Tag: march

Hole in the Earth

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bausch, Robert. A Hole in the Earth. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2000.

If you are anything like me you won’t be able to decide whether you love or hate or just feel sorry for Henry Porter. On the surface he is a selfish, superficial s.o.b. who never knows the right thing to say or do. He doesn’t know how to greet Nicole, his only child he hasn’t seen in six years. He has a strained relationship with his girlfriend and doesn’t know how to respond when she tells him she is pregnant with his child. He comes across as shallow and callous. Case in point: “I calculated that if she really wanted to get my understanding, she would ask for it” he says (p 32). But, having said all that, it’s his very attitude that makes him human. We all have our moments of being selfish, superficial, shallow, awkward, cold and callous. Henry Porter is real and you can’t help but identify with him, even if it is just a little. As Henry’s life becomes more complicated (Nicole gets in trouble with a boy and Elizabeth breaks up with him) Henry starts to find his way through his inability to respond to tragedy. It’s a good thing because things go from bad to the very worst and Henry must change in order to survive.

Favorite lines, “I wanted to tell her but my mind would not surrender the words” (p 239), and “Upstairs Nicole was building a cathedral of faithful hatred…” (p 275).

Reason read: National Problem Gambling Week was three weeks ago (March 3 – 9) but in recognition of those struggling with the addiction I read A Hole in the Earth.

Author fact: I loved Robert Bausch’s short bio on the back flap of A hole in the Earth. See if you can figure out why! 😉 “He has worked as a salesman, taxi driver, library assistant, and waiter.”

Book trivia: The cover of my edition features a boy jumping off something. While he is in mid-fall he looks anticipatory and almost excited. It’s a scene from the book that is also a metaphor for Henry’s adult life.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family: Writer Dynasties” (p 6). So, Pearl’s chapter doesn’t have anything to do with gambling. Instead A Hole in the Earth is mentioned because Robert and his brother, Richard, are both writers.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

gr4c5Leave a comment

Martin, Gerald. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008.

This is going to sound horrible but I read the biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez before reading a single word written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have a bunch of different books by Garcia Marquez on my challenge list but his biography came up first. It’s sad to say I never read anything of his in high school or even college. You would think, I being a huge John Cusack fan, that I would have at least read Love in the Time of Cholera! (If you have no idea why I made that connection go rent Serendipity or High Fidelity.)

Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite biographies read so far. It has to be the subject matter. Like other biographies that spend an inordinate amount of time setting the stage (political and socially) or produce pages and pages of mini biographies of the subject’s great-great-great grandparents Martin does bog down with those details in the beginning. His focus is not primarily on Gabriel Garcia Marquez but rather the myriad of family members from both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. I got lost trying to keep the just cousins straight. Forget about all the drama that went with them! But, aside from that reading about Marquez’s life was fascinating. Martin took 17 years to research his subject and it shows.
Probably my favorite aspect of the biography is the parallels Martin makes between Marquez’s life and his art. Martin doesn’t miss an opportunity to make note of people in Marquez’s life who eventually became characters in his books later. I have a deeper understanding of where the soul of One Hundred Years of Solitude came from.

Favorite quotes, “A whispy costeno moustache appeared on his adolescent lip and was left to wander where it would” (p 108), and “Acquaintances remember him always drumming his fingers on the table as we waited for his lunch , or on anything else to hand…music always wafting through him” (p 145). Guess my husband has something in common with Gabriel Garcia Marquez…always drumming on something.

Reason read: Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in March.

Book trivia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez: a Life includes great photography. GGM’s first year picture was adorable.

Author fact: According to Martin’s Wiki page his biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the first full biography to be published in English. Interesting.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hail, Columbia!” (p 91).

Widow for One Year

gr4c5Leave a comment

Irving, John. A Widow For One Year. Read by George Guidall. New York: Random House Audio, 1998.

While meandering at times A Widow For One Year follows the life of Ruth Cole. In Part One it is 1958 and Ruth is only four years old. The plot doesn’t necessarily focus on Ruth at this point but rather on her Long Island parents – their endless grief over the accidental death of their teenage sons and the bitter end of their tumultuous marriage. Ruth’s father is a celebrated author of books for children, a closet alcoholic and a raging adulterer. He wants to divorce Ruth’s mother, Marion, but he first needs to make sure he’ll win the custody battle over Ruth. Given his drinking (he can’t even drive due to too many dui arrests) and sexual conquests outside the marriage he needs Marion to have an indiscretion of her own to level the playing field. Enter Eddie O’Hare, a sixteen year old high school student from Philips Exeter Academy. Ted hires Eddie to be his writing assistant for the summer but really Eddie is supposed to seduce Marion. It’s Eddie who I like the best in this part one. He plays the fool perfectly (oh, but what a sweet and pretty fool). Unwittingly he is a pawn for both Ted and Marion.
In Part Two Ruth, at thirty-six, is an accomplished writer living in New York. The section begins with the very same Eddie O’Hare. He is in town to introduce Ruth at one of her readings. While their paths cross only briefly at this point in the story Ruth is enlightened by Eddie’s memories of her mother. She begins to see her parent’s divorce in a whole new perspective. Before leaving for a European book tour Eddie gives Ruth a murder mystery he thinks was written by Marion. While in Amsterdam Ruth is witness to the murder of a window prostitute from the red light district.
This sets in motion Part Three which, in the beginning, focuses mostly on the murder of the prostitute from five years earlier. The lead chief inspector has a conundrum. While he was able to solve the murder he now wants to find the witness. The story jumps back fill in the story of the prostitute (which could have been a whole separate book). I don’t want to spoil the end except to say it’s nice that Irving brought the story full circle.

Favorite lines: “There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep” (p 151). Don’t you love the image of that? Another favorite line, “I appear to have an old disease to share” (p 324).

As an aside, Ruth’s attitude about her American fans reminded me of how Natalie Merchant reacts to autograph signings and picture taking with her American fans. Both Ruth and Natalie are more comfortable with their European fans.

Reason read: John Irving celebrates a birthday in March, on the 18th…or so I’ve read on LibraryThing.

Author fact: John Irving was not an author Nancy Peal included in her “Too Good to Miss” chapters. Too bad because he should have been. He has written some amazing stuff.

Book trivia: The 2004 film adaptation of A Widow For One Year was “A Door in the Floor.” Note to self: put this on my movie list.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Wayward Wives” (p 232). I think Pearl got it wrong. Yes, the wife is wayward but her situation is completely more understandable than her husband’s. I think her husband is despicable. But, another thing: the book isn’t really about the wayward wife or husband.

Kalahari Typing School for Men

gr4c5Leave a comment

Smith, Alexander McCall. The Kalahari Typing School for Men. New York: Anchor Books, 2002.

You don’t have to read the first three Mma Ramotswe books in order to enjoy Kalahair Typing School for Men but I think you would enjoy them better if you did. In the fourth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency the plot continues to move away from solving mysteries (as it had been in Morality for Beautiful Girls) and the emphasis is placed more on character development. To bring you up to speed: Mma Precious Ramotswe is Botswana’s only female detective. She is engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and together they have adopted two children, a brother and sister, but still haven’t set a wedding date. It seems Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is content to stay engaged for an indeterminate amount of time. Mma Ramotswe has two cases of interest. One is a gentleman wishing to repair his not so sterling past. He wants to make amends for a series of wrongs he has done as a youth. The other mystery is a typical marital woe of a woman thinking her man is cheating on her. The title of the story comes from Mma Matakutsi’s side business of starting a typing school for men.

Now that I am actually reading I have a few favorite lines, “That was the trouble with people in general: they were surprisingly unrealistic in their expectations” (p 5) and “We do not care about other people’s hats in the same way these days, do we? We do not” (p 158).

Reason read: to continue the series (started with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency) in honor of Mystery Month in January. Note: up until this point I have listened to the series in CD. I appreciated Lecat’s narration and pronunciation. For example, if I had read the series from the beginning I wouldn’t have known that “Zebra Drive” (where Mma Ramotswe lives) is pronounced Zeb – bra Drive and not Zee – bra Drive.

Author fact: You just have to check out the videos on Alexander McCall Smith’s website. He is quoted as saying he is very fond of Botswana and he wrote the Mma Ramotswe series as a tribute to the country. (see link on Morality for Beautiful Girls book review).

Book trivia: This is the fourth book in the series. Next up is The Full Cupboard of Life.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ms. Mystery” (p 171).

Flamboya Tree

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kelly, Clara Olink. The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother’s Wartime Courage. New York: Random House, 2002.

This is a short memoir. Some would say too short. Clara Olink Kelly is just four years old when her family is torn apart by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific Island of Java during World War II. Clara’s father is forced to work on the Burma railroad while Clara’s mother is left to care for two small children and a pregnant with a second son. It isn’t long before the Japanese commandeer their home and the entire family is transferred to a concentration camp, Kamp Tjideng. There Clara spends four long years enduring extreme crowding, starvation, illness and unspeakable filth. In addition she witnesses horrific abuse and violence that would haunt her for the rest of her life. The one piece of home that keeps them going is a small painting of a red flamboya tree. This painting, because it was never abused or destroyed by the Japanese, became a symbol of strength for the family. It goes wherever they go. The other symbol of strength is Clara’s mother. The beautiful thing about The Flamboya Tree is that throughout the entire story Clara’s respect and admiration for her mother never waivers. It is a lovely tribute to a mother who did everything she could to protect her children and survive the harsh conditions.

Powerful line, “She still had the audacity to hold her head high” (p 61).

Reason read: To recognize Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence. Last year it was celebrated at the end of March.

Author fact: Do a search for Clara Olink Kelly and she pops up on the website IMDb because she appeared on the Rosie O’Donnell show in 2002. Do an image search for Clara Olink Kelly and you will discover she looks just like her mother.

Book trivia: There is a study guide for The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother’s Wartime Courage and the first question is, “would you have tried to escape?” What a loaded question!

BookLust Twist: From  Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Indicative of Indonesia” (p 104).

Fanny

gr4c5Leave a comment

White, Edmund. Fanny: a Fiction. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Here’s the premise: Frances Trollope is already famous for publishing Domestic Manners of the Americans, a no-so flattering account of American society. She now sets out to write the biography of friend and feminist, Fanny Wright. Edmund White produces Fanny’s biography in manuscript form and I have to say it would have been a clever twist to present this as a reworked manuscript. Trollope’s notes to self, musings, and edit ideas would have been more effective had they been published as handwritten notes in the margins, scribbles, and parts crossed out. Instead, Trollope’s musings are in line with the text and somewhat distracting. As it is, Trollope spends more time justifying her Domestic Manners and recounting her own family’s trials and tribulations than she does on Ms. Wright’s memoir. It’s cleverly written.

Line I liked, “I had been so absorbed in the brilliant company…the look of the elegant company, that I had completely forgotten the sad reality of me” (p 44).

Reason read: Frances Trollope was born in the month of March and this was listed as a “companion” read in More Book Lust.

Book trivia: I found it really cool that Edmund White dedicated Fanny to Joyce Carol Oates.

Author fact: Edmund White has his own website here.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Two, or Three, Are Better Than One” (p 226).

UPDATE: Another index error in More Book Lust! Fanny: a Fiction by Edmund White is also mentioned in the chapter “Just Too Good To Miss” (p 133) of More Book Lust.

Morality for Beautiful Girls

gr4c5Leave a comment

Smith, Alexander McCall. Morality for Beautiful Girls. Read by Lisette Lecat. Prince Frederick, Maryland: Recorded Books, 2003.

Let’s recap the last two books shall we?: In The Number #1 Ladies Detective Agency Mma Ramotswe has started Botswana’s only detective agency. She not only builds the reputation of her shop but her relationship with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (owner of an auto repair shop). Continuing in Tears of the Giraffe Mma Ramotswe takes on more complicated cases and becomes engaged and a mother (practically at the same time). Now in Morality for Beautiful Girls Mma Ramotswe becomes more involved with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s mechanic shop business and the two children she has adopted with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. She takes on one major case involving a government man who is convinced his brother is being poisoned by someone in the family. This case requires her to leave home overnight. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe’s assistant, Mma Makutsi, is climbing the business ladder as well. Not only does she become acting manager of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s repair shop while he is ill she also becomes an assistant detective and handles a huge case on her own because Mma Ramotswe is out of town. It’s this case that is the title of the book. Mma Makutsi is hired to find out which contestants of a beauty competition are beautiful on the inside AND out. Mma Makutsi is charged with finding the morality in the girls. In this particular installment of the series MCcall Smith focuses on morality on all levels. The initial focus is on the beauty queens but really he questions all of Africa’s morality as well.

Reason read: This continues the series started in January in honor of Mystery month.

Author fact: Alexander McCall Smith has his own website here. I particularly like the birds flying around. It’s charming.

Book trivia: This is the third book in the series starring Mma Ramotswe. Now Mma Ramotswe’s life is getting a little complicated!

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust from the chapter called “Ms Mystery” (p 171).

Lawless Roads

gr4c5Leave a comment

Greene, Graham. The Lawless Roads. London: Heinemann, 1960.

Graham Greene was a deeply religious man. When he was commissioned to write of the Mexican government’s forced anti-Catholic secularization and anti-clerical purges he traveled to the country to see for himself what effects this had on the people. Churches were being destroyed and clergymen were being driven into exile or brutally murdered at an alarming rate. As Greene traveled to the areas where the Catholic persecutions were the most violent Greene was deeply affected and reaches an almost despondent state. It is hard to tell if his depression was cause by an inability to connect to people and culture of Mexico (his Spanish was limited and their English was nonexistent), his on-going illness or the inability to open his mind beyond his own colonialism. In the end Mexico was a country he could barely wait to escape.

Best head scratching line: “Four one-armed men dined together, arranging their seats so that their arms shouldn’t clash” (p 9). Kisa and I do that, too. Only we sit that way not because we are missing arms but rather because he is right handed and I am left.

Author Fact: Graham Greene died in April 1991 which is the main reason why I chose to read Lawless Roads. Another reason is April is a good time to visit Mexico, if you dare.

Book Trivia: Lawless Roads was published as Another Mexico.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Postcards From Mexico” (p 185). Note: This is my first Book Lust To Go “accomplished” book. At least it’s the first one that wasn’t already read because of Book Lust or More Book Lust.

My Antonia

gr4c5Leave a comment

Cather, Willa. My Antonia.New York: Everyman’s Library, 1996.

Rereading My Antonia was like spotting a familiar face in a crowd somewhere in a country I have never been to before. It was like coming home after forty years away and remembering houses and neighbors. An old familiarity that was somehow comforting and true. I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this classic. Structurally, My Antonia is separated into five different books: The Shimerdas (introducing Antonia and her Bohemian family), The Hired Girls (delving into Antonia’s life in town), Lena Lingrad (Antonia’s good friend), The Pioneer Woman’s Story (Antonia’s friend, Tiny’s return to the farmland) and Cuzak’s Boys (Jim visiting Antonia after a twenty year absence and meeting her large family).
The premise of the story is in the introduction. Two friends are traveling by train and reminiscing about Antonia, a girl they both knew growing up. They agree to write their thoughts of her but James Quayle Burden is the only one to do so. He tells the story of growing up on the Nebraska plains with Antonia as his lifelong friend.

Best lines: “Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great” (p 20), “Those two could quarrel all morning about whether he ought to put on his heavy or his light underwear, and all evening about whether he had taken cold or not” (p 159), and “Clearly, she was the impulse, and he the corrective” (p 262).

Author Fact: Willa Cather was born Wilella Cather and lived in New York for most of her life.

Book Trivia: My Antonia was made into a movie in 1995.

BookLust Twist: My Antonia is indexed in all three Lust books: in Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade: 1910s” (p 175), in More Book Lust in the chapters called “The Great Plains: Nebraska” (p 107) and “The Immigrant Experience” (p 123), and in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Nebraska: The Big Empty” (p 148). If Pearl had written a chapter called “Women Channeling Men” she could have included My Antonia there as well.

Big Sleep

gr4c52 Comments

Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window.New York: Everyman’s Library, 2002.

This was my first introduction to a “hardboiled” thriller. Phillip Marlowe is a private investigator hired to deal with a blackmailer. His client is an ailing elderly General with two unruly adult daughters. The plot twists and winds around murder after murder and through it all private investigator Philip Marlowe is right behind, chasing down clues and killers. It takes place in the 1930s so the economy is a little out of place but the humor and sarcasm of Marlowe is timeless. One of my favorite “shticks” in the story is how everyone keeps asking Marlowe if he is looking for the missing husband of one of the daughters, Vivian. He has been hired to sort out a blackmail scheme, not find a missing man but everyone assumes that is why he is on the case. He ends up accomplishing both but his technique along the way is highly entertaining.

Favorite passages: “The General spoke again, slowly using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings” (p 7) and “Dead men are heavier than broken hearts” (p 36) and “If you can weigh a hundred and ninety pounds and look like a fairy, I was doing my best” (p 44).

Author Fact: Raymond Chandler didn’t start writing detective fiction until he was 45 years old. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Book Trivia: The Big Sleep was made into a movie twice and was just adapted for the stage in 2011.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 122). This is a huge chapter with over 80 titles. She does try to break up the lists into different genres of mystery and I guess Chandler would be listed under private investigators.

Two Towers

gr4c5Leave a comment

Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings “The Two Towers.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

The saga continues. I have to admit there were times when I was reading Two Towers and I thought, “Wait. Didn’t I just read this? Wasn’t this in Fellowship of the Ring?” My advice would be to read the entire Lord of the Rings series straight through. That way you won’t lose your place and confused with the details.

At this point in the saga Frodo and crew are still traveling through the dangerous countryside on a journey to destroy the magic ring. Along the way they encounter Gandolph (who they thought was dead), trees that can walk, talk and see called Ents, the have a couple of skirmishes with bad guys and they trust creepy swamp creature, Gollum. We leave the happy hobbits as Frodo is being captured. Okay, so they’re not so happy.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 215).

Fixer

gr4c5Leave a comment

Malamud, Bernard. The Fixer. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.

Yakov “Ivanovitch” Bok is a poor Jewish handyman in Russia, a fixer. When his wife of five years couldn’t produce a child he stopped having sex with her. This prompted her to run off with another man. Left with his father-in-law and no prospects for work, Yakov decides to leave his little shetl for the bigger city of Kiev. He knows that leaving the safety of the Jewish village is a dangerous risk. Kiev is full of anti-semites hungry for the blood of his people. But, he is 30 years old and is losing faith, just short of becoming desperate. A short time after arriving in Kiev he comes across a drunk man lying face down in the snow. His manner of dress tells Yakov the man is not only wealthy, but an anti-semite. Despite this Yakov helps him out of the snow. Nikolai Maximovitch is indeed wealthy and, feeling very much indebted to Yakov, gives him work. He further rewards Yakov with a job as overseer at his brick company and gives Yakov permission to see his only daughter, a crippled by the name of Zina. Despite Yakov’s fear of being found a Jew and against his better judgement he reluctantly accepts the job but has nothing to do with Zina. A series of misfortunes lands Yakov in jail where he is accused of being Jewish, attacking Zina, and worse, committing murder. Based on a true story this is a very, very difficult story to read. Yakov’s plight is horrible, his situation, dire and it doesn’t improve despite his innocence.

Favorite lines: “Where do you go if you have been nowhere?” (p 29) and “The more one hides the more he has to” (p 41).

Author Fact: I read The Fixer in honor of Malamud’s death month being in March. He died on the 18th in 1986 at the age of 72.

Book Trivia: The Fixer was made into a movie in 1968.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish American Experience” (p 133). False alarm. Pearl admits The Fixer is not about the Jewish-American Experience. She just mentions it because Malamud wrote other books that would fall in this category and The Fixer was worth mentioning because it won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award. IMO she should have had a chapter called “Pulitzer Pleasers” or something and listed her favorite award winners. Maybe something for a new Book Lust? She could call it “Lauded Book Lusts” or something. Each chapter could be a different award: Newbery, Caldecott, Push Cart, Pultizer…. okay, I’ll shut up now.

Wuthering Heights

gr4c5Leave a comment

Austen, Jane, Emily Bronte and George Eliot. Three Nineteenth Century Novels: Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Silas Marner. New York: New American Library, 1979.

Reviewing Wuthering Heights Heights only.
Wuthering Heights is the quintessential story of doomed romance, family strife and all-consuming revenge. Who doesn’t know the tragic story of Catherine and Heathcliff? Ellen (Nelly) Dean is the perfect narrator for Wuthering Heights. Only her memory bridges the gap between the two generations. She served both generations of the Earnshaw and Linton families. As she explains to renter Mr. Lockwood, she was a child servant in the Earnshaw household when Mr. Earnshaw brought home gypsy orphan, Heathcliff. Earnshaw’s children are slow to accept Heathcliff into the family and while Catherine softens and learns to love him, brother Hareton never does. It is a classic case of feelings magnifying over time. Catherine falls in love with Heathcliff while Hareton becomes consumed by hatred. Revenge becomes another theme in Wuthering Heights as Catherine’s love for Heathcliff is overshadowed by a wealthier, more gentlemanly suitor. Soon she is sacrificing her true passion for societal standing and marries well-to-do Edgar Linton instead.

Author fact: Emily Bronte was only 30 years old when she died of tuberculosis. Wuthering Heights was her only novel although she wrote tons of poetry…Can you imagine what she could have done if she had lived for another 30 years?

Book Trivia: Wuthering Heights has been made into movies, a television show, a musical, a play, and even an opera. Kate Bush wrote a song about Wuthering Heights that became a hit.

BookLust Twist: from More Book lust and Book Lust To Go. From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Brontes Forever” (p 35). From Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “An Anglophile’s Literary Pilgrimage” (p 20).

Up Country

gr4c5Leave a comment

Kumin, Maxine. Up Country: Poems of New England. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1972.

There is no doubt Kumin knows New England and knows it well. Her poetry reflects the deep woods and country living that is so typical of life in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Her style of writing is plain and straightforward, without complicated phrasings or over the top descriptors. Every line is a perfect image as clear as day. Reading Kumin’s poetry is a breath of fresh air literally and figuratively. Nearly everything she writes about the reader is able to relate to if they know living in the country. For example, if you are a dog owner and your beloved pooch has ever wrestled with a skunk then you know how impossible it is to get ride of that smell. Kumin writes, after many attempts to clean her dog, “skunk is still plain as a train announcement” (p 4). Exactly.

ps~ if you want to read this, try to find the copy illustrated by Barbara Swan. Her artistry is beautiful and compliments Kumin well.

Book Trivia: Up Country won Kumin a Pulitzer for poetry in 1973.

Author Fact: Kumin has experience with New England living. She is rumored to live in New Hampshire.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Prose By Poets” (p 194). In this case this is poetry by poets.

Little Town on the Prairie

gr4c5Leave a comment

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little Town on the Prairie. New York: Harper Trophy, 1971.

At this point in the “Little House” series Ma, Pa and the four daughters, Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace, have moved to town so that Pa can finish the homestead. This is their second year in De Smet and the little homestead is growing. Pa’s farming abilities are increasing with the addition of chickens, corn, and a bigger garden. The town is growing as well. A church has been built and the community is getting together for Friday Literary nights at the school where games like spelling bees, charades and debates are held. At this time Mary is sent away to a college for the blind and Laura is nearly sixteen years old. She is on her way to becoming a school teacher. Her focus is on studying hard so that she will be ready for the career when she turns sixteen. Another step towards adulthood is the growing, albeit confused, attraction to Almanzo Wilder. His courtship is odd to her because she thinks of him as “old” and more of a friend of her father’s than hers.

Interesting quote: “A grown-up person must never let feelings be shown by voice or manner” (p 228).

When I was little I thought it would be amazing to live like Laura Ingalls. There was something so simple and so pure about her era. Although life during that time was harder, less convenient, there was more emphasis placed on doing the right thing, using resources to their fullest, not wasting a single thing. Another aspect of the time was the fashion. Everything was so structured around age! Carrie had to wear her hair in braids down her back (which caught on the buttons running down the back of her dress) while Laura, approaching adulthood could wear her braids on top of her head. She was proud of the weight on her head.

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