A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1955, 252 pp


This is Flannery O'Connor's famous collection of stories about various characters and situations in the South. The characters run from flawed to evil, the situations from hard times to tragedy. Each story is extremely dark and hopeless with lightning flashes of wry humor.

You could say that human weakness is the theme, with both the attacker and the victim drawn to each other by that very weakness. O'Connor's compatriot in terms of setting and time period is Eudora Welty, but the point of view of each author, though dealing with similar subject matter, is almost diametrically opposed. Welty makes the quirks and weaknesses charming and understandable, while O'Connor's view is shadowed by doom.

I do see why O'Connor is so acclaimed. There is never a dull or boring moment in any of these stories. Somehow she lets you know that doom is coming, so you read eagerly, cringingly, almost guiltily, to find out what form that doom will take. It seems to me though that it is our own weakness that fuels the curiosity.

Released this year is a new biography, Flannery, A Life of Flannery O'Connor, by Brad Gooch. It has been called "the definitive biography" by Booklist, but got a snarly review from Joyce Carol Oates, who is surely a literary descendant of O'Connor. It sits on my shelf waiting for me to get through all of her own writing before learning what was behind it. I still have her two novels to go.


(A Good Man is Hard to Find is available in hardcover or paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. The biography is only available in hardcover, again by special order.)

THE PLAGUE OF DOVES

The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich, HarperCollins Publishers, 2008, 311 pp


Another great story from Louise Erdrich, told through the eyes of three different characters. Thus does the author demonstrate the tangled threads of Native Americans, French explorers and other European immigrants who have woven their destinies together. In generations past, in North Dakota, the slaughter of a white farming family was blamed on Ojibwe Indians, but the truth of the incident lives on in fragments among both the white and Native American descendants.

One of these is Evelina Harp, daughter of a white father and an Ojibwe mother. Evelina, coming of age and prone to falling hopelessly in love, finds herself drawn to the old tales discussed between her Grandfather Mooshum and her Great Uncle Shamengwa, who also have a propensity for hopeless loves. As she matures and navigates life with her mixed blood, learning the truth about the murders is also the path to understanding herself.

The revelations come about in the pattern of a woven basket: over and under, back and forth, around and around. Truth, legend, tall tales and spiritual lore all contribute to the collective memory of a small town and its nearby reservation. The realities of modern life branch back through time, through love and through the inevitable conflicts of different cultures coming together.

I discussed The Plague of Doves with one of my reading groups and was among only three readers who liked it. The lack of linear structure in the story gave the remaining readers a hard time. But as any child grows and gradually pieces together her family history, the process is not linear. As peoples with varying traditions and world views learn how to live together, truth is a fluid thing.

Erdrich brings a large dose of wisdom to this book, teaching us lessons that I suspect she has struggled to learn. Despite the violence and heartbreak, there is a distinct lack of bitterness or recrimination in the telling and much insight in the resolution of its central mystery.


(The Plague of Doves is available in paperback on the shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BLUEBERRY GIRL

Blueberry Girl, Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins Publishers, 2009


In a sort of early New Year's resolution, I will attempt a slight upgrade at least in terms of content here at Keep The Wisdom. Sunday posts will now be devoted to children and young adult literature. I start off here with my favorite picture book of 2009.

Neil Gaiman wrote the text, which is in the form of a prayer to female spirits for an as-yet-to-be-born daughter. The slightly psychedelic illustrations by Charles Vess are bursting with intense color, myriads of animals, and various incarnations of the Blueberry Girl to be.

I did not have a daughter but I have two granddaughters, as different from each other as any two females could be, but to me of course, equally precious and delightful. I wrote a poem for the elder and a song for the younger, so I am a bit in awe to find Neil Gaiman's lines so similar in intention to mine: "Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen. Let her stay waking and wise. Nightmares at three or bad husbands at thirty, these will not trouble her eyes."

I am giving this book to every expectant mother I know, as well as a copy to my daughter-in-law.


(Blueberry Girl is available on the shelf in the picture book section of Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE LACUNA

The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver, HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, 507 pp


My review of Barbara Kingsolver's latest and wonderful novel is now on-line at BookBrowse. I am going to post an excerpt here, but I must make it clear that I completely loved the book and admired it and think that any criticisms you might read in other reviews are ridiculous. Feel free to let me know your opinion if you have also read it. If you haven't, read it!

"The title of this novel is also its continuous imagery. A lacuna is a blank gap, a missing part...a hole, a vacancy. Harrison Shepherd (the main character) is haunted by lacunae. He discovers them, he is tortured by them, and ultimately it appears he is saved by one."
Read the full review here.


(The Lacuna is available in hardcover on the shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

TEN NORTH FREDERICK

Ten North Frederick, John O'Hara, Random House Inc, 1955, 408 pp


This novel was last on the Top 10 Bestsellers list for 1955. However, it also won the National Book Award in 1956. It was a fairly entertaining read about the top layer of society in a small Pennsylvania town. From what I have read so far of O'Hara's books, that seems to be his theme and location. In fact, there is not a great deal of difference between Ten North Frederick and his 1949 bestseller, Rage to Live, except that this novel included what happens to a fairly decent and cultured man who goes into politics. Nothing good of course.

Therefore to me, this was not an important book despite its bestseller material for the times (old money, family saga, sexual peccadilloes). It is another example of the cusp apparent in mid 1950s popular literature, sitting firmly on the end-of-an-era side. To see another viewpoint, check out the review on the National Book Award 60th Anniversary site.


(Ten North Frederick is out of print. I found a copy in my local library. Otherwise you will have to troll the used bookstores or on-line sellers.)

ELECTION

Election, Tom Perrotta, G P Putnam's Sons, 1998, 200 pp


Election is somewhat of a cult book due to the 1999 movie, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. I came across mention of the movie a while back and decided to read the book first. It is Perrotta's second novel, his first being The Wishbones, a rock and roll novel on my TBR list. Besides, Perrotta was raised in New Jersey.

This novel is a spoof on high school: the students, the teachers, the sex and promiscuity, as well as the politics. My, my, things were comparatively tame in my high school years, though it is possible that I was just a tad naive. Now that I think of it, one of my best friends was having sex with her boyfriend, but we didn't talk about it.

The election process at Winwood High is supposed to educate the students in the ways of democracy. What makes the novel funny is that the students recreate all the worst aspects of American electoral politics, with teachers and parents giving plenty of help.

The writing is clever, tongue-in-cheek style, alternating between the first person voices of the three student candidates and the teacher who runs the election right into the ground, despite his high-minded intentions and because of his own low-minded issues. It is a light, fast read and owes a nod to the travails of good old Bill Clinton. I have a feeling the movie will be even better.


(Election is available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BOG CHILD

Bog Child, Siobhan Dowd, Random House Inc, 2008, 322 pp


This is the sort of YA literature I like these days: somewhat historical with a regular protagonist who must make sense of the world around him. In Ireland, during "the troubles", some members of the IRA and the Irish National Liberation army went on a hunger strike while imprisoned. Fergus is the younger brother of one these soldiers.

It is 1981 and Fergus is a high school senior trying to study for and pass his college entrance exams. All around him are the people affected by his brother's ordeal, including his parents who have conflicting views. Meanwhile, during a clandestine peat cutting mission with his uncle, Fergus finds the body of a dead child, strangely preserved in the peat bog.

Not long after that, he is approached by Michael, a freedom fighter and asked to carry packages over the border during his habitual morning run through the hills. That is a lot to deal with for a 16 year old and of course, during it all, he falls in love for the first time.

Siobhan Dowd's writing is almost perfect and her book is an example of literature that straddles the boundary between YA and adult. (Note to parents: not in content or language but in issues.) It probably helps if the reader knows something about those times in Ireland, but the story could also spur an uninformed reader to do a little research.

As I read, I recalled my visit to Ireland a few years ago. I could see the peat bog, the misty hills; I could smell the rashers and the sheep. The Cranberries' song "Zombie" played in my head and I thought about how there are always decisions to make for any human being trying to understand the conflicts in the world, knowing how and when to take a stand, searching for love and attaining some measure of control over one's destiny.

Recommended for readers age 14 and up.

(Bog Child is available in hardcover by special order at Once Upon A Time Bookstore. The paperback will be released in the spring, 2010.)