russell Hoban: Too Good To Miss” (p 113).

March ’10 is…

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March is a small stash of books. Small because I want to get back on the training schedule…with a vengeance.

  • Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban is actually a leftover from February. It was one that I was really looking forward to reading so I’m adding it to March
  • Goodnight, Nebraska by Tom McNeal ~ in honor of Nebraska becoming a state in March
  • Jennifer Government by Max Barry ~ in honor of March being Max Barry’s birth month
  • Making of a Quagmire by David Halberstam ~ in honor of March being the month the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam

If there is time I will tackle:

  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ~ in honor of national literature month
  • Armful of Warm Girl by W.M. Spackman ~ in honor of… and this is a stretch…Oscar Month. Here’s the thought process: March is Oscar month which translates into giving award for the best something-er-rather. Nancy Pearl gave Armful of Warm Girl the award for best title. Told you it was a stretch…

For LibraryThing and the Early Review program I promise, promise, promise I will finish No Instructions Needed: an American Boyhood in the 1950s by Robert G. Hewitt.

March is also a concerted effort to get back to training, a little bit of music and hopefully, a whole bunch of fund raising…

February ’10 was…

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Where in hell do I begin? February was a month of answers. Can I leave it at that? I know why I haven’t been feeling well. I know what I now need to do. I know who I am and how far I’ve come. And – taking a deep breath – I know how far I need to go. I know. Here’s the list of books, for better or worse:

  • A Certain World by W.H. Auden ~ in honor of Auden’s birth month
  • Why Things Bite Back by Edward Tenner ~ an interesting book on the pitfalls of technology (in honor of science month).
  • Company of Three by Varley O’Connor ~ in honor of February being theater month.
  • The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin ~ in honor of Black History month.
  • Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba P. Beals ~ in honor of February being civil rights month
  • The Hiding Place by Tezza Azzopardi ~ in honor of immigrant recognition
  • Wall of the Sky, Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem ~ in honor of Lethem’s birth month
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder ~ in honor of Haiti
  • Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin ~ in honor of Franklin’s birth month

Sadly enough, I forgot all about my Early Review book for LibraryThing. I promise I will review that next month!

Certain World

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Auden, W. H. A Certain World: a commonplace book. New York: Viking Press, 1970.

Commonplace books are, in my opinion, an easy way to “write” a book. Compile passages, find poems, collect essays and whatnot, make a few comments about why these selections were made and what they mean to the writer and suddenly a book is born. Someone produced a commonplace book. I think I would enjoy them more if the compiler took the time to respond to every inclusion. Why are these poems important? Did you agree with that essay? W.H. Auden definitely could have added more personal commentary and perspective to round out A Certain World.

From Michael Alexander to Andrew Young W.H. Auden includes such well-known authors as William Blake, Anton Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, and Henry David Thoreau. In addition to excerpts, poetry, plays, and essays Auden includes riddles, puns, epithets, and jokes. A wide range of subjects like sex, birds, God, machines, time, commas, and Eskimos are mingled with emotions like rage, love, dejection and hope. An eclectic and entertaining mix of topics are compiled. The sole regret is that very few include commentary on their importance to the author.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Commonplace Books” (obviously), (p 52).

Hiding Place

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Azzopardi, Trezza. The Hiding Place. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000.

    I have to start by saying I would love to meet William Gedney just to ask him about the photograph on the cover of The Hiding Place. I guess Francine Kass (who designed the cover) would be more appropriate to ask of these questions. Nevertheless, here are the things I would ask of either:

    1. The girls are in the kitchen obviously paring something (apples? potatoes?). Why do they all have one leg up; why are they standing like storks?
    2. The painting of the Last Supper – was that meant to be symbolic since the girls are standing in a kitchen?
    3. There is a fourth pair of feet and evidence of a little knee behind the child leaning on the refrigerator. Who is she and why isn’t she more visible? I took this to be Dolores, the narrator of The Hiding Place. She is the youngest daughter and paid attention to the least. More symbolism?

    The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi is sad, sad, sad. Dolores Gauci is the youngest of six daughters born to Maltese immigrants Frankie and Mary. Her view on the world is both tragic and innocent. She is at once stoic and childish; solemn and naive. What Dolores sees is a family slowly dismantled by a gambling and always losing father. As her siblings are bartered away Dolores must face a grim childhood with fewer and fewer protections as even her mother’s will to survive slips away. Serving as the backdrop for the Gauci family is the 1960s landscape of Cardiff, Wales, an immigration town populated with citizens hardened enough to do just about anything to survive.

    Favorite lines: “Her fury travels down the spoon and into Luca’s dinner. I am breast-fed: I get rage straight from the source” (p 22), “As with all truth, there is another version” (p 75), and “She’ll be scrubbing the steps again, probably – it’s a job best done in anger” (p 126).

    BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter, “The Immigrant Experience” (p 123).