Tender is the Night, F Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933, 315 pp
I read this for one of my reading groups and I was the only one who finished it. In fact, this group is now defunct. I am done with Fitzgerald. Not that I have read all of his novels but I've read three and with the possible exception of The Great Gatsby, he has let me down every time.
In The Beautiful and the Damned he at least wrote well. In Tender is the Night, I had no idea who was who or what was going on in the first 50 pages. I pressed on and found out that Dick Diver was the main character and a psychologist who married his schizophrenic patient. I mean, how dumb was that? Because: she was ridiculously rich, he lost his self-respect and his purpose in life and then due to his efforts, she eventually got well only to leave him.
I'm sorry but I really could not feel any pity for any of the characters and their collective tragedy seemed inevitable, due to many stupidities which could have been avoided. Someday I will read Zelda Fitzgerald's autobiography and biography to get the other side of the story. Fitzgerald's low opinions of mankind in general are only topped by his misogynist views of women in particular.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
THE GATHERING
The Gathering, Anne Enright, Grove/Atlantic Inc, 2007, 261 pp
This dark novel won the Booker Prize in 2007. I liked it pretty well because the writing is great. The story however is not too original: a woman's brother commits suicide, she gathers with her family, re-lives her childhood and uncovers hidden incidents to make sense of her brother's death. In fact, it was the same story told in Mary Morris's The Waiting Room, though much better written.
Really it is a story of abuse and how that poisons a family. Veronica, the sister, is a woman who rose out of the pit of her family only to become somewhat unhinged when her brother dies. But she comes through all sorts of grief, denial and fear of life, so there is hope in the end. Clearly a message is being sent here that what families sweep under the carpet will come back to haunt them. Also she does an excellent job of showing how children cannot make sense of many things in childhood but can unravel those confusions as adults.
We discussed the book at one of the reading groups I attend and not many liked it at all. For those women it was way too heavy and upsetting. I think they had their own issues of denial going on.
This dark novel won the Booker Prize in 2007. I liked it pretty well because the writing is great. The story however is not too original: a woman's brother commits suicide, she gathers with her family, re-lives her childhood and uncovers hidden incidents to make sense of her brother's death. In fact, it was the same story told in Mary Morris's The Waiting Room, though much better written.
Really it is a story of abuse and how that poisons a family. Veronica, the sister, is a woman who rose out of the pit of her family only to become somewhat unhinged when her brother dies. But she comes through all sorts of grief, denial and fear of life, so there is hope in the end. Clearly a message is being sent here that what families sweep under the carpet will come back to haunt them. Also she does an excellent job of showing how children cannot make sense of many things in childhood but can unravel those confusions as adults.
We discussed the book at one of the reading groups I attend and not many liked it at all. For those women it was way too heavy and upsetting. I think they had their own issues of denial going on.
THE SPARROW
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell, Villard Books, 1996, 405 pp
Wow! Amazing! So good. One of those books you stumble upon that takes you by surprise. I first saw it on the backlist shelf at the bookstore where I work. (Once Upon A Time in Montrose, CA) Then I saw it mentioned on several lists of top sci fi books. While on a trip to Ann Arbor, MI, I bought it at my favorite Ann Arbor bookstore: Shaman Drum.
Set in 2059, the story combines space travel, Jesuits, aliens and a group of flawed but wonderful human characters. All you know at the beginning is that Emilio Sandoz has returned from a journey into space, sick, broken and without the rest of his party. He is a Jesuit priest and is taken in by his order for healing, but there are some huge shameful aspects to the mission. The rest of the book, shifting back and forth in time, reveals the whole story.
In an interview, the author says she wanted to write a story about the pitfalls of first contact between two alien cultures and at this point in time, had to go offworld to do so. She has tackled here also issues of faith, belief and duty in religion; of family and love and recovery from horrific childhoods; of time and science, linguistics and society.
Hard to believe that it is a first novel. She weaves through all that heavy stuff with the lightest of touch. On top of all that, she never over-explains, so I felt I was discovering the alien culture right along with the mission and that I was recovering from devastating memories right along with Emilio. A masterpiece! Even if you think you don't like science fiction, give it a try.
THE WAITING ROOM
The Waiting Room, Mary Morris, Doubleday, 1989, 273 pp
After reading Mary Morris's travel memoir Nothing to Declare, I wanted to read more of her work. This is her second novel, published the year after the memoir and the lyrical but reportorial style I liked in that book did not enchant me in her novel.
Zoe Coleman returns to her Wisconsin hometown because her younger brother Badger has come back from Canada, where he had gone to escape the draft, and is now a drug casualty in a facility for various types of rehab patients. I think it would have been a pretty good and relevant book in the 80s. The quirky characters in Zoe's back story and the troubles with her mother make this a sort of Lisa Alther meets early Anne Tyler novel.
Morris does too much telling without showing and the deadpan delivery is at odds with the emotionally charged story. It did not make me want to read it but I made it through.
After reading Mary Morris's travel memoir Nothing to Declare, I wanted to read more of her work. This is her second novel, published the year after the memoir and the lyrical but reportorial style I liked in that book did not enchant me in her novel.
Zoe Coleman returns to her Wisconsin hometown because her younger brother Badger has come back from Canada, where he had gone to escape the draft, and is now a drug casualty in a facility for various types of rehab patients. I think it would have been a pretty good and relevant book in the 80s. The quirky characters in Zoe's back story and the troubles with her mother make this a sort of Lisa Alther meets early Anne Tyler novel.
Morris does too much telling without showing and the deadpan delivery is at odds with the emotionally charged story. It did not make me want to read it but I made it through.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
GHOSTWALK
Ghostwalk, Rebecca Stott, Spiegel & Grau, 2007, 284 pp
This was a good companion to Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson, because it is about Isaac Newton, though the main characters are contemporary. Stott combines historical fiction, obsessive love and a sort of supernatural blend of past and present where incidents from the past show up in various present locations in Cambridge, both the town and the university.
Lydia Brooke is a writer who returns to Cambridge for the funeral of historian Elizabeth Vogelsang, who died while working on a history of Newton and his involvement with alchemy. Lydia had left Cambridge to escape a hopeless affair with Vogelsang's married son Cameron, a medical researcher who is developing a psychiatric drug. On her return, she again gets involved with Cameron, who asks her to finish his mother's book.
Lydia moves into Elizabeth Vogelsang's house and immediately things get strange with mysterious lights in the house among other things, including a psychic, animal rights activists and further deaths. She finally solves it all and the story is therefore also a mystery.
I liked it. The writing is rather dreamy, time is fluid and while events are confusing, I felt I was in the hands of a good writer who moved the story along at a brisk pace. It was helpful to already know quite a bit about Newton and his life in the 1760s. Also I found it interesting to get a look at Newton from a different slant than Stephenson's. I was reminded of Hawksmoor, by Peter Ackroyd, which I read years ago, where murders committed in the 20th century had parallels in the 18th century.
This was a good companion to Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson, because it is about Isaac Newton, though the main characters are contemporary. Stott combines historical fiction, obsessive love and a sort of supernatural blend of past and present where incidents from the past show up in various present locations in Cambridge, both the town and the university.
Lydia Brooke is a writer who returns to Cambridge for the funeral of historian Elizabeth Vogelsang, who died while working on a history of Newton and his involvement with alchemy. Lydia had left Cambridge to escape a hopeless affair with Vogelsang's married son Cameron, a medical researcher who is developing a psychiatric drug. On her return, she again gets involved with Cameron, who asks her to finish his mother's book.
Lydia moves into Elizabeth Vogelsang's house and immediately things get strange with mysterious lights in the house among other things, including a psychic, animal rights activists and further deaths. She finally solves it all and the story is therefore also a mystery.
I liked it. The writing is rather dreamy, time is fluid and while events are confusing, I felt I was in the hands of a good writer who moved the story along at a brisk pace. It was helpful to already know quite a bit about Newton and his life in the 1760s. Also I found it interesting to get a look at Newton from a different slant than Stephenson's. I was reminded of Hawksmoor, by Peter Ackroyd, which I read years ago, where murders committed in the 20th century had parallels in the 18th century.
Monday, June 16, 2008
CHILDREN OF MEN
While I write the chapter for 1953, I'll keep blogging about books I have read recently.
Children of Men, P D James, Alfred A Knopf, 1993, 241 pp
What if the human race became sterile and no more children were born? That is the premise here and all the ways this would affect society and daily life are played out.
Along comes a small sort of revolutionary group protesting some of the government's policies. An Oxford professor gets involved with them which is complicated by the fact that he is a cousin of the head of government. Then one of the women in the revolutionary group gets pregnant!
From that point on the suspense and pace are relentless to the end, at which point the question is raised: what now? It is a good story, with excellent characters and a much better pace than the two of her mysteries I've read. Though it is set in 2021, I didn't find much technological evidence of a society almost 30 years in the future, which surprised me, but the state of the world politically was definitely in a worse way.
I will probably be alive in 2021. I will be turning 73 in that year. I wonder if I will remember this book then. The other night I saw the movie made from this book. It is so much changed that it is a different story but I have to say that it was good. Actually it was almost better than the book.
Children of Men, P D James, Alfred A Knopf, 1993, 241 pp
What if the human race became sterile and no more children were born? That is the premise here and all the ways this would affect society and daily life are played out.
Along comes a small sort of revolutionary group protesting some of the government's policies. An Oxford professor gets involved with them which is complicated by the fact that he is a cousin of the head of government. Then one of the women in the revolutionary group gets pregnant!
From that point on the suspense and pace are relentless to the end, at which point the question is raised: what now? It is a good story, with excellent characters and a much better pace than the two of her mysteries I've read. Though it is set in 2021, I didn't find much technological evidence of a society almost 30 years in the future, which surprised me, but the state of the world politically was definitely in a worse way.
I will probably be alive in 2021. I will be turning 73 in that year. I wonder if I will remember this book then. The other night I saw the movie made from this book. It is so much changed that it is a different story but I have to say that it was good. Actually it was almost better than the book.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART SIX
This post contains the prize winning books from 1953. This year there was a new award: The Hugo Award, named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction," as he was described in a special award given to him in 1960. The Hugo Award, also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society. Like most awards it has many categories but I am reading the best novel winner.
PULITZER PRIZE: The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway. This book was the #7 bestseller in 1952 and I reviewed it in the post BOOKS READ FROM 1952, PART TWO, posted on Feb. 11, 2008.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, Random House Inc, 1952, 581 pp
This book has been called the greatest American novel in the second half of the twentieth century. Hm. I was ready to be wowed.
The main character, whose name we never learn, is a young black man at a prestigious college for Negroes in the South. He is trying to rise in the world as a Negro but is woefully oblivious of the real dynamics going on between the races, economically and politically.
He gets expelled for trying to do what he thinks is the right thing, ends up in New York City and has many disastrous experiences, including becoming a spokesperson for the Communist Party in Harlem. But all along, he is used by white men and women, until he decides that he, as a person, is invisible.
Sounds exciting, yes? Well, the story did get me through but the storytelling would bog down often and leave me napping. It took me 5 days to read this book; days when I had plenty of time to read. At least I can say that I have now read, along with Richard Wright's books, the seminal novels of the Black male experience.
HUGO AWARD: The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester, Nelson Doubleday Inc, 1953, 183 pp
This science fiction novel won the first ever Hugo Award. It is about a manic business mogul who will stop at nothing to succeed. In this future civilization, many people are able to read minds and communicate telepathically with each other. They are called "peepers" and they permeate society.
The drama is whether or not the businessman will be caught for a murder he committed. If he is convicted he faces demolishment. The writing is mediocre and in that slangy style of certain sci fi and mystery novels. The emotional impact comes at the end when you learn what it means to demolish a man. Ultimately it is a hopeful book with the theme of the betterment of mankind. Interesting!
NEWBERY AWARD: Secret of the Andes, Ann Nolan Clark, The Viking Press, 1952, 130 pp
This is a most beautifully written story of a young Inca boy raised by an old man in a secret valley high in the Andes. He comes of age, gradually getting his urgent questions answered about who he is and what is his destiny.
Having recently read Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende, which is set in the same locale and time period, I was overjoyed to read a story from the Inca viewpoint. One of the first things the Spanish conquerors did was to defeat the ancient Inca civilization.
Cusi, and thus the reader, learns that it is possible to keep beliefs and wisdom alive in one's heart and mind. So great.
CALDECOTT AWARD: The Biggest Bear, Lyn Ward, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952, 85 pp
The Caldecott winner for 1953 features Johnny Orchard, a farm boy who is humiliated because theirs is the only barn without a bear skin on the side. In the illustrations, also by Ward, Johnny looks about 8 or 9 years old. He roams the entire countryside with his own rifle, hunting for a bear.
Finally he brings home a baby bear who grows up and becomes a nuisance, so Johnny tries to return the bear to the forest. Naturally the bear keeps coming back and finally winds up in the zoo.
Great illustrations but a highly improbable story and what is so great about the zoo? Would a kid buy this story?
PULITZER PRIZE: The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway. This book was the #7 bestseller in 1952 and I reviewed it in the post BOOKS READ FROM 1952, PART TWO, posted on Feb. 11, 2008.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, Random House Inc, 1952, 581 pp
This book has been called the greatest American novel in the second half of the twentieth century. Hm. I was ready to be wowed.
The main character, whose name we never learn, is a young black man at a prestigious college for Negroes in the South. He is trying to rise in the world as a Negro but is woefully oblivious of the real dynamics going on between the races, economically and politically.
He gets expelled for trying to do what he thinks is the right thing, ends up in New York City and has many disastrous experiences, including becoming a spokesperson for the Communist Party in Harlem. But all along, he is used by white men and women, until he decides that he, as a person, is invisible.
Sounds exciting, yes? Well, the story did get me through but the storytelling would bog down often and leave me napping. It took me 5 days to read this book; days when I had plenty of time to read. At least I can say that I have now read, along with Richard Wright's books, the seminal novels of the Black male experience.
HUGO AWARD: The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester, Nelson Doubleday Inc, 1953, 183 pp
This science fiction novel won the first ever Hugo Award. It is about a manic business mogul who will stop at nothing to succeed. In this future civilization, many people are able to read minds and communicate telepathically with each other. They are called "peepers" and they permeate society.
The drama is whether or not the businessman will be caught for a murder he committed. If he is convicted he faces demolishment. The writing is mediocre and in that slangy style of certain sci fi and mystery novels. The emotional impact comes at the end when you learn what it means to demolish a man. Ultimately it is a hopeful book with the theme of the betterment of mankind. Interesting!
NEWBERY AWARD: Secret of the Andes, Ann Nolan Clark, The Viking Press, 1952, 130 pp
This is a most beautifully written story of a young Inca boy raised by an old man in a secret valley high in the Andes. He comes of age, gradually getting his urgent questions answered about who he is and what is his destiny.
Having recently read Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende, which is set in the same locale and time period, I was overjoyed to read a story from the Inca viewpoint. One of the first things the Spanish conquerors did was to defeat the ancient Inca civilization.
Cusi, and thus the reader, learns that it is possible to keep beliefs and wisdom alive in one's heart and mind. So great.
CALDECOTT AWARD: The Biggest Bear, Lyn Ward, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952, 85 pp
The Caldecott winner for 1953 features Johnny Orchard, a farm boy who is humiliated because theirs is the only barn without a bear skin on the side. In the illustrations, also by Ward, Johnny looks about 8 or 9 years old. He roams the entire countryside with his own rifle, hunting for a bear.
Finally he brings home a baby bear who grows up and becomes a nuisance, so Johnny tries to return the bear to the forest. Naturally the bear keeps coming back and finally winds up in the zoo.
Great illustrations but a highly improbable story and what is so great about the zoo? Would a kid buy this story?
Sunday, June 08, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART FIVE
The Long March, William Styron, Random House, 1953, 120 pp
This is the only other piece of fiction (The Bridges at Toko-Ri by James Michener being one) I have read, chronologically speaking, that has the Korean War in it. The setting is a Marine training camp in the Carolinas and features two former marines who fought in WWII, then became reserves and have now been called back as the armed forces mobilize for Korea.
One of these men, Culver, tells the story as he watches his friend Mannix fall apart during a 30-mile forced march, dreamed up as a training exercise by their colonel. The book is a study of military psychology, human strengths and weaknesses, as well as the effect of an exercise in futility on different types of men.
Intense.
Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1953, 191 pp
In the final volume of the Foundation trilogy, the Mule rises again with an altered method for conquest of the universe. But the real surprise is the emergence of the "Second Foundation," mentioned in Hari Seldon's plan but never before taken into account.
This is the most exciting of the three books and I can't say more without giving it away. What was most interesting to me was the idea that the two foundations, having the same goal, would come into conflict. Also the idea of science versus spirit is part of the story. Is there anything this writer did not cover?
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, Ballantine/Del Rey Books, 1953, 165 pp
This is probably Bradbury's most famous book but I had never read it before. It is said that the book is about censorship but it is actually about the loss of literacy and the willingness of mankind in general to agree with being dumbed down and giving up their freedom to think for themselves.
Guy Montag is a fireman whose job it is to burn books and any houses that contain them. 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. He meets a young girl who opens his eyes to the actual pleasure of life and the beauty of literature, which leads him to rebel against the powers that be. He eventually goes underground and joins up with people who are trying to preserve the knowledge found in books.
I had a problem with the writing; I thought it was his worst so far. But the story is a unique take on a universal theme (Keep the Wisdom!). I especially liked the image of the TV room in people's houses. All four walls of a room comprised the TV screen. How prescient.
The Golden Apples of the Sun, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1953, 209 pp
Another collection of Bradbury's stories from 1947 to 1953. He covers a wide range of subjects from all his usual concerns. Some of the stories are only a few pages and not many of them really thrilled me. I read two stories a day for 11 days and was bored most of the time. Part of it is his writing which just makes me cringe. Another part is that he may have been one of the first to put forth some of these thoughts and ideas but over 60 years later, they are no longer new ideas.
The best story is "Powerhouse" in which a woman finds faith and understanding about life while sleeping in a power station and having her first out of body experience. In it, his idea overcomes his writing.
The Silver Chair, C S Lewis, HarperCollins Inc, 1953, 243 pp
In the fourth book of the Chronicles of Narnia (by the old numbering system), cousin Eustace and his school chum Jill enter Narnia to help Aslan release the son of Prince Caspian from an enchantment. I don't recall ever having read this volume and found it to be a good story that kept me enthralled.
Lucy and Edmund can no longer go to Narnia, being too old now. Eustace has no traces of the disgusting side of his personality, having been cured in The Voyage of the Dawntreader. Jill is a sensible girl who readily adapts to Narnia. They journey through moors, mountains and even the underground, encountering yet another wicked witch as well as giants.
None of the later stories quite measure up to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but this is one of the better ones with not so much moralizing or religious symbolism and some good tips on breaking enchantments.
This is the only other piece of fiction (The Bridges at Toko-Ri by James Michener being one) I have read, chronologically speaking, that has the Korean War in it. The setting is a Marine training camp in the Carolinas and features two former marines who fought in WWII, then became reserves and have now been called back as the armed forces mobilize for Korea.
One of these men, Culver, tells the story as he watches his friend Mannix fall apart during a 30-mile forced march, dreamed up as a training exercise by their colonel. The book is a study of military psychology, human strengths and weaknesses, as well as the effect of an exercise in futility on different types of men.
Intense.
Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1953, 191 pp
In the final volume of the Foundation trilogy, the Mule rises again with an altered method for conquest of the universe. But the real surprise is the emergence of the "Second Foundation," mentioned in Hari Seldon's plan but never before taken into account.
This is the most exciting of the three books and I can't say more without giving it away. What was most interesting to me was the idea that the two foundations, having the same goal, would come into conflict. Also the idea of science versus spirit is part of the story. Is there anything this writer did not cover?
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, Ballantine/Del Rey Books, 1953, 165 pp
This is probably Bradbury's most famous book but I had never read it before. It is said that the book is about censorship but it is actually about the loss of literacy and the willingness of mankind in general to agree with being dumbed down and giving up their freedom to think for themselves.
Guy Montag is a fireman whose job it is to burn books and any houses that contain them. 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. He meets a young girl who opens his eyes to the actual pleasure of life and the beauty of literature, which leads him to rebel against the powers that be. He eventually goes underground and joins up with people who are trying to preserve the knowledge found in books.
I had a problem with the writing; I thought it was his worst so far. But the story is a unique take on a universal theme (Keep the Wisdom!). I especially liked the image of the TV room in people's houses. All four walls of a room comprised the TV screen. How prescient.
The Golden Apples of the Sun, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1953, 209 pp
Another collection of Bradbury's stories from 1947 to 1953. He covers a wide range of subjects from all his usual concerns. Some of the stories are only a few pages and not many of them really thrilled me. I read two stories a day for 11 days and was bored most of the time. Part of it is his writing which just makes me cringe. Another part is that he may have been one of the first to put forth some of these thoughts and ideas but over 60 years later, they are no longer new ideas.
The best story is "Powerhouse" in which a woman finds faith and understanding about life while sleeping in a power station and having her first out of body experience. In it, his idea overcomes his writing.
The Silver Chair, C S Lewis, HarperCollins Inc, 1953, 243 pp
In the fourth book of the Chronicles of Narnia (by the old numbering system), cousin Eustace and his school chum Jill enter Narnia to help Aslan release the son of Prince Caspian from an enchantment. I don't recall ever having read this volume and found it to be a good story that kept me enthralled.
Lucy and Edmund can no longer go to Narnia, being too old now. Eustace has no traces of the disgusting side of his personality, having been cured in The Voyage of the Dawntreader. Jill is a sensible girl who readily adapts to Narnia. They journey through moors, mountains and even the underground, encountering yet another wicked witch as well as giants.
None of the later stories quite measure up to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but this is one of the better ones with not so much moralizing or religious symbolism and some good tips on breaking enchantments.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART FOUR
Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrar, Penguin Putnam Inc, 1953, 329 pp
My husband gave me this book for Christmas many years ago and it just sat on the shelf. Then I saw the movie which came out in 1997 and starred Brad Pitt, where I found out what it was all about. Much as I liked the movie and was glad for the images it gave me, the book is, of course, way better.
In 1939, the author, who is German, was interred in a POW camp in India. England had declared war on Germany, so while these prisoners were not mistreated, they could not be free. Harrar and some of his friends were mountain climbers and refused to be stuck in a prison camp, so after several attempts finally escaped in order to continue with their plans of crossing the Himilayas and entering Tibet. Harrar's goal was Lhasa, home of the Dalai Lama and center of Tibetan Buddhism.
He and one other man made it mostly by walking, occasionally by yak. It took them two years and because they had no papers, they were under constant danger of being kicked out of the country. Their journey makes Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods look like a walk in the park. I found similarities to The Places in Between, Rory Stewart's record of his walk across Afghanistan.
Finally in Lhasa, Harrar becomes part of the city and eventually tutor to the 14 year old Dalai Lama. He loved it there so much and makes the reader love it as well. He would probably still be there but in 1950, Communist China invaded and he had to flee, as did the Dalai Lama. Tibetan Buddhism, its thousands of monasteries and tens of thousands of monks, was almost obliterated by the communists and Tibet, land of mystery and spiritual practice, will never be the same.
I felt extremely sad about that as I finished the book and suffered from a mild depression for several days afterwards. Though Harrar was a scientist and atheist, he did a fine thing for the spiritual history of mankind by writing this book. Though steeped in superstition, Tibet was basically at peace for a thousand years because of Buddhism.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, James A Michener, Random House Inc, 1953, 147 pp
This is the only other book about the Korean War that I have read so far in this project. Unlike William Styron's The Long March, it actually takes place in Korea and features a jet pilot named Harry Brubaker, a WWII vet who was recalled from his civilian life as a lawyer and married man with two daughters, to fight another war to save democracy. He is conflicted between doing his duty and wanting his contented civilian life.
Michener manages to pour it on pretty thick about how important the war is and how much the regular American citizen doesn't realize that or even care. Personally I am ready for this author to move on, which he does in 1959 with Hawaii.
The Marmot Drive, John Hersey, Alfred A Knopf, 1953, 237 pp
Oh my, this was a boring book. It is one of those stories about city people versus small town people. Hester, born and raised in New York City, goes home for the weekend with her boyfriend Eben to a small Connecticut village. Turns out that Eben's father, the Selectman of the village, has organized a plan to drive out the marmots (groundhogs) who have overrun the place.
The whole story then is hung on this marmot drive and used to show up a bunch of rugged individualists and to give Hester a chance to make her decision about whether or not to marry Eben. Quite a small canvas after the vast tale of the Warsaw ghetto in The Wall. I suppose a small town is a sort of ghetto but marmots are not Nazis.
The Outsider, Richard Wright, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953, 405 pp
It was clear from the first page that Cross, a young Black man in Chicago, is doomed. Then you read 400 pages to find out how he engineered his doom. He deserts everyone to whom he has committed himself; he murders several men; he relocates to New York City and acquires a new identity; he becomes involved with the Communist Party. But he never changes. He is so disassociated from humanity that, while he is very intelligent and well-read and has built up an entire personal philosophy, he cannot grow or learn from his experiences.
I do not know what Wright is trying to say here. Something about morality or the lack of it in human beings. Yes, there is the subject of race but he seems to feel that men of any race are deluded and depraved.
I read it to the end and was not left with any feeling of satisfaction. Are we all doomed? Are we all outsiders?
Nine Stories, J D Salinger, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 198 pp
I read a story a day, which is the successful way for me to get through a story collection. I had read a few of them before.
"For Esme-with Love and Squalor" is one I remembered and I still loved it. Salinger does kids so well and in the final story, "Teddy" he wowed me again. A couple others were clearly New Yorker types about odd and messed up adults. I didn't like those as well.
Cress Delahanty, Jessamyn West, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1953, 311 pp
Jessamyn West's books fall into a category I call comfort fiction. She takes up the quirks of everyday people but it all comes out right in the end. Not too exciting but I keep reading her because she plumbs the human spirit with a unique voice.
Cress Delahanty is 12 years old at the beginning of this series of vignettes. By the end she is 16. She lives on a citrus ranch, an only child with two decent and understanding parents. Her volatile personality, influenced by reading and nature, makes her a bit more than the usual teen, but all the hyper-emotional world of the teen years is portrayed quite well by West, as well as the learning experiences about boys, men and family.
Still this was not the best of her books so far.
My husband gave me this book for Christmas many years ago and it just sat on the shelf. Then I saw the movie which came out in 1997 and starred Brad Pitt, where I found out what it was all about. Much as I liked the movie and was glad for the images it gave me, the book is, of course, way better.
In 1939, the author, who is German, was interred in a POW camp in India. England had declared war on Germany, so while these prisoners were not mistreated, they could not be free. Harrar and some of his friends were mountain climbers and refused to be stuck in a prison camp, so after several attempts finally escaped in order to continue with their plans of crossing the Himilayas and entering Tibet. Harrar's goal was Lhasa, home of the Dalai Lama and center of Tibetan Buddhism.
He and one other man made it mostly by walking, occasionally by yak. It took them two years and because they had no papers, they were under constant danger of being kicked out of the country. Their journey makes Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods look like a walk in the park. I found similarities to The Places in Between, Rory Stewart's record of his walk across Afghanistan.
Finally in Lhasa, Harrar becomes part of the city and eventually tutor to the 14 year old Dalai Lama. He loved it there so much and makes the reader love it as well. He would probably still be there but in 1950, Communist China invaded and he had to flee, as did the Dalai Lama. Tibetan Buddhism, its thousands of monasteries and tens of thousands of monks, was almost obliterated by the communists and Tibet, land of mystery and spiritual practice, will never be the same.
I felt extremely sad about that as I finished the book and suffered from a mild depression for several days afterwards. Though Harrar was a scientist and atheist, he did a fine thing for the spiritual history of mankind by writing this book. Though steeped in superstition, Tibet was basically at peace for a thousand years because of Buddhism.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, James A Michener, Random House Inc, 1953, 147 pp
This is the only other book about the Korean War that I have read so far in this project. Unlike William Styron's The Long March, it actually takes place in Korea and features a jet pilot named Harry Brubaker, a WWII vet who was recalled from his civilian life as a lawyer and married man with two daughters, to fight another war to save democracy. He is conflicted between doing his duty and wanting his contented civilian life.
Michener manages to pour it on pretty thick about how important the war is and how much the regular American citizen doesn't realize that or even care. Personally I am ready for this author to move on, which he does in 1959 with Hawaii.
The Marmot Drive, John Hersey, Alfred A Knopf, 1953, 237 pp
Oh my, this was a boring book. It is one of those stories about city people versus small town people. Hester, born and raised in New York City, goes home for the weekend with her boyfriend Eben to a small Connecticut village. Turns out that Eben's father, the Selectman of the village, has organized a plan to drive out the marmots (groundhogs) who have overrun the place.
The whole story then is hung on this marmot drive and used to show up a bunch of rugged individualists and to give Hester a chance to make her decision about whether or not to marry Eben. Quite a small canvas after the vast tale of the Warsaw ghetto in The Wall. I suppose a small town is a sort of ghetto but marmots are not Nazis.
The Outsider, Richard Wright, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953, 405 pp
It was clear from the first page that Cross, a young Black man in Chicago, is doomed. Then you read 400 pages to find out how he engineered his doom. He deserts everyone to whom he has committed himself; he murders several men; he relocates to New York City and acquires a new identity; he becomes involved with the Communist Party. But he never changes. He is so disassociated from humanity that, while he is very intelligent and well-read and has built up an entire personal philosophy, he cannot grow or learn from his experiences.
I do not know what Wright is trying to say here. Something about morality or the lack of it in human beings. Yes, there is the subject of race but he seems to feel that men of any race are deluded and depraved.
I read it to the end and was not left with any feeling of satisfaction. Are we all doomed? Are we all outsiders?
Nine Stories, J D Salinger, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 198 pp
I read a story a day, which is the successful way for me to get through a story collection. I had read a few of them before.
"For Esme-with Love and Squalor" is one I remembered and I still loved it. Salinger does kids so well and in the final story, "Teddy" he wowed me again. A couple others were clearly New Yorker types about odd and messed up adults. I didn't like those as well.
Cress Delahanty, Jessamyn West, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1953, 311 pp
Jessamyn West's books fall into a category I call comfort fiction. She takes up the quirks of everyday people but it all comes out right in the end. Not too exciting but I keep reading her because she plumbs the human spirit with a unique voice.
Cress Delahanty is 12 years old at the beginning of this series of vignettes. By the end she is 16. She lives on a citrus ranch, an only child with two decent and understanding parents. Her volatile personality, influenced by reading and nature, makes her a bit more than the usual teen, but all the hyper-emotional world of the teen years is portrayed quite well by West, as well as the learning experiences about boys, men and family.
Still this was not the best of her books so far.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART THREE
This post is the first of four which will cover other books I read for 1953. This is a list I make up myself featuring authors I am interested in or who have written important novels and non-fiction.
The Lying Days, Nadine Gordimer, Simon and Schuster Inc, 1953, 340 pp
This is Nadine Gordimer's first novel and is set in South Africa in post WWII times. Helen Shaw grows up at "The Mine", with English parents living the proper colonial life in the sheltered white community. In her teens she becomes aware of the isolation and utter boredom of that life and begins to see the racism and the plight of the natives. She breaks away by going to university in Johannesburg, taking up with radical friends, living with a man who works to "help" the natives.
It is the coming of age story of women in the generation just before mine. I liked it but it seemed to take forever to read. She is true in her observations but a bit wordy and reserved in her style. She never really lets go in her writing but keeps it under some kind of strict control. Since it was her first novel and better than the book of stories I read (The Soft Voice of the Serpent, 1952), I have hope for her. Plus she has remained a respected and well-known writer for her whole life.
Five, Doris Lessing, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1953, 382 pp
This volume collects five short novels and was hard to find. None of my libraries or book stores had it and as far as I can tell, it was never published in the United States. I finally found some copies at Alibris. Yet these five novels are easily worth more than any five of the 10 bestsellers I read for 1953.
First of all, Doris Lessing is such a stunningly good writer and it can only be because she is a woman and an opinionated one at that, that she did not receive a Nobel Prize until this year. Four of the stories take place in South Africa. As in The Grass Is Singing, her ability to put the reader in that place, where I have never been, is astounding, as is her skill at making the inner lives of both whites and native so real. While she tells these South African tales she also delves into universal themes about men and women, a search for meaning and happiness, issues of personal freedom and deep matters of the heart.
I think that is the greatest thing an author can do, because while racism, political idiocracies, clashes of social classes, are fairly unique depending on place, an understanding of the hopes and failings of all mankind is the key to unlocking the struggles. Because Lessing's plotting and characterization and storytelling are so good, she does this great thing, compromising nothing and entertaining fully.
I hope that because of the Nobel Prize, more people will read her books.
The Heart of the Family, Elizabeth Goudge, Servant Publications Edition, 1953.
I read this back in 1998 when I was reading through all of Goudge's books. She is quite Christian in her philosophy with her most sterling quality being her tolerance of human foibles. My life in the 90s was full of stress and she brought me a much needed dose of peace. The Heart of the Family is the third and last of the Eliot family series, which began with The Bird in the Tree in 1940, followed by Pilgrim's Inn in 1948.
At first and for about half of the book, I was annoyed by it. There was too much spiritual stuff and almost a preaching tone, which is unusual for Goudge. She was clearly getting down her own philosophy and thoughts rather than letting the story tell them. But by the end, she won me over and it became that usual Goudge magical thing that she does. She makes me be a better person somehow.
Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson, Farrar Straus and Young, 1953, 241 pp
This is a wonderfully funny account of Ms Jackson's life as a mother of young children in a huge old house in Connecticut. It is hard to believe that this is the same author who penned the creepy Hangsaman.
She begins when her first child is a toddler with a hilarious account of their search for a place to live after she and her husband were evicted from their NYC apartment because they forgot to renew their lease. Each chapter is another phase in their lives: a child's first days at school, a new baby, Shirley learning to drive, etc. She and her husband are clearly writers but she does not go into how or when she writes, only mentioning that she reads a lot of mysteries. Her insight into children is deep and while she is a conscientious and loving mother, she is also somewhat unconventional. The kids are smart, precocious really, but not brats.
I was highly entertained throughout and found myself wishing I could have grown up in that family. Somehow she made being a mother and housewife in the 50s sound fun, not boring, though I suspect some irony because of how much she goes on about all the chocolate pudding she made.
The Siege, Illes Kaczer, Dial Press, 1953
This is another book I read a while back, 1994 to be exact. That was before I had conceived of My Big Fat Reading Project, when I was trying to read all the fiction in the library alphabetically by author. When I got tired of the A's, which I never got through, I would go through the other letters. It was also before I knew that it was cool to read translated literature from other countries. I was just reading books as I came to them.
Well, that is how I found out for myself that it is cool to read translated literature because it would take me into worlds which were utterly new to me. The Siege is a story about Jews in Hungary in the 1800s, written by a Hungarian Jew. There is just no comparison as far as getting the real feel between this and some historical fiction written by an American author. I really got what it is like to be an oppressed people.
The Return of Lanny Budd, Upton Sinclair, The Viking Press, 1953, 555 pp
Yes, Lanny is back one more time and does his bit at the beginning of the cold war. This volume is heavily anti-communist, anti-Stalin and very pro-American. But the pages went by quickly and I learned a good deal about the days when Berlin was split into East and West.
Sinclair makes a good point about the lack of funding for positive propaganda concerning America as opposed to funding for arms. I also saw the birth of the fight against communism in this country. He makes a convincing case for the need to fight that political system, though he was once fairly enamored of it. I couldn't quite buy everything he had to say but it was timely.
The Lying Days, Nadine Gordimer, Simon and Schuster Inc, 1953, 340 pp
This is Nadine Gordimer's first novel and is set in South Africa in post WWII times. Helen Shaw grows up at "The Mine", with English parents living the proper colonial life in the sheltered white community. In her teens she becomes aware of the isolation and utter boredom of that life and begins to see the racism and the plight of the natives. She breaks away by going to university in Johannesburg, taking up with radical friends, living with a man who works to "help" the natives.
It is the coming of age story of women in the generation just before mine. I liked it but it seemed to take forever to read. She is true in her observations but a bit wordy and reserved in her style. She never really lets go in her writing but keeps it under some kind of strict control. Since it was her first novel and better than the book of stories I read (The Soft Voice of the Serpent, 1952), I have hope for her. Plus she has remained a respected and well-known writer for her whole life.
Five, Doris Lessing, Michael Joseph Ltd, 1953, 382 pp
This volume collects five short novels and was hard to find. None of my libraries or book stores had it and as far as I can tell, it was never published in the United States. I finally found some copies at Alibris. Yet these five novels are easily worth more than any five of the 10 bestsellers I read for 1953.
First of all, Doris Lessing is such a stunningly good writer and it can only be because she is a woman and an opinionated one at that, that she did not receive a Nobel Prize until this year. Four of the stories take place in South Africa. As in The Grass Is Singing, her ability to put the reader in that place, where I have never been, is astounding, as is her skill at making the inner lives of both whites and native so real. While she tells these South African tales she also delves into universal themes about men and women, a search for meaning and happiness, issues of personal freedom and deep matters of the heart.
I think that is the greatest thing an author can do, because while racism, political idiocracies, clashes of social classes, are fairly unique depending on place, an understanding of the hopes and failings of all mankind is the key to unlocking the struggles. Because Lessing's plotting and characterization and storytelling are so good, she does this great thing, compromising nothing and entertaining fully.
I hope that because of the Nobel Prize, more people will read her books.
The Heart of the Family, Elizabeth Goudge, Servant Publications Edition, 1953.
I read this back in 1998 when I was reading through all of Goudge's books. She is quite Christian in her philosophy with her most sterling quality being her tolerance of human foibles. My life in the 90s was full of stress and she brought me a much needed dose of peace. The Heart of the Family is the third and last of the Eliot family series, which began with The Bird in the Tree in 1940, followed by Pilgrim's Inn in 1948.
At first and for about half of the book, I was annoyed by it. There was too much spiritual stuff and almost a preaching tone, which is unusual for Goudge. She was clearly getting down her own philosophy and thoughts rather than letting the story tell them. But by the end, she won me over and it became that usual Goudge magical thing that she does. She makes me be a better person somehow.
Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson, Farrar Straus and Young, 1953, 241 pp
This is a wonderfully funny account of Ms Jackson's life as a mother of young children in a huge old house in Connecticut. It is hard to believe that this is the same author who penned the creepy Hangsaman.
She begins when her first child is a toddler with a hilarious account of their search for a place to live after she and her husband were evicted from their NYC apartment because they forgot to renew their lease. Each chapter is another phase in their lives: a child's first days at school, a new baby, Shirley learning to drive, etc. She and her husband are clearly writers but she does not go into how or when she writes, only mentioning that she reads a lot of mysteries. Her insight into children is deep and while she is a conscientious and loving mother, she is also somewhat unconventional. The kids are smart, precocious really, but not brats.
I was highly entertained throughout and found myself wishing I could have grown up in that family. Somehow she made being a mother and housewife in the 50s sound fun, not boring, though I suspect some irony because of how much she goes on about all the chocolate pudding she made.
The Siege, Illes Kaczer, Dial Press, 1953
This is another book I read a while back, 1994 to be exact. That was before I had conceived of My Big Fat Reading Project, when I was trying to read all the fiction in the library alphabetically by author. When I got tired of the A's, which I never got through, I would go through the other letters. It was also before I knew that it was cool to read translated literature from other countries. I was just reading books as I came to them.
Well, that is how I found out for myself that it is cool to read translated literature because it would take me into worlds which were utterly new to me. The Siege is a story about Jews in Hungary in the 1800s, written by a Hungarian Jew. There is just no comparison as far as getting the real feel between this and some historical fiction written by an American author. I really got what it is like to be an oppressed people.
The Return of Lanny Budd, Upton Sinclair, The Viking Press, 1953, 555 pp
Yes, Lanny is back one more time and does his bit at the beginning of the cold war. This volume is heavily anti-communist, anti-Stalin and very pro-American. But the pages went by quickly and I learned a good deal about the days when Berlin was split into East and West.
Sinclair makes a good point about the lack of funding for positive propaganda concerning America as opposed to funding for arms. I also saw the birth of the fight against communism in this country. He makes a convincing case for the need to fight that political system, though he was once fairly enamored of it. I couldn't quite buy everything he had to say but it was timely.
Monday, May 26, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART TWO
This post contains the second half of the bestseller list for 1953.
The High and the Mighty, Ernest K Gann, William Morrow & Company Inc, 1953, 342 pp
This novel was the #6 bestseller for 1953 and takes place on an airplane during a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, a trip which took 12 hours in those days. It is an early version of books like Night Over Water, by Ken Follett. The plane develops trouble and the main suspense concerns whether or not they will have to "ditch" which means "land" on the ocean.
Gann was a pilot himself and wrote many novels about flight. This one was also made into a movie starring John Wayne, for which Gann wrote the screenplay. He was considered a good writer in his time, but I found the book formulaic: introduce the characters, both the flyboys and the passengers; finally the plane takes off; several odd bumps and noises foreshadow the trouble to come; personal issues of the characters come to light during the crisis; then the last minute save.
What was interesting to me were the facts about air travel in the early 50s: propellers not jets, slower speeds and lower altitudes (no pressurized cabins), rudimentary radio contact and radar. The end of the book was highly dramatic and made it a good read finally. I also saw the movie which was not bad.
Beyond This Place, A J Cronin, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 247pp
This was #7 on the 1953 bestseller list and is the fourth bestseller I've read by this author. His first book, The Keys of the Kingdom, still rates with me as his best. All of his books concern young men with unusual childhoods and hardships they must overcome.
In Beyond This Place, Paul was raised by his pious Christian mother in Belfast, Ireland. He remembers a father from his very young years and has always been told that the father died in an accident. At the age of 20 he learns that all this time his father has been in prison, serving a life sentence for murder.
Paul sets out for a small town in England, where the murder occurred, determined to find his father. He faces innumerable obstacles but is finally reunited with his dad. The entire story is overwrought with emotion which I found to be a bit much. Luckily it is a fairly good tale, involving an examination of how politics corrupts justice.
Time and Time Again, James Hilton, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 286 pp
At #8 on the list, James Hilton suffers from the opposite problem that plagued Beyond This Place. Here we have Hilton's accomplished and readable prose but not much in the way of a story.
Charles Anderson is a minor English diplomat and is reflecting back over his life, including two World Wars, two women and one son. For anyone who has read as much fiction from the 1940s as I have, there is really nothing new here. Hilton's point seems to be that life moves on and youth will take over. Not an original idea but so nicely put.
Lord Vanity, Samuel Shellabarger, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 397 pp
This is the last of Shellabarger's historical novels to reach Top 10 Bestseller status. It was #9 in 1953 and takes place in 18th century Italy, France and England.
Richard Morandi is the bastard son of an English lord and at the opening of the story works as an actor and musician entertaining Venetian nobility. He falls in love with a young equally impoverished ballerina. Throughout the story, his fortunes fall and then rise to great heights when he is reunited with his father. Finally he must choose between fortune and his true character as well as between two women.
The author, as in his earlier books, does well on historical detail and evoking the sense of the time, but Richard's tale is just not as exciting as that of the heroes and heroines of his earlier novels.
The Unconquered, Ben Ames Williams, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953, 698 pp
This was the hardest longest slog of the 1953 bestsellers. It was #10 on the list and oh how I wish it could have been #11. Williams continues with the families from A House Divided, to tell a story of reconstruction. Most of the story takes place in New Orleans, where the clash between carpetbaggers and old Southern gentlemen; between freed slaves and poor whites; and between Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans was the most brutal.
The point of the story seems to be the refusal of the South to admit defeat after the Civil War and the deeply ingrained racism that was born in the practice of slavery. A point well taken but the story telling is pedantic in the extreme and the political details way too detailed. It took me three separate segments of reading over many months to make my way through this tome and may I never have to read Ben Ames Williams again.
The High and the Mighty, Ernest K Gann, William Morrow & Company Inc, 1953, 342 pp
This novel was the #6 bestseller for 1953 and takes place on an airplane during a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, a trip which took 12 hours in those days. It is an early version of books like Night Over Water, by Ken Follett. The plane develops trouble and the main suspense concerns whether or not they will have to "ditch" which means "land" on the ocean.
Gann was a pilot himself and wrote many novels about flight. This one was also made into a movie starring John Wayne, for which Gann wrote the screenplay. He was considered a good writer in his time, but I found the book formulaic: introduce the characters, both the flyboys and the passengers; finally the plane takes off; several odd bumps and noises foreshadow the trouble to come; personal issues of the characters come to light during the crisis; then the last minute save.
What was interesting to me were the facts about air travel in the early 50s: propellers not jets, slower speeds and lower altitudes (no pressurized cabins), rudimentary radio contact and radar. The end of the book was highly dramatic and made it a good read finally. I also saw the movie which was not bad.
Beyond This Place, A J Cronin, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 247pp
This was #7 on the 1953 bestseller list and is the fourth bestseller I've read by this author. His first book, The Keys of the Kingdom, still rates with me as his best. All of his books concern young men with unusual childhoods and hardships they must overcome.
In Beyond This Place, Paul was raised by his pious Christian mother in Belfast, Ireland. He remembers a father from his very young years and has always been told that the father died in an accident. At the age of 20 he learns that all this time his father has been in prison, serving a life sentence for murder.
Paul sets out for a small town in England, where the murder occurred, determined to find his father. He faces innumerable obstacles but is finally reunited with his dad. The entire story is overwrought with emotion which I found to be a bit much. Luckily it is a fairly good tale, involving an examination of how politics corrupts justice.
Time and Time Again, James Hilton, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 286 pp
At #8 on the list, James Hilton suffers from the opposite problem that plagued Beyond This Place. Here we have Hilton's accomplished and readable prose but not much in the way of a story.
Charles Anderson is a minor English diplomat and is reflecting back over his life, including two World Wars, two women and one son. For anyone who has read as much fiction from the 1940s as I have, there is really nothing new here. Hilton's point seems to be that life moves on and youth will take over. Not an original idea but so nicely put.
Lord Vanity, Samuel Shellabarger, Little Brown and Company, 1953, 397 pp
This is the last of Shellabarger's historical novels to reach Top 10 Bestseller status. It was #9 in 1953 and takes place in 18th century Italy, France and England.
Richard Morandi is the bastard son of an English lord and at the opening of the story works as an actor and musician entertaining Venetian nobility. He falls in love with a young equally impoverished ballerina. Throughout the story, his fortunes fall and then rise to great heights when he is reunited with his father. Finally he must choose between fortune and his true character as well as between two women.
The author, as in his earlier books, does well on historical detail and evoking the sense of the time, but Richard's tale is just not as exciting as that of the heroes and heroines of his earlier novels.
The Unconquered, Ben Ames Williams, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953, 698 pp
This was the hardest longest slog of the 1953 bestsellers. It was #10 on the list and oh how I wish it could have been #11. Williams continues with the families from A House Divided, to tell a story of reconstruction. Most of the story takes place in New Orleans, where the clash between carpetbaggers and old Southern gentlemen; between freed slaves and poor whites; and between Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans was the most brutal.
The point of the story seems to be the refusal of the South to admit defeat after the Civil War and the deeply ingrained racism that was born in the practice of slavery. A point well taken but the story telling is pedantic in the extreme and the political details way too detailed. It took me three separate segments of reading over many months to make my way through this tome and may I never have to read Ben Ames Williams again.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1953, PART ONE
Here begins the lists of books I read for 1953 as part of my Big Fat Reading Project. Briefly, that is an ongoing project in which I am reading the Top 10 Bestsellers and other selected books from every year beginning in 1940. I am doing this as research for my autobiography which has the working title of Reading For My Life.
To see the lists from earlier years, simply click on the label at the bottom of this post and you will get all posts for the Big Fat Reading Project, in reverse chronological order. Then scroll to find the year you want or go all the way to the end and read the posts from then to now. You will get quite an overview of literature from the second half of the 20th century.
1953 was unique in the number of bestsellers that had already appeared on the list in earlier years: three to be exact. Especially these days, it is very unusual for any novel to be a top 10 bestseller two years in a row. In 1953, the #1 book had been a bestseller in 1942, eleven years earlier! I don't know why that happened and if anyone does, please share the info with us in the comments.
Here we go:
BESTSELLERS
The Robe, Lloyd C Douglas
This was the #1 bestseller in 1953. It was published in 1942 and was the #7 bestseller of that year. It is a story of the years immediately after the life of Jesus Christ. I reviewed it on March 1, 2006 in a post entitled "Books Read From 1942, Part Two."
The Silver Chalice, Thomas B Costain
At #2 on the list is a book which was #1 in 1952. It is a fictional account of the creation of the Holy Grail. Apparently Christianity was a big seller in 1953. In fact, The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version was #1 on the non-fiction list in both 1953 and 1954.
My review of The Silver Chalice appears in "Books Read From 1952, Part One" posted on February 10, 2008.
Desiree, Annemarie Selinko, William Morrow & Company, 1953, 594 pp
I was not looking forward to this book because of its length and in fact it took me three tries to get started reading it. It was #3 on the 1953 bestseller list and is actually a great story about the rise, reign and fall of Napoleon told through the eyes of a woman who once loved him.
Desiree was the daughter of a silk merchant in Marseilles. The story opens in 1794, shortly after the French Revolution and sometime during the Reign of Terror. Desiree meets and falls in love with the young Buonoparte (as he called himself in those days). She was only 16 and he had recently arrived with his mother and siblings from Sicily. He is an officer in the Republican army and gets engaged to Desiree, whom he seems to love but he is also in need of her dowry.
As Napoleon begins his rise to power, he throws her over for Josephine who can help him politically. Desiree, who was raised to know Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" by heart, believes in the Republic. She is a bold and daring young woman with a good mind. Comparisons to Forever Amber which I came across in various reviews, are only true in that both women were connected to men of power. Amber was merely an opportunist while Desiree had the good of France at heart.
Once I got going, which involved a bit of study on the history of France in this time period, I was not bored for even a page of this long novel. It filled in for me a part of history about which I knew little. The translation from German was lively and read like a contemporary historical novel. The theme is a cry for political freedom.
Battle Cry, Leon Uris, G P Putnam's Sons, 1953, 505 pp
This paean to the US Marines caused me to name a new genre: dick lit. It was the #4 bestseller in 1953 and takes place during World War II. I did not enjoy its 505 pages and felt it was a poor imitation of From Here to Eternity.
The boys, boot camp, the lovers, wives and whores, the drinking, the dirt, the battles, the esprit de corps; it's all there ad nauseum. The writing is mediocre. The theme is that war is just one of those things that have to get done and real men give their all against hopeless odds.
Leon Uris followed this first book with many other bestsellers, including Exodus and Armageddon, so we will see how his writing develops.
From Here to Eternity, James Jones
At #5 is the third book to have appeared on an earlier bestseller list. This book was #1 in 1951 and the movie came out in 1953, going on to win Best Picture in 1954. Both the book and the movie are excellent. My review of this novel was posted on October 5, 2007 in "Books Read From 1951, Part One."
To see the lists from earlier years, simply click on the label at the bottom of this post and you will get all posts for the Big Fat Reading Project, in reverse chronological order. Then scroll to find the year you want or go all the way to the end and read the posts from then to now. You will get quite an overview of literature from the second half of the 20th century.
1953 was unique in the number of bestsellers that had already appeared on the list in earlier years: three to be exact. Especially these days, it is very unusual for any novel to be a top 10 bestseller two years in a row. In 1953, the #1 book had been a bestseller in 1942, eleven years earlier! I don't know why that happened and if anyone does, please share the info with us in the comments.
Here we go:
BESTSELLERS
The Robe, Lloyd C Douglas
This was the #1 bestseller in 1953. It was published in 1942 and was the #7 bestseller of that year. It is a story of the years immediately after the life of Jesus Christ. I reviewed it on March 1, 2006 in a post entitled "Books Read From 1942, Part Two."
The Silver Chalice, Thomas B Costain
At #2 on the list is a book which was #1 in 1952. It is a fictional account of the creation of the Holy Grail. Apparently Christianity was a big seller in 1953. In fact, The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version was #1 on the non-fiction list in both 1953 and 1954.
My review of The Silver Chalice appears in "Books Read From 1952, Part One" posted on February 10, 2008.
Desiree, Annemarie Selinko, William Morrow & Company, 1953, 594 pp
I was not looking forward to this book because of its length and in fact it took me three tries to get started reading it. It was #3 on the 1953 bestseller list and is actually a great story about the rise, reign and fall of Napoleon told through the eyes of a woman who once loved him.
Desiree was the daughter of a silk merchant in Marseilles. The story opens in 1794, shortly after the French Revolution and sometime during the Reign of Terror. Desiree meets and falls in love with the young Buonoparte (as he called himself in those days). She was only 16 and he had recently arrived with his mother and siblings from Sicily. He is an officer in the Republican army and gets engaged to Desiree, whom he seems to love but he is also in need of her dowry.
As Napoleon begins his rise to power, he throws her over for Josephine who can help him politically. Desiree, who was raised to know Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" by heart, believes in the Republic. She is a bold and daring young woman with a good mind. Comparisons to Forever Amber which I came across in various reviews, are only true in that both women were connected to men of power. Amber was merely an opportunist while Desiree had the good of France at heart.
Once I got going, which involved a bit of study on the history of France in this time period, I was not bored for even a page of this long novel. It filled in for me a part of history about which I knew little. The translation from German was lively and read like a contemporary historical novel. The theme is a cry for political freedom.
Battle Cry, Leon Uris, G P Putnam's Sons, 1953, 505 pp
This paean to the US Marines caused me to name a new genre: dick lit. It was the #4 bestseller in 1953 and takes place during World War II. I did not enjoy its 505 pages and felt it was a poor imitation of From Here to Eternity.
The boys, boot camp, the lovers, wives and whores, the drinking, the dirt, the battles, the esprit de corps; it's all there ad nauseum. The writing is mediocre. The theme is that war is just one of those things that have to get done and real men give their all against hopeless odds.
Leon Uris followed this first book with many other bestsellers, including Exodus and Armageddon, so we will see how his writing develops.
From Here to Eternity, James Jones
At #5 is the third book to have appeared on an earlier bestseller list. This book was #1 in 1951 and the movie came out in 1953, going on to win Best Picture in 1954. Both the book and the movie are excellent. My review of this novel was posted on October 5, 2007 in "Books Read From 1951, Part One."
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
QUICKSILVER
Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson, William Morrow, 2003, 916 pp
I learned recently that Stephenson's next book will be out this summer, so it was time to read The Baroque Cycle trilogy. It took me almost two weeks to read this tome but was worth every minute.
Naturally it is great. Same clever wordiness and headlong adventure sequences as his earlier books, but set in the 1600s with Isaac Newton, King Charles II, King Louis XIV and all the various Natural Philosophers/Alchemists of the Royal Society in England as well as in other countries. Also featured are the entangled Houses of Stuart, Orange-Nassau, Bourbon and others who intermarried and produced the Kings and Queens of England and Europe; the traders, bankers and stock exchanges, especially in the Netherlands; the religious wars of Catholics vs Protestants; and even some scenes in Boston at the beginnings of MIT and Harvard. Lots of history.
In addition are early ancestors of the Waterhouse and Shaftoe families (main characters in Cryptonomicon) and even the author of the original Cryptonomicon, John Wilkins, who was an early Natural Philosopher (what we now call scientists) at Cambridge where Newton spent his early adult years. Thanks to a list of characters, maps and family trees, I could keep track of it all. Oh yes, Enoch Root is there already an old man.
Very impressive that an exciting cyberpunk sci fi writer can also do historical fiction so well. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to go on to the next volume. I saw that the 1600s were a turning point in history, a step away from superstition to science, from monarchy to democracy, etc. Then there is Eliza, super smart and savvy and probably the female ancestor of someone in Crytonomicon, because she has a son at the end. Fantastic book!
(Quicksilver is available in paperback and ebook by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. To find it in your nearest indie bookstore, click on the cover image above.)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
DIGGING TO AMERICA
Digging to America, Anne Tyler, Alfred A Knopf, 2006, ? pp
According to the author bio, this is Tyler's 17th novel. I read it for one of my reading groups and did not think it was one of her best. Yet, what do I know? According to my reading log, I've only read two others of her books: The Accidental Tourist and Back When We Were Grownups, both of which I liked a great deal.
Two families meet at the Baltimore airport as each receives an adopted orphan from Korea in 1997. The Donaldsons are American, the Yazdans are second generation Iranian/Americans. Due to Bitsy, the "American" new mother, they remain connected and get involved in each others' lives. As the babies grow the families hold an Arrival Party each year to celebrate the adopted children's entrance into their lives.
While there is plenty going on in these families, the story turns out to be about Maryam, the paternal grandmother of the Iranian family's adopted daughter. And while her issues appear to be about an Iranian woman adapting to America, they are actually about her personal issues of love, connection, privacy, independence and aging.
All told it is a good story, well-written and so readable that I finished the book in a few hours. Tyler also addresses cancer, dying, widowhood, child-raising and in-laws, both American and Iranian. September 11 plays a part in security issues about Arabs, the ways Americans view and treat people from other cultures and the ways that immigrants deal with that.
Lots of stuff but nothing new really in contemporary fiction and nothing disturbing to any degree. I was hoping for more about the adopted kids but they were only six years old by the end. Somehow I felt she tried to do too much and ended up not doing enough with this story.
According to the author bio, this is Tyler's 17th novel. I read it for one of my reading groups and did not think it was one of her best. Yet, what do I know? According to my reading log, I've only read two others of her books: The Accidental Tourist and Back When We Were Grownups, both of which I liked a great deal.
Two families meet at the Baltimore airport as each receives an adopted orphan from Korea in 1997. The Donaldsons are American, the Yazdans are second generation Iranian/Americans. Due to Bitsy, the "American" new mother, they remain connected and get involved in each others' lives. As the babies grow the families hold an Arrival Party each year to celebrate the adopted children's entrance into their lives.
While there is plenty going on in these families, the story turns out to be about Maryam, the paternal grandmother of the Iranian family's adopted daughter. And while her issues appear to be about an Iranian woman adapting to America, they are actually about her personal issues of love, connection, privacy, independence and aging.
All told it is a good story, well-written and so readable that I finished the book in a few hours. Tyler also addresses cancer, dying, widowhood, child-raising and in-laws, both American and Iranian. September 11 plays a part in security issues about Arabs, the ways Americans view and treat people from other cultures and the ways that immigrants deal with that.
Lots of stuff but nothing new really in contemporary fiction and nothing disturbing to any degree. I was hoping for more about the adopted kids but they were only six years old by the end. Somehow I felt she tried to do too much and ended up not doing enough with this story.
Monday, May 19, 2008
NUALA O'FAOLAIN IS GONE
In the spring of 2004, my husband and I spent two weeks in Ireland. As always, I read books by Irish writers before I went. Nuala O'Faolain was an author on my list who was new to me. I read three of her books before I went, all of which gave me such a strong sense of place and Irish life and especially Irish women.
Nuala O'Faolain passed away about a week and a half ago. She died of lung cancer and according to one article I read she was extremely bummed that she was not going to live longer. Well I don't blame her and I will miss any books she did not get to write.
I did not have this blog in 2004, so now I will post what I wrote about her books back then.
Are You Somebody?, Nuala O'Faolain, Henry Holt and Company, 1996, 215 pp
Her first book is a memoir. Nuala had been a writer for the Irish Times (and other papers) when she began writing this book. The title comes from what people would say when they met her, not being sure but feeling that she looked familiar. The original writing was intended to be an introduction to a collection of her articles and grew into her life story.
She was my age when she wrote it and I suppose it is a cliche to want to write up your life after you pass 50. I have that urge myself. A life story is a fascinating thing. I love reading them and having new friends tell me theirs. She is a fine writer with a wry voice and had a rocky but generally triumphant life. Because she broke out of the traditional role for an Irish woman, she has been lonely. Well, lots of traditional women are lonely too. She also had a lot of fun and many adventures. Still she was looking for love, above all else.
Almost There, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2003, 275 pp
This is her follow-up memoir, which I went right into after finishing the first. They both read very quickly. Meanwhile, she wrote a novel, which I read next. This volume is basically more of the same, her continuing self-discovery, her continuing search for love, which she found and then had new issues to deal with.
She had received so many letters after the first memoir, that she wanted to let her readers know that she finally found and settled down with a good man. She moved to New York and built a great life there full of writing, writers and friends. In fact, I learned a lot about writing from this book as well.
My Dream of You, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2001, 500 pp
This is her novel. It read very much the same as the memoirs and is taken mostly from her life, but has the device of another story from the days of the potato famine worked in. That adds a bit of historical fiction.
Her characters are great and so are her descriptions of places. She also writes good sex. The story is about her search for love and passion. Funny, because she was unloved as a child and she read so many books. I think, like most women who read a lot, she formed her ideas of romantic love from fiction. That is a bum deal because life is not like that, so it is a constructed ideal that few people ever find. Yet it has been THE STORY since earliest times.
--------
Nuala O'Faolain wrote one other book that I know of. The Story of Chicago May is a biography of a turn-of -the-century feminist also known as queen of the crooks, another daughter of Ireland, an outlaw and an unrepentant, independent woman. I haven't read this book yet, but I saw Nuala give a reading and answer questions at the Duttons Books in Brentwood, CA, early in its brief existence. She was astoundingly wonderful in her feistiness and straightforwardness. She had that gift of extemporaneous storytelling that is a characteristic of the Irish people. Now I must go read that book.
Nuala O'Faolain passed away about a week and a half ago. She died of lung cancer and according to one article I read she was extremely bummed that she was not going to live longer. Well I don't blame her and I will miss any books she did not get to write.
I did not have this blog in 2004, so now I will post what I wrote about her books back then.
Are You Somebody?, Nuala O'Faolain, Henry Holt and Company, 1996, 215 pp
Her first book is a memoir. Nuala had been a writer for the Irish Times (and other papers) when she began writing this book. The title comes from what people would say when they met her, not being sure but feeling that she looked familiar. The original writing was intended to be an introduction to a collection of her articles and grew into her life story.
She was my age when she wrote it and I suppose it is a cliche to want to write up your life after you pass 50. I have that urge myself. A life story is a fascinating thing. I love reading them and having new friends tell me theirs. She is a fine writer with a wry voice and had a rocky but generally triumphant life. Because she broke out of the traditional role for an Irish woman, she has been lonely. Well, lots of traditional women are lonely too. She also had a lot of fun and many adventures. Still she was looking for love, above all else.
Almost There, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2003, 275 pp
This is her follow-up memoir, which I went right into after finishing the first. They both read very quickly. Meanwhile, she wrote a novel, which I read next. This volume is basically more of the same, her continuing self-discovery, her continuing search for love, which she found and then had new issues to deal with.
She had received so many letters after the first memoir, that she wanted to let her readers know that she finally found and settled down with a good man. She moved to New York and built a great life there full of writing, writers and friends. In fact, I learned a lot about writing from this book as well.
My Dream of You, Nuala O'Faolain, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2001, 500 pp
This is her novel. It read very much the same as the memoirs and is taken mostly from her life, but has the device of another story from the days of the potato famine worked in. That adds a bit of historical fiction.
Her characters are great and so are her descriptions of places. She also writes good sex. The story is about her search for love and passion. Funny, because she was unloved as a child and she read so many books. I think, like most women who read a lot, she formed her ideas of romantic love from fiction. That is a bum deal because life is not like that, so it is a constructed ideal that few people ever find. Yet it has been THE STORY since earliest times.
--------
Nuala O'Faolain wrote one other book that I know of. The Story of Chicago May is a biography of a turn-of -the-century feminist also known as queen of the crooks, another daughter of Ireland, an outlaw and an unrepentant, independent woman. I haven't read this book yet, but I saw Nuala give a reading and answer questions at the Duttons Books in Brentwood, CA, early in its brief existence. She was astoundingly wonderful in her feistiness and straightforwardness. She had that gift of extemporaneous storytelling that is a characteristic of the Irish people. Now I must go read that book.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE
The Zookeeper's Wife, Diane Ackerman, W W Norton & Company, 2007, 323 pp
I had heard much about this book and was on a waiting list at the library for weeks before I got it. I was a bit disappointed but it had its high points.
It is the true story of Anonina Zabrinski and her husband Jan, Christian zookeepers in Warsaw, Poland, who formed part of the underground Resistance to the Nazis and used their zoo to help over 300 Jews escape the Ghetto. The story of German aggression and the devastation of the zoo and all of Warsaw is gruesome. I knew about conditions in the Ghetto from reading John Hersey's The Wall. Now I know even more about Hitler's insane hatred of Poland, not to mention the various attempts to rid the world of all Polish people, not just the Jews there. In that respect, it is a disturbing read.
I was annoyed by the lack of smooth continuity as the author skipped around on dates. In one paragraph it would be spring, in the next it would be winter of an undetermined year. I finally gave up trying to know what was when. The best was her portrayal of Antonina's astonishing way with animals and people. This woman had the ability to become any animal and establish a line of trust and understanding with any creature. The Nazis and the war interrupted that aspect of her life and eventually the Zabinskis lost the zoo when the Communists took over Poland after the war. But she used her gifts to help all those Jews and to safeguard them and her children by defusing many crazed soldiers and German officials. I loved reading about that.
Who knew that Hitler and his boys were also trying to bring back extinct species of animals as part of their master plan? Also that Hitler's pathological fear of illness led him on a crusade against lice which devolved into equating Jews with lice.
So The Zookeeper's Wife is another look at one of the worst decades in recent history, from which there is apparently still no escape in literature.
I had heard much about this book and was on a waiting list at the library for weeks before I got it. I was a bit disappointed but it had its high points.
It is the true story of Anonina Zabrinski and her husband Jan, Christian zookeepers in Warsaw, Poland, who formed part of the underground Resistance to the Nazis and used their zoo to help over 300 Jews escape the Ghetto. The story of German aggression and the devastation of the zoo and all of Warsaw is gruesome. I knew about conditions in the Ghetto from reading John Hersey's The Wall. Now I know even more about Hitler's insane hatred of Poland, not to mention the various attempts to rid the world of all Polish people, not just the Jews there. In that respect, it is a disturbing read.
I was annoyed by the lack of smooth continuity as the author skipped around on dates. In one paragraph it would be spring, in the next it would be winter of an undetermined year. I finally gave up trying to know what was when. The best was her portrayal of Antonina's astonishing way with animals and people. This woman had the ability to become any animal and establish a line of trust and understanding with any creature. The Nazis and the war interrupted that aspect of her life and eventually the Zabinskis lost the zoo when the Communists took over Poland after the war. But she used her gifts to help all those Jews and to safeguard them and her children by defusing many crazed soldiers and German officials. I loved reading about that.
Who knew that Hitler and his boys were also trying to bring back extinct species of animals as part of their master plan? Also that Hitler's pathological fear of illness led him on a crusade against lice which devolved into equating Jews with lice.
So The Zookeeper's Wife is another look at one of the worst decades in recent history, from which there is apparently still no escape in literature.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
NOTHING TO DECLARE
Nothing to Declare, Mary Morris, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988, 250 pp
Sometime in the early 80s, author Mary Morris took off to Mexico to travel alone. She had had her heart and spirit broken by a man and as she says on page 4, "With a terrible feeling of isolation and a growing belief that America had become a foreign land, I headed south." But the reader learns later on in this astonishing travel memoir, that Mary Morris has had an urge for going since a bald eagle landed in her Chicago suburban backyard when she was a girl.
Morris is given to dreams, beliefs in totems and angels, depression and deep conflicts about men. She is a wonderful writer, honest about how broken she feels but not maudlin. As she describes long bus trips, food, accommodations, poverty and other Americans, you are there. As she take ridiculous risks to her safety, you want to slap her upside the head. And as she heads home with nothing really resolved, you wish her well. This is Eat Pray Love on a much more jagged edge and a much more honest level.
Sometime in the early 80s, author Mary Morris took off to Mexico to travel alone. She had had her heart and spirit broken by a man and as she says on page 4, "With a terrible feeling of isolation and a growing belief that America had become a foreign land, I headed south." But the reader learns later on in this astonishing travel memoir, that Mary Morris has had an urge for going since a bald eagle landed in her Chicago suburban backyard when she was a girl.
Morris is given to dreams, beliefs in totems and angels, depression and deep conflicts about men. She is a wonderful writer, honest about how broken she feels but not maudlin. As she describes long bus trips, food, accommodations, poverty and other Americans, you are there. As she take ridiculous risks to her safety, you want to slap her upside the head. And as she heads home with nothing really resolved, you wish her well. This is Eat Pray Love on a much more jagged edge and a much more honest level.
THE ILIAD
The Iliad, Homer, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1938 translation by W D Rose, 297 pp
About all I can say is that I finally got through this classic. I read a chapter a day with a long break in the middle. The translation is in prose and some of the dialogue is a laugh, but it was more readable for me than poetry. Did Homer invent the simile? He sure is big on those.
Who knew (not me) that the Trojan Horse part of the story is not in the Iliad? Will Durant, in The Life of Greece, The Story of Civilization: Part II, just says that the Trojan Horse was covered by other writers. As stunningly boring as this story was to me, I must remark that I understood better than ever the interplay of the gods and men which is inherent in the world view of the ancients.
Achilles is no hero to me, despite his feats. Just a spoiled mama's boy with a goddess for a mother. I am going to now re-read Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which is her version of the Trojan War from the female side. Then it will be on to The Odyssey and The Penelopliad by Margaret Atwood.
About all I can say is that I finally got through this classic. I read a chapter a day with a long break in the middle. The translation is in prose and some of the dialogue is a laugh, but it was more readable for me than poetry. Did Homer invent the simile? He sure is big on those.
Who knew (not me) that the Trojan Horse part of the story is not in the Iliad? Will Durant, in The Life of Greece, The Story of Civilization: Part II, just says that the Trojan Horse was covered by other writers. As stunningly boring as this story was to me, I must remark that I understood better than ever the interplay of the gods and men which is inherent in the world view of the ancients.
Achilles is no hero to me, despite his feats. Just a spoiled mama's boy with a goddess for a mother. I am going to now re-read Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which is her version of the Trojan War from the female side. Then it will be on to The Odyssey and The Penelopliad by Margaret Atwood.
Monday, May 12, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
Today's word comes from page 102 of The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow.
knar is a noun meaning a knot in wood; esp. a bark covered bulge on a tree trunk or root. It comes from Middle English, knarre which is from Low German knarre, Dutch knar, a stump, knob, knot.
My sentence: I bruised my knuckle when I hit a knar while digging a hole to plant the new bush I won in a drawing on Earth Day.
Anyone else have any experience with knars?
knar is a noun meaning a knot in wood; esp. a bark covered bulge on a tree trunk or root. It comes from Middle English, knarre which is from Low German knarre, Dutch knar, a stump, knob, knot.
My sentence: I bruised my knuckle when I hit a knar while digging a hole to plant the new bush I won in a drawing on Earth Day.
Anyone else have any experience with knars?
THE BOOK BORROWER
The Book Borrower, Alice Mattison, William Morrow and Company Inc, 1999, 278 pp
I read this for a book group I was part of that has since gone defunct. Everyone else hated it; no one else finished it; no one even came to the meeting except the leader and myself. I loved it.
Toby Ruben is a young mother in the 1970s when she meets Deborah Laidlaw, another mother, in the city playground. Deborah lends Ruben a book about a female anarchist who was involved in a trolley workers strike in Boston in the 1920s.
The Book Borrower covers three decades of this rocky friendship between Ruben and Deborah, interspersed with Ruben's sporadic reading of Trolley Girl, which you read along with her. The women raise their kids and also teach side by side, first training workers at a daycare center, later at a local college. I think Ruben is the more intelligent of the two and this causes some problems in their professional relationship. Their friendship is ostensibly because of being mothers but on a deeper level it is an intellectual friendship between two women.
The book is rather dreamy as it is mostly about Ruben's inner life. There are no quotation marks or he said, she saids, in the text, so the reader has to stay alert and participate. Apparently that is just too hard for some readers (I know that sounds so snobby, but if you are going to join a reading group, come on), but I like contributing to a story with my own ideas. I also like these women because they are real people, as far as I recall the women I knew when I was raising my kids.
Maybe it is just me, but I find friendships with women a difficult area of life. Men, especially husbands, children and jobs get in the way and complicate what was natural in childhood. Mattison beautifully yet unflinchingly portrays the fragility, the tension, the strength and the need for women's friendships. Underlying this though is the truth that all human connections are tenuous at best; marriage, parenthood, professional relationships are all covered. By weaving in the story of the anarchist, who becomes an artist, Mattison runs the gamut. She says to me that despite all our efforts to be orderly, faithful and kind, anarchy rules. I agree!
I read this for a book group I was part of that has since gone defunct. Everyone else hated it; no one else finished it; no one even came to the meeting except the leader and myself. I loved it.
Toby Ruben is a young mother in the 1970s when she meets Deborah Laidlaw, another mother, in the city playground. Deborah lends Ruben a book about a female anarchist who was involved in a trolley workers strike in Boston in the 1920s.
The Book Borrower covers three decades of this rocky friendship between Ruben and Deborah, interspersed with Ruben's sporadic reading of Trolley Girl, which you read along with her. The women raise their kids and also teach side by side, first training workers at a daycare center, later at a local college. I think Ruben is the more intelligent of the two and this causes some problems in their professional relationship. Their friendship is ostensibly because of being mothers but on a deeper level it is an intellectual friendship between two women.
The book is rather dreamy as it is mostly about Ruben's inner life. There are no quotation marks or he said, she saids, in the text, so the reader has to stay alert and participate. Apparently that is just too hard for some readers (I know that sounds so snobby, but if you are going to join a reading group, come on), but I like contributing to a story with my own ideas. I also like these women because they are real people, as far as I recall the women I knew when I was raising my kids.
Maybe it is just me, but I find friendships with women a difficult area of life. Men, especially husbands, children and jobs get in the way and complicate what was natural in childhood. Mattison beautifully yet unflinchingly portrays the fragility, the tension, the strength and the need for women's friendships. Underlying this though is the truth that all human connections are tenuous at best; marriage, parenthood, professional relationships are all covered. By weaving in the story of the anarchist, who becomes an artist, Mattison runs the gamut. She says to me that despite all our efforts to be orderly, faithful and kind, anarchy rules. I agree!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, 2008, 368 pp
The first book I read which was published this year was a fantastic read. Geraldine Brooks has become a good fiction writer, each book being better than the last. In this novel I had none of my former beefs with her; in fact I can barely remember what they were.
Hanna Heath, a young book expert with a troubled emotional past, gets called to Sarajevo to analyze and conserve an ancient Hebrew manuscript. From that beginning follows an explication of the manuscript's history as well as Hannah's, told in alternating chapters.
The manuscript actually exists and some of its history, dating back to 1400s Spain, is known. But all the story here is Brooks' fictional imaginings. Hanna is also a fictional character and a fairly standard modern heroine whom I happened to like and admire. She is equal parts well-trained professional and independent female with heart. In other words, my kind of woman. There are several other strong women in the ancient stories as well as admirable men and dastardly villains.
The storytelling is powerful and the theme is one of my favorites: that truth and beauty get preserved by the efforts of a few desperate humans because these things are worth preserving for the benefit of mankind. Whether mankind is worth it is a question outside the realm of fiction. In my present mood, that may be an unanswerable question or one with as many answers as there are individuals.
Meanwhile it is often storytelling that pulls us through and People of the Book is one righteous story.
The first book I read which was published this year was a fantastic read. Geraldine Brooks has become a good fiction writer, each book being better than the last. In this novel I had none of my former beefs with her; in fact I can barely remember what they were.
Hanna Heath, a young book expert with a troubled emotional past, gets called to Sarajevo to analyze and conserve an ancient Hebrew manuscript. From that beginning follows an explication of the manuscript's history as well as Hannah's, told in alternating chapters.
The manuscript actually exists and some of its history, dating back to 1400s Spain, is known. But all the story here is Brooks' fictional imaginings. Hanna is also a fictional character and a fairly standard modern heroine whom I happened to like and admire. She is equal parts well-trained professional and independent female with heart. In other words, my kind of woman. There are several other strong women in the ancient stories as well as admirable men and dastardly villains.
The storytelling is powerful and the theme is one of my favorites: that truth and beauty get preserved by the efforts of a few desperate humans because these things are worth preserving for the benefit of mankind. Whether mankind is worth it is a question outside the realm of fiction. In my present mood, that may be an unanswerable question or one with as many answers as there are individuals.
Meanwhile it is often storytelling that pulls us through and People of the Book is one righteous story.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
Today's word is also from Sex Wars by Marge Piercy; found on page 309. Not surprisingly it has a similar meaning to the last word of the day: termagant.
Virago is a noun meaning a quarrelsome, shrewish woman; scold. It also has an archaic definition: a strong, manlike woman; amazon. It comes from Latin, where it meant a manlike female.
My sentence: "God save us from viragoes," said the male chauvinist pig.
Virago is a noun meaning a quarrelsome, shrewish woman; scold. It also has an archaic definition: a strong, manlike woman; amazon. It comes from Latin, where it meant a manlike female.
My sentence: "God save us from viragoes," said the male chauvinist pig.
THE FAIRY-TALE DETECTIVES
The Fairy-Tale Detectives: The Sisters Grimm Book One, Michael Buckley, Amulet Books, 2005, 284 pp
What Jaspar Fforde has done for adult literary mystery, Michael Buckley has done for young readers, except that he has fused mystery and fairy tales. The Grimm sisters are descended from the brothers Grimm. In this first book of the Sisters Grimm series, Sabrina and Daphne have lost their parents, who just vanished one day. After a horrific series of foster homes, they land in a small town with a woman claiming to be their grandmother. While she is nice, especially compared to the other foster parents, she is quite odd and according to the girls' parents she was supposed to be dead.
Eventually the story gets straightened out and Sabrina and Daphne become full-fledged fairy-tale detectives. Grandmother Grimm gets captured by a giant, who came down a beanstalk naturally. The girls must figure out which are friends and which are foes as they meet Jack, Prince Charming and other fairy-tale characters and rescue their grandmother.
This is a highly imagined madcap adventure set in the modern world. I like the way Buckley has made fairy-tales relevant and created a couple of great female heroines. There are five books in the series with a sixth coming soon. (Ages 8-12)
What Jaspar Fforde has done for adult literary mystery, Michael Buckley has done for young readers, except that he has fused mystery and fairy tales. The Grimm sisters are descended from the brothers Grimm. In this first book of the Sisters Grimm series, Sabrina and Daphne have lost their parents, who just vanished one day. After a horrific series of foster homes, they land in a small town with a woman claiming to be their grandmother. While she is nice, especially compared to the other foster parents, she is quite odd and according to the girls' parents she was supposed to be dead.
Eventually the story gets straightened out and Sabrina and Daphne become full-fledged fairy-tale detectives. Grandmother Grimm gets captured by a giant, who came down a beanstalk naturally. The girls must figure out which are friends and which are foes as they meet Jack, Prince Charming and other fairy-tale characters and rescue their grandmother.
This is a highly imagined madcap adventure set in the modern world. I like the way Buckley has made fairy-tales relevant and created a couple of great female heroines. There are five books in the series with a sixth coming soon. (Ages 8-12)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer, Doubleday, 2003, 365 pp
The trouble with books about religion, or I should say, writing books about religion, is the available sources of information. In an effort to get at the truth about Mormons and their religion, Jon Krakauer has used as his main sources the testimony of either fundamentalist or disaffected Mormons. In 1984, two brothers murdered a woman and her infant daughter, believing that God told them to kill these people.
The brothers were fundamentalists, sons of a practicing polygamist, and also in my opinion, nut cases. This book is overly sensationalist and puts the mainstream Mormon Church in an unfavorable light. A writer could take any religion, old or new, and accomplish the same result. It makes me wonder what percent of mankind actually practices the philosophy of any religion. I have studied the beliefs and principles underlying all of the world's major religions and they are universally in favor of love, understanding, kindness, respect for one's fellow man and promote a search for truth and one's spiritual nature. Judging by the state of the world in any given historical period or today, I would say that the percentage of true practice of any religion is low.
I did learn about Mormons, Joseph Smith, the history of this religious group. For that, I am somewhat glad I read the book. But it is a degraded look at the whole idea of religion and seems to say that religious belief results in fanaticism and unnatural acts. I don't think that is true though many shameful actions have been done by men in the name of God. Our current President is no exception.
Overall, the book is depressing and disgusting. I was in a bad mood the whole time I was reading it. I ought to read Wallace Stegner's Mormon Country to balance the picture. Someday I will.
The trouble with books about religion, or I should say, writing books about religion, is the available sources of information. In an effort to get at the truth about Mormons and their religion, Jon Krakauer has used as his main sources the testimony of either fundamentalist or disaffected Mormons. In 1984, two brothers murdered a woman and her infant daughter, believing that God told them to kill these people.
The brothers were fundamentalists, sons of a practicing polygamist, and also in my opinion, nut cases. This book is overly sensationalist and puts the mainstream Mormon Church in an unfavorable light. A writer could take any religion, old or new, and accomplish the same result. It makes me wonder what percent of mankind actually practices the philosophy of any religion. I have studied the beliefs and principles underlying all of the world's major religions and they are universally in favor of love, understanding, kindness, respect for one's fellow man and promote a search for truth and one's spiritual nature. Judging by the state of the world in any given historical period or today, I would say that the percentage of true practice of any religion is low.
I did learn about Mormons, Joseph Smith, the history of this religious group. For that, I am somewhat glad I read the book. But it is a degraded look at the whole idea of religion and seems to say that religious belief results in fanaticism and unnatural acts. I don't think that is true though many shameful actions have been done by men in the name of God. Our current President is no exception.
Overall, the book is depressing and disgusting. I was in a bad mood the whole time I was reading it. I ought to read Wallace Stegner's Mormon Country to balance the picture. Someday I will.
Monday, May 05, 2008
TIPS ON NAVIGATING MY BLOG
This post is for new readers. If you have been reading my blog for a while and know how to get around, you could probably skip it.
I have been working on a memoir called "Reading For My Life," and posting the chapters here as I get them written. So far, each chapter covers a year and I try to post one every few months. If you want to read the earlier chapters, just click on the label at the bottom of the current chapter and you will get a page that includes all the chapters. Scroll all the way to the end of this page and read the posts from earliest to latest.
For each year of the memoir I read 20 to 30 books published in that year. This I call "My Big Fat Reading Project." I post small reviews of all of these books under that label. Once again, you can see all those posts by finding one of them and then clicking the label at the end. The last one was posted on April 21, 2008.
Any other questions? Leave a comment and I will answer in the comments section. Thank you for reading my blog. I am happy to receive any comments except spam.
I have been working on a memoir called "Reading For My Life," and posting the chapters here as I get them written. So far, each chapter covers a year and I try to post one every few months. If you want to read the earlier chapters, just click on the label at the bottom of the current chapter and you will get a page that includes all the chapters. Scroll all the way to the end of this page and read the posts from earliest to latest.
For each year of the memoir I read 20 to 30 books published in that year. This I call "My Big Fat Reading Project." I post small reviews of all of these books under that label. Once again, you can see all those posts by finding one of them and then clicking the label at the end. The last one was posted on April 21, 2008.
Any other questions? Leave a comment and I will answer in the comments section. Thank you for reading my blog. I am happy to receive any comments except spam.
READING FOR MY LIFE: 1952
My World Gets Wider
In 1952, I turned five. The leap from four to five was a big one as I ventured out, both willingly and unwillingly into the neighborhood and to school. It was exciting, terrifying and fraught with opportunities for new ways of being.
In the world at large the Cold War was actually hot in the Far East and in various skirmishes in Africa. Attempts to achieve an end to the Korean War dragged on in 1952 due to the Western powers’ use of that battleground to try foiling the USSR’s timetable of world conquest. A communist inspired revolution against British supported King Farouk in Egypt would eventually put Nasser in charge and Egypt in alliance with the USSR. In Kenya, the Mau Mau uprising resulted in response to British interests that had ruined native farming there. Meanwhile 16,000 people escaped from East Berlin into West Berlin and the Western powers continued their efforts to rearm Europe and raise the standard of living in western European countries.
King George VI of England died putting Elizabeth in line for the throne, though it was really Churchill as Prime Minister who ran the country and what was left of the Empire. Eisenhower was elected President of the United States while our military boys achieved the first test of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon so destructive that war by nuclear force actually became an unthinkable future for planet Earth.
Odd developments at the time were the rise of Christian Dior in Paris and the production of the first birth control pill in the United States. If I look at history at this time from a viewpoint such as that in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I can see the rising up of all kinds of oppressed minorities: blacks, women, natives in Africa and Asia, etc. It is as if the world is growing up and seeking a more balanced civilization with ideas of freedom and liberty which began in the 18th century finding their way around the world, but the powers that be, the money and armaments guys, are certainly not ready to give an inch. While I would not want a world run on communism, I can see that it played a part in raising the consciousness of peoples everywhere and was perhaps a necessary stage in history which was what Karl Marx might have been trying to say.
The Academy Award winning films this year range from a silly musical to romantic and marital disorder causing plenty of censorship ills. “An American in Paris” is the musical and took Best Picture. George Stevens won Best Director for “ A Place in the Sun”, an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. “The African Queen” won for Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart) in a romance with Katherine Hepburn set in WW I. Vivien Lee took Best Actress in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Mostly fairly racy stuff and a harbinger of a change in standards in the motion picture industry.
The popular songs of the year included “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” which would have mystified me if I’d heard it. It was condemned by the Catholic Church for mixing sex with Christmas and has since been recorded by The Jackson Five and Jessica Simpson among others. “It Takes Two to Tango” is what my very staid maternal grandmother said years later when my cousin Rich, whom I idolized, had to get married and give up his dreams of being a doctor. “Wheel of Fortune” performed by Kay Starr actually later became the theme song of the TV show.
Among the books I read for this year, four of the bestsellers were historical novels and only one was about WWII. But the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award both went to war books: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk and From Here to Eternity by James Jones, respectively. The bestseller list included four literary novels and a good slice of Americana. Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano came out in 1952, a futuristic look at the soul-killing aspects of big business. I was most impressed by East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which I think is his greatest novel; My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier for its compelling main character; The Natural by Bernard Malamud for a deep look at the American psyche; and Martha Quest by Doris Lessing because she began her probing of women’s issues. This was also the year Charlotte’s Web was released and I read that many times as a child. Once again, though I had thought books from the 1950s would be bland and boring, I was engaged and enlightened as a reader, even by the bestsellers.
As for my life in 1952, in one year I went from the close family circle into a social existence. At home, my consumption of sweets was closely controlled and I never felt I could get enough but my sweet tooth got me into trouble this year. I remember a party at our house when among other things my mom served homemade brownies. I don’t know how many I ate when no one was watching but I threw up all night and could not eat brownies again until I was an adult. Another time, I was at a birthday party in the neighborhood and was offered some of those orange spongy candies that look like peanuts in the shell. Though I wanted one desperately I told the mother of the birthday girl that I wasn’t allowed to have candy. (My mother was there.) Sadly regretting being such a good girl, I later snuck around until I found the plate of candies and gobbled several while my mother was not watching. I also discovered where my mom hid her gum at home and would sneak a piece now and then, going off by myself for a good chew. But I was busted by Daddy one time when he asked me what I was chewing. I shamelessly lied and said it was celery strings, which he believed. This may have been my first lie to my adored father.
Then there were boys. Two little brothers from a couple doors down used to come into my yard and we would go off exploring the big field next to our lot. Exploring included crawling under a clump of bushes and taking off our clothes so we could see how our bodies were different. Somehow I sensed that this was secret and not to be discussed with my parents. Across the field was our closest neighbor, the Steigerwalts. To get to their house, you had to cross a hanging bridge over a gully that lay between the road and the house. I was terrified by this bridge because you could see through the slats and I was afraid of falling through, but Mrs Steigerwalt always served cookies and she had two sons older than I was. I would take my sister Linda by the hand and with Mom watching from the back porch we would navigate the field, creep across the bridge, trudge up the front walk giving a wide berth to the garter snake that would be sunning himself there and finally make it to the back door. I always thought Mrs Steigerwalt was a bit scary herself the way she would stand at her ironing board looking stern and slamming that iron about. The boys would start roughhousing with me until I screamed for mercy but she would just laugh. So I learned that pleasures in life often came with pain and danger.
Across the road lived Mr Muchow who seemed to me a very old man with his white hair sticking out beneath the cap he always wore. He had an invalided wife whom I don’t remember ever seeing, but he would come over and get me for walks through the woods behind his house. To me he was a combination of Santa Claus and Jesus as we walked along hand in hand and he listened to all I had to say as if I were the most important person in the world. I dreamed about this man whenever I was going through something stressful and lonely all the way into my 20s. After my grandma and my dad, he was the third great person in my life up to that time.
But then came my first major challenge: school. In the fall, I began kindergarten. For someone who grew up to love travel, change, new people and adventures, I started out as a complete wimp. I wailed when my mother left me there until, after a week or so of that, she got angry and told me to stop being a baby. Then I held it inside, but I was afraid of the stairs up to the door, of the kids dashing around me, of being knocked down. Inside the classroom was a slide that became an object of obsession for me. It seemed very high, I remember it as having no sides and I was completely conflicted between wanting to go up there and slide down but being convinced I would fall off and die. My only happy memory of kindergarten was the day I finally got to paint at the easel. You had to get on a list and it seemed I was on that list for weeks but at last it was my turn. I painted a huge red apple that took up almost the whole page. Apparently I took too long because the teacher came over and said I did not have to cover every bit of the paper with paint. Of course I did! After that I rarely met a teacher who did not specialize in saying ridiculous things. My kindergarten teacher was first in a long line of authority figures whom I perceived as enemies.
By this time I was five years old, the year was drawing to a close, I suffered from consecutive earaches (probably brought on by the stress of school) and big changes were afoot. Mom got pregnant about August and near the end of the year, United States Steel decided to transfer my dad to the New York City office. I don’t have memories of these things, although I do recall the earaches and visits to the doctor. According to my mom, it took two people to hold me down while a third put in the eardrops. Well, who wants people dropping cold liquid in your ear when it hurts? In any case, it would be our last winter in Pittsburgh and by the following Christmas, I would have moved twice.
In 1952, I turned five. The leap from four to five was a big one as I ventured out, both willingly and unwillingly into the neighborhood and to school. It was exciting, terrifying and fraught with opportunities for new ways of being.
In the world at large the Cold War was actually hot in the Far East and in various skirmishes in Africa. Attempts to achieve an end to the Korean War dragged on in 1952 due to the Western powers’ use of that battleground to try foiling the USSR’s timetable of world conquest. A communist inspired revolution against British supported King Farouk in Egypt would eventually put Nasser in charge and Egypt in alliance with the USSR. In Kenya, the Mau Mau uprising resulted in response to British interests that had ruined native farming there. Meanwhile 16,000 people escaped from East Berlin into West Berlin and the Western powers continued their efforts to rearm Europe and raise the standard of living in western European countries.
King George VI of England died putting Elizabeth in line for the throne, though it was really Churchill as Prime Minister who ran the country and what was left of the Empire. Eisenhower was elected President of the United States while our military boys achieved the first test of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon so destructive that war by nuclear force actually became an unthinkable future for planet Earth.
Odd developments at the time were the rise of Christian Dior in Paris and the production of the first birth control pill in the United States. If I look at history at this time from a viewpoint such as that in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I can see the rising up of all kinds of oppressed minorities: blacks, women, natives in Africa and Asia, etc. It is as if the world is growing up and seeking a more balanced civilization with ideas of freedom and liberty which began in the 18th century finding their way around the world, but the powers that be, the money and armaments guys, are certainly not ready to give an inch. While I would not want a world run on communism, I can see that it played a part in raising the consciousness of peoples everywhere and was perhaps a necessary stage in history which was what Karl Marx might have been trying to say.
The Academy Award winning films this year range from a silly musical to romantic and marital disorder causing plenty of censorship ills. “An American in Paris” is the musical and took Best Picture. George Stevens won Best Director for “ A Place in the Sun”, an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. “The African Queen” won for Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart) in a romance with Katherine Hepburn set in WW I. Vivien Lee took Best Actress in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Mostly fairly racy stuff and a harbinger of a change in standards in the motion picture industry.
The popular songs of the year included “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” which would have mystified me if I’d heard it. It was condemned by the Catholic Church for mixing sex with Christmas and has since been recorded by The Jackson Five and Jessica Simpson among others. “It Takes Two to Tango” is what my very staid maternal grandmother said years later when my cousin Rich, whom I idolized, had to get married and give up his dreams of being a doctor. “Wheel of Fortune” performed by Kay Starr actually later became the theme song of the TV show.
Among the books I read for this year, four of the bestsellers were historical novels and only one was about WWII. But the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award both went to war books: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk and From Here to Eternity by James Jones, respectively. The bestseller list included four literary novels and a good slice of Americana. Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano came out in 1952, a futuristic look at the soul-killing aspects of big business. I was most impressed by East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which I think is his greatest novel; My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier for its compelling main character; The Natural by Bernard Malamud for a deep look at the American psyche; and Martha Quest by Doris Lessing because she began her probing of women’s issues. This was also the year Charlotte’s Web was released and I read that many times as a child. Once again, though I had thought books from the 1950s would be bland and boring, I was engaged and enlightened as a reader, even by the bestsellers.
As for my life in 1952, in one year I went from the close family circle into a social existence. At home, my consumption of sweets was closely controlled and I never felt I could get enough but my sweet tooth got me into trouble this year. I remember a party at our house when among other things my mom served homemade brownies. I don’t know how many I ate when no one was watching but I threw up all night and could not eat brownies again until I was an adult. Another time, I was at a birthday party in the neighborhood and was offered some of those orange spongy candies that look like peanuts in the shell. Though I wanted one desperately I told the mother of the birthday girl that I wasn’t allowed to have candy. (My mother was there.) Sadly regretting being such a good girl, I later snuck around until I found the plate of candies and gobbled several while my mother was not watching. I also discovered where my mom hid her gum at home and would sneak a piece now and then, going off by myself for a good chew. But I was busted by Daddy one time when he asked me what I was chewing. I shamelessly lied and said it was celery strings, which he believed. This may have been my first lie to my adored father.
Then there were boys. Two little brothers from a couple doors down used to come into my yard and we would go off exploring the big field next to our lot. Exploring included crawling under a clump of bushes and taking off our clothes so we could see how our bodies were different. Somehow I sensed that this was secret and not to be discussed with my parents. Across the field was our closest neighbor, the Steigerwalts. To get to their house, you had to cross a hanging bridge over a gully that lay between the road and the house. I was terrified by this bridge because you could see through the slats and I was afraid of falling through, but Mrs Steigerwalt always served cookies and she had two sons older than I was. I would take my sister Linda by the hand and with Mom watching from the back porch we would navigate the field, creep across the bridge, trudge up the front walk giving a wide berth to the garter snake that would be sunning himself there and finally make it to the back door. I always thought Mrs Steigerwalt was a bit scary herself the way she would stand at her ironing board looking stern and slamming that iron about. The boys would start roughhousing with me until I screamed for mercy but she would just laugh. So I learned that pleasures in life often came with pain and danger.
Across the road lived Mr Muchow who seemed to me a very old man with his white hair sticking out beneath the cap he always wore. He had an invalided wife whom I don’t remember ever seeing, but he would come over and get me for walks through the woods behind his house. To me he was a combination of Santa Claus and Jesus as we walked along hand in hand and he listened to all I had to say as if I were the most important person in the world. I dreamed about this man whenever I was going through something stressful and lonely all the way into my 20s. After my grandma and my dad, he was the third great person in my life up to that time.
But then came my first major challenge: school. In the fall, I began kindergarten. For someone who grew up to love travel, change, new people and adventures, I started out as a complete wimp. I wailed when my mother left me there until, after a week or so of that, she got angry and told me to stop being a baby. Then I held it inside, but I was afraid of the stairs up to the door, of the kids dashing around me, of being knocked down. Inside the classroom was a slide that became an object of obsession for me. It seemed very high, I remember it as having no sides and I was completely conflicted between wanting to go up there and slide down but being convinced I would fall off and die. My only happy memory of kindergarten was the day I finally got to paint at the easel. You had to get on a list and it seemed I was on that list for weeks but at last it was my turn. I painted a huge red apple that took up almost the whole page. Apparently I took too long because the teacher came over and said I did not have to cover every bit of the paper with paint. Of course I did! After that I rarely met a teacher who did not specialize in saying ridiculous things. My kindergarten teacher was first in a long line of authority figures whom I perceived as enemies.
By this time I was five years old, the year was drawing to a close, I suffered from consecutive earaches (probably brought on by the stress of school) and big changes were afoot. Mom got pregnant about August and near the end of the year, United States Steel decided to transfer my dad to the New York City office. I don’t have memories of these things, although I do recall the earaches and visits to the doctor. According to my mom, it took two people to hold me down while a third put in the eardrops. Well, who wants people dropping cold liquid in your ear when it hurts? In any case, it would be our last winter in Pittsburgh and by the following Christmas, I would have moved twice.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
termagant was found on page 127 of Marge Piercy's excellent Sex Wars.
In the context (according to Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition), it means a boisterous, quarrelsome, scolding woman; shrew.
When capitalized it means an imaginary deity supposed by medieval Christians to be worshiped by Muslims and represented in morality plays as a boisterous, overbearing figure. In fact that is the derivation of the word which was spelled Tervagant in Middle English and came from Old French, probably introduced by the Crusaders.
Very interesting! Of course, we all know that women should never be boisterous or quarrelsome or scolding. Yet medieval Christians thought that Muslims considered this sort of person to be a deity.
My sentence: Beware of any man calling you a termagant.
In the context (according to Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition), it means a boisterous, quarrelsome, scolding woman; shrew.
When capitalized it means an imaginary deity supposed by medieval Christians to be worshiped by Muslims and represented in morality plays as a boisterous, overbearing figure. In fact that is the derivation of the word which was spelled Tervagant in Middle English and came from Old French, probably introduced by the Crusaders.
Very interesting! Of course, we all know that women should never be boisterous or quarrelsome or scolding. Yet medieval Christians thought that Muslims considered this sort of person to be a deity.
My sentence: Beware of any man calling you a termagant.
LOVING FRANK
Loving Frank, Nancy Horan, Random House Inc, 2007, 359 pp
From 1907 to 1914, Frank Lloyd Wright carried on a love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They were both married to others when the affair began and both had children. It caused a great scandal in Chicago as well as around the country, which resulted in added suffering for all involved. Loving Frank is a fictional account of this affair.
Having always been an admirer of Wright as an architect, I now know plenty about him as a person, due to this book and the biography I read. He sounds like a hard man to be in love with. But for Mamah Cheney, a highly educated and extremely intelligent woman, he brought excitement, passion and a full life. She had married at 29 years of age to a man she did not love and had a son and daughter. The husband was not a bad guy, but motherhood and middle-class life proved to be stifling for Mamah, who suffered a year of postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter.
Horan did a fine job of telling this story. I was annoyed, as I always am, by dialogue that sounded modern: I am pretty sure that people did not talk that way in the early 1900s. But I was drawn into the story. In today's world, not many would be shocked by such an affair. Mamah would not have had the added battle of fighting the mores of the time, which rebounded on her children.
While in Europe with Frank, Mamah met Ellen Key, a famous Swedish feminist of the times, and became her translator. Again this turned out to be a blessing and a curse. Very hard time to be a woman, but despite all the grief and tragedy, it must have been thrilling as well.
Last year a book came out entitled Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; a book which is on my TBR list. Mamah Borthwick Cheney was a very badly behaved woman in her day but contributed to changing history for women. I am glad her story has been told.
From 1907 to 1914, Frank Lloyd Wright carried on a love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They were both married to others when the affair began and both had children. It caused a great scandal in Chicago as well as around the country, which resulted in added suffering for all involved. Loving Frank is a fictional account of this affair.
Having always been an admirer of Wright as an architect, I now know plenty about him as a person, due to this book and the biography I read. He sounds like a hard man to be in love with. But for Mamah Cheney, a highly educated and extremely intelligent woman, he brought excitement, passion and a full life. She had married at 29 years of age to a man she did not love and had a son and daughter. The husband was not a bad guy, but motherhood and middle-class life proved to be stifling for Mamah, who suffered a year of postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter.
Horan did a fine job of telling this story. I was annoyed, as I always am, by dialogue that sounded modern: I am pretty sure that people did not talk that way in the early 1900s. But I was drawn into the story. In today's world, not many would be shocked by such an affair. Mamah would not have had the added battle of fighting the mores of the time, which rebounded on her children.
While in Europe with Frank, Mamah met Ellen Key, a famous Swedish feminist of the times, and became her translator. Again this turned out to be a blessing and a curse. Very hard time to be a woman, but despite all the grief and tragedy, it must have been thrilling as well.
Last year a book came out entitled Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; a book which is on my TBR list. Mamah Borthwick Cheney was a very badly behaved woman in her day but contributed to changing history for women. I am glad her story has been told.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright, Ada Louise Huxtable, Penguin Group Inc, 2004, 251 pp
This biography of the great architect is part of the Penguin Lives Series. I read it just before reading Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan, which is a fictional account of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright's lover from 1907 to 1914. Huxtable, a Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, studied all the major biographies of Wright as well as other sources. She is clearly a fan and does her best to place this very complicated man in a favorable light.
I liked the book because, as biographies go, it is brief, always interesting and written in an engaging style, never bogging down in dry facts. I'm convinced that Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius. He had huge personal flaws but I've known people with similar flaws who accomplished hardly anything in life.
I finished the book feeling that it takes an outsize personality to create art in a big enough way that he leaves that artistic area forever changed. This man was way ahead of his time, to the degree that the building technology in his day could not always erect what he had conceived His concepts are still affecting architecture today. Having always admired his buildings, it is great to know something about his life.
This biography of the great architect is part of the Penguin Lives Series. I read it just before reading Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan, which is a fictional account of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright's lover from 1907 to 1914. Huxtable, a Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, studied all the major biographies of Wright as well as other sources. She is clearly a fan and does her best to place this very complicated man in a favorable light.
I liked the book because, as biographies go, it is brief, always interesting and written in an engaging style, never bogging down in dry facts. I'm convinced that Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius. He had huge personal flaws but I've known people with similar flaws who accomplished hardly anything in life.
I finished the book feeling that it takes an outsize personality to create art in a big enough way that he leaves that artistic area forever changed. This man was way ahead of his time, to the degree that the building technology in his day could not always erect what he had conceived His concepts are still affecting architecture today. Having always admired his buildings, it is great to know something about his life.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
The word today is astrakhan which appeared on p 260 of The Houses in Between, by Howard Spring. This is a word I have been coming across for years and never looked up, knowing only that it had something to do with coats and hats. Since I read a lot of historical fiction, it must have been quite the rage at one time.
According the Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition it is a noun meaning:
1. a loosely curled fur, made from the pelt of very young lambs originally bred near Astrakhan (a city & port in SW Russia, on the Volga River delta near the Caspian Sea.)
2. a wool fabric with a pile cut and curled to look like this.
So definition two would not exactly be a fake fur, but a man made wool creation similar to the real thing.
My sentence: His matching astrakhan coat and hat were inappropriate outer wear for Los Angeles but definitely gave him a Russian air.
According the Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition it is a noun meaning:
1. a loosely curled fur, made from the pelt of very young lambs originally bred near Astrakhan (a city & port in SW Russia, on the Volga River delta near the Caspian Sea.)
2. a wool fabric with a pile cut and curled to look like this.
So definition two would not exactly be a fake fur, but a man made wool creation similar to the real thing.
My sentence: His matching astrakhan coat and hat were inappropriate outer wear for Los Angeles but definitely gave him a Russian air.
THE SEEMS, THE GLITCH IN SLEEP
The Seems, the Glitch in Sleep, John Hulmer and Michael Wexler, Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2007, 272 pp
This is a first novel in a series which will be called The Seems, written by two authors who have been best friends for their whole lives. It is for ages 10 and up, grades 5 and up and is a delightful creation of another world, The Seems, the world behind our world which created and is responsible for existence as we know it.
The hero is Becker Drane, 12 year old normal boy from a small New Jersey town, whose curiosity and openness to adventure land him the job of "fixer" in The Seems. Fixers are special, highly trained individuals who live in the world but are called for missions whenever there is a glitch. Becker Drane's first mission is to repair a glitch in sleep.
Wonderful, imaginative, full of adventure, humor and not a little wisdom. I thought it was just great. What I am never sure about on these books for kids is if the kids will like it. But I loved The Borrowers as a kid and this is on the same level of imagination.
This is a first novel in a series which will be called The Seems, written by two authors who have been best friends for their whole lives. It is for ages 10 and up, grades 5 and up and is a delightful creation of another world, The Seems, the world behind our world which created and is responsible for existence as we know it.
The hero is Becker Drane, 12 year old normal boy from a small New Jersey town, whose curiosity and openness to adventure land him the job of "fixer" in The Seems. Fixers are special, highly trained individuals who live in the world but are called for missions whenever there is a glitch. Becker Drane's first mission is to repair a glitch in sleep.
Wonderful, imaginative, full of adventure, humor and not a little wisdom. I thought it was just great. What I am never sure about on these books for kids is if the kids will like it. But I loved The Borrowers as a kid and this is on the same level of imagination.
WORD OF THE DAY
Today's word is helical which I read on page 61 of Ruined by Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz.
Helical is an adjective meaning of, or having the form of, a helix, or spiral. It comes from the Latin word helix, a kind of ivy, spiral, which comes from the Greek word for spiral from the Greek helissein, to turn around.
My sentence: I have straight hair but I always wished it was helical.
Thanks to AtoZ, the anonymous commenter who never fails to contribute a sentence. Anyone else want to join in?
Helical is an adjective meaning of, or having the form of, a helix, or spiral. It comes from the Latin word helix, a kind of ivy, spiral, which comes from the Greek word for spiral from the Greek helissein, to turn around.
My sentence: I have straight hair but I always wished it was helical.
Thanks to AtoZ, the anonymous commenter who never fails to contribute a sentence. Anyone else want to join in?
LOVE WALKED IN
Love Walked In, Marisa De Los Santos, Dutton, 2005, 307 pp
Am I lowering my standards or is chick lit getting better? I had a good time reading this book. Cornelia is 31 years old, single and managing a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. She can't figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. In walks who she thinks is the man of her dreams. They start dating and all is wonderful except the sex.
Pretty soon in walks Clare, an 11 year old girl whose mother has just gone missing. Now Cornelia really falls in love. Eventually the reader finds out how all these people are connected, there are ups and downs and revelations and complications all the way to the obligatory happy ending.
The writing is fine, the insights are true and delivered gracefully. I grew to love the characters and to feel like I was involved in their lives. I could see being a friend of Cornelia. Clare is a believable 11 year old who has had to face a bit too much in her young life but has great strength. In another chick lit touch, De Los Santos has a movie moments thing going on which I thought was cleverly done.
A good read, emotionally satisfying and fairly real: no one gets everything she wants but some get what they deserve. OK, I will have a music moment: sounds like a Rolling Stones song.
Am I lowering my standards or is chick lit getting better? I had a good time reading this book. Cornelia is 31 years old, single and managing a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. She can't figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. In walks who she thinks is the man of her dreams. They start dating and all is wonderful except the sex.
Pretty soon in walks Clare, an 11 year old girl whose mother has just gone missing. Now Cornelia really falls in love. Eventually the reader finds out how all these people are connected, there are ups and downs and revelations and complications all the way to the obligatory happy ending.
The writing is fine, the insights are true and delivered gracefully. I grew to love the characters and to feel like I was involved in their lives. I could see being a friend of Cornelia. Clare is a believable 11 year old who has had to face a bit too much in her young life but has great strength. In another chick lit touch, De Los Santos has a movie moments thing going on which I thought was cleverly done.
A good read, emotionally satisfying and fairly real: no one gets everything she wants but some get what they deserve. OK, I will have a music moment: sounds like a Rolling Stones song.
Monday, April 28, 2008
THE FALL OF OPTIMUM HOUSE
The Fall of Optimum House, Alice Zogg, Aventine Press, 2007, 252 pp
This is the fifth mystery by my friend Alice Zogg. It is set in California near Big Bear Lake and involves a modeling school/health resort where suspicious activities have been going on. The owner has sought the help of Private Investigator RA Huber. Eventually there are murders.
For the first time, Alice has written in 3rd person which opens up her style to good effect. Also RA Huber has hired an assistant, a young woman from New Orleans, who likes to be called Andi, though her name is Antoinette LeJeune. She is a high-spirited motorcycle riding kind of girl who goes to Optimum House posing as a modeling student.
Andi brings energy and humor to the story: there is a hilarious incident when she goes for an eyebrow waxing and some funny moments with the dietitian. As usual I was not able to figure out who the killer was due to Alice's excellent plotting skills.
I always like reading an author's work from earliest to most recent books and I am very much enjoying watching the growth of Alice Zogg as a mystery writer. Even though she writes for her own enjoyment rather than for fame or fortune, she keeps honing her skills and every new book is a step up from the last.
This is the fifth mystery by my friend Alice Zogg. It is set in California near Big Bear Lake and involves a modeling school/health resort where suspicious activities have been going on. The owner has sought the help of Private Investigator RA Huber. Eventually there are murders.
For the first time, Alice has written in 3rd person which opens up her style to good effect. Also RA Huber has hired an assistant, a young woman from New Orleans, who likes to be called Andi, though her name is Antoinette LeJeune. She is a high-spirited motorcycle riding kind of girl who goes to Optimum House posing as a modeling student.
Andi brings energy and humor to the story: there is a hilarious incident when she goes for an eyebrow waxing and some funny moments with the dietitian. As usual I was not able to figure out who the killer was due to Alice's excellent plotting skills.
I always like reading an author's work from earliest to most recent books and I am very much enjoying watching the growth of Alice Zogg as a mystery writer. Even though she writes for her own enjoyment rather than for fame or fortune, she keeps honing her skills and every new book is a step up from the last.
Friday, April 25, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
snell came from page 211 of The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.
It is an adjective and a bit of Scottish slang with several meanings. In this context it means clever or smart. It comes from Middle English and before that from Old English when it was related to the German word schnell. (From Webster's New World Third College Edition.)
My sentence: Her snell style of writing gave her a distinct advantage when she started a blog.
I am eagerly awaiting some sentences from others. You can leave them in the comments. I will read them and smile!
It is an adjective and a bit of Scottish slang with several meanings. In this context it means clever or smart. It comes from Middle English and before that from Old English when it was related to the German word schnell. (From Webster's New World Third College Edition.)
My sentence: Her snell style of writing gave her a distinct advantage when she started a blog.
I am eagerly awaiting some sentences from others. You can leave them in the comments. I will read them and smile!
KATHERINE
Katherine, Anchee Min, Riverhead Books, 1995, 241 pp
Reading Dragon Bones by Lisa See and Brothers by Da Chen got me interested in the period of Chinese history that included Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Actually, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie was my first fictional introduction to the era. Katherine is from a female point of view and is most beautifully written.
Katherine is an American woman who comes to Shanghai to teach English. Her class consists of adults who grew up after the Communist revolution was a fait accompli and have never known any other kind of life. Oppression and complete suppression of personal feelings or desires has been their way of life. Freedom of any kind is just not an option.
Since Mao's death and the tentative "open door" policy of the government, the purpose of which is to bring money into a country of starving people, there has been a chink in the armor, a glimpse of Western ways and some workers are allowed to learn English so they can be more useful to their country. It is still not permitted to criticize China, the party or government leaders in any way.
The story is told by a 29 year old woman who has known only the Maoist teachings, hard work, abuse and loss. She is a member of Katherine's class, hoping to better herself for more income. Instead, she and her classmates find themselves awakening emotionally and sexually because of Katherine's free-spirited ways. They see her clothes, listen to her music and talk with her about American ways. They are thrown into great turmoil, The narrator (whose name is never said) becomes Katherine's friend and experiences love for another human being for the first time in her life.
The story is so intense, it was almost physically painful for me to read it. Anchee Min expresses what the life of the body, mind and spirit was like for Chinese people in the 1980s. She has been an actress in Chinese film, now lives in San Francisco and the bio says she is also a painter, photographer and musician. As a writer she is a magician. I absolutely loved this book.
Reading Dragon Bones by Lisa See and Brothers by Da Chen got me interested in the period of Chinese history that included Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Actually, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie was my first fictional introduction to the era. Katherine is from a female point of view and is most beautifully written.
Katherine is an American woman who comes to Shanghai to teach English. Her class consists of adults who grew up after the Communist revolution was a fait accompli and have never known any other kind of life. Oppression and complete suppression of personal feelings or desires has been their way of life. Freedom of any kind is just not an option.
Since Mao's death and the tentative "open door" policy of the government, the purpose of which is to bring money into a country of starving people, there has been a chink in the armor, a glimpse of Western ways and some workers are allowed to learn English so they can be more useful to their country. It is still not permitted to criticize China, the party or government leaders in any way.
The story is told by a 29 year old woman who has known only the Maoist teachings, hard work, abuse and loss. She is a member of Katherine's class, hoping to better herself for more income. Instead, she and her classmates find themselves awakening emotionally and sexually because of Katherine's free-spirited ways. They see her clothes, listen to her music and talk with her about American ways. They are thrown into great turmoil, The narrator (whose name is never said) becomes Katherine's friend and experiences love for another human being for the first time in her life.
The story is so intense, it was almost physically painful for me to read it. Anchee Min expresses what the life of the body, mind and spirit was like for Chinese people in the 1980s. She has been an actress in Chinese film, now lives in San Francisco and the bio says she is also a painter, photographer and musician. As a writer she is a magician. I absolutely loved this book.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
faubourg
Today's word comes from page 192 of The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.
Its definition, from Webster's New World Third College Edition, is a noun meaning either a suburb or a city district that was at one time a suburb. It comes from the French term faux bourg, literally false town which comes from Old French forsbourc, literally outside town, hence suburb.
My sentence: He was raised in a housing development that is now a faubourg of Chicago.
Sentence anyone?
Today's word comes from page 192 of The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.
Its definition, from Webster's New World Third College Edition, is a noun meaning either a suburb or a city district that was at one time a suburb. It comes from the French term faux bourg, literally false town which comes from Old French forsbourc, literally outside town, hence suburb.
My sentence: He was raised in a housing development that is now a faubourg of Chicago.
Sentence anyone?
THE BOOK OF SALT
The Book of Salt, Monique Truong, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003, 261 pp
I completely enjoyed my time in this novel because it was unique in many ways. Binh is a self-displaced Vietnamese living in Paris and working at 27 rue de Fleurus as cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas. He fled Vietnam five years earlier in disgrace and constantly has the voice of his mentally abusive father ringing in his head. Who has not experienced that internalized critic, speaking up at odd times to remind you how badly you are doing?
Binh's search is for love, in Paris and throughout his life. He always had his mother's love and she inhabits The Book of Salt like a patron saint. As he roams the streets of Paris and the bridges over the Seine, Binh pieces together the story of his life so far through memory and what I loved was the way Truong's writing drew me into those memories as if I was Binh's mind.
Some years ago I read Charmed Circle, by James R Mellow, a book I had picked up in a used bookstore somewhere which told the story of Gertrude Stein's life. From that I was familiar with her salon in Paris, her life with Alice B Toklas and the many artists and writers with whom Stein surrounded herself. Reading The Book of Salt took me back to all that and Binh's witty descriptions of his "madame and madame" are priceless.
I could go on but I would like other readers to be as surprised and captivated as I was reading this book, which while never boring for a second, is more like a meditation than anything else. I checked and could not find any other books by Monique Truong. I wish there were.
I completely enjoyed my time in this novel because it was unique in many ways. Binh is a self-displaced Vietnamese living in Paris and working at 27 rue de Fleurus as cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas. He fled Vietnam five years earlier in disgrace and constantly has the voice of his mentally abusive father ringing in his head. Who has not experienced that internalized critic, speaking up at odd times to remind you how badly you are doing?
Binh's search is for love, in Paris and throughout his life. He always had his mother's love and she inhabits The Book of Salt like a patron saint. As he roams the streets of Paris and the bridges over the Seine, Binh pieces together the story of his life so far through memory and what I loved was the way Truong's writing drew me into those memories as if I was Binh's mind.
Some years ago I read Charmed Circle, by James R Mellow, a book I had picked up in a used bookstore somewhere which told the story of Gertrude Stein's life. From that I was familiar with her salon in Paris, her life with Alice B Toklas and the many artists and writers with whom Stein surrounded herself. Reading The Book of Salt took me back to all that and Binh's witty descriptions of his "madame and madame" are priceless.
I could go on but I would like other readers to be as surprised and captivated as I was reading this book, which while never boring for a second, is more like a meditation than anything else. I checked and could not find any other books by Monique Truong. I wish there were.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
WORD OF THE DAY
I haven't posted a word of the day for a long time. I have tons of them saved up in a notebook.
Today's word is metonymy. I read it on page 38 of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, by Lewis Buzbee.
Definition: noun, a figure of speech in which the name of one thing is used in place of that of another associated with or suggested by it (Ex: "the White House" for "the President.") Derived from Late Latin metonymia from Greek metonymia from meta, other + onoma, onyma, name.
My sentence: Shall we take your ride or mine?
Feel free to contribute a sentence.
Today's word is metonymy. I read it on page 38 of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, by Lewis Buzbee.
Definition: noun, a figure of speech in which the name of one thing is used in place of that of another associated with or suggested by it (Ex: "the White House" for "the President.") Derived from Late Latin metonymia from Greek metonymia from meta, other + onoma, onyma, name.
My sentence: Shall we take your ride or mine?
Feel free to contribute a sentence.
LIGHT ON SNOW
Light on Snow, Anita Shreve, Little Brown and Company, 2004, 305 pp
I haven't read a book by Anita Shreve for several years. I forgot that while she is not great, she is actually quite a good author. What I like is the way she allows her characters to be what they are: noble, flawed, contradictory, each one, without a lot of explanation.
I was a bit shocked and leery because I started the book after lunch and was done by dinner, but it seemed OK because enough of the whole story was there. Twelve year old Nicky lost her mother and little sister to a car accident at the age of eight. Her inconsolable father moved them away from all people they knew and any familiar scenes or activities to an isolated New England farm house.
One day while on a walk on snowshoes through the woods, they find an abandoned baby and take it home. Soon enough the mother shows up. Nicky is infatuated with the whole thing and eventually her tiny grief stricken life opens up again. I could be critical about a few things but why bother? It is a good story, it is believable and shows the harm we do when we try to hide secrets. Certainly worth a few hours of immersion in someone else's life.
I haven't read a book by Anita Shreve for several years. I forgot that while she is not great, she is actually quite a good author. What I like is the way she allows her characters to be what they are: noble, flawed, contradictory, each one, without a lot of explanation.
I was a bit shocked and leery because I started the book after lunch and was done by dinner, but it seemed OK because enough of the whole story was there. Twelve year old Nicky lost her mother and little sister to a car accident at the age of eight. Her inconsolable father moved them away from all people they knew and any familiar scenes or activities to an isolated New England farm house.
One day while on a walk on snowshoes through the woods, they find an abandoned baby and take it home. Soon enough the mother shows up. Nicky is infatuated with the whole thing and eventually her tiny grief stricken life opens up again. I could be critical about a few things but why bother? It is a good story, it is believable and shows the harm we do when we try to hide secrets. Certainly worth a few hours of immersion in someone else's life.
Monday, April 21, 2008
BOOKS READ FROM 1952, PART FIVE
Well hello. I know that I went missing for awhile here at Keep The Wisdom. I have been traveling and writing but mostly reading. I've probably lost the few readers I had, but I might as well keep going.
So without further ado, here is the final installment of books I read from 1952.
Voyage of the Dawntreader, C S Lewis, HarperCollins Inc, 1952, 248 pp
Lucy and Edmond (and their disgusting cousin Eustace) go to Narnia and join King Caspian on a voyage to the End of the World. They find several Narnians who had attempted the voyage earlier and had become enchanted; naturally the kids face dangers and free these trapped travelers.
I think the idea here is that they are traveling towards heaven or infinity. Cousin Eustace improves his personality and Reepicheep, the Chief Mouse, is the only one who gets to stay. Lucy and Edmond learn that this will be their last visit to Narnia because they are getting too old.
I liked this volume of the Narnia series. The story keeps moving and the descriptions of the End of the World are beautiful and entrancing. I recall liking it also when I was young. I wonder what comes next.
Charlotte's Web, E B White, HarperCollins Publishers, 1952, 184 pp
I cannot recall how many times I read this book as I was growing up, but it was several times. I read it again for the first time as an adult because it was published in 1952 and a new movie version had just come out.
It is still a wonderful story. What was new to me was the character of Charlotte, whom I did not remember as such a motherly person. I also noticed that Fern, the girl who originally saved Wilbur, quickly gets relegated to sitting on a stool in the barnyard and plays no further part in the story except to watch. Finally, in my memory, the story ended at the fair with Charlotte's death. How odd that the descendants of Charlotte who represent that life goes on and Wilbur's long happy life at the farm left little to no impression on me as a child. I guess I really loved Charlotte back then.
PULITZER: The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk. Already reviewed in Books Read From 1952, Part One, as it was the #2 bestseller in 1952.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD: From Here to Eternity, James Jones. Already reviewed in Books Read From 1951, Part One, as it was the #1 bestseller in 1951.
NEWBERY MEDAL: Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1951, 250 pp
Ginger Pye is a dog who belongs to Jerry Pye, ten year old son of the Pye family. In a small town in New York State, the Pye family is close knit, not particularly well off, but happy. Jerry has a sister named Rachel and a three year old uncle named Bennie.
The three children worked hard to get Ginger Pye, who cost $1.00 and then lost him. The search for their beloved puppy goes on for many months and becomes a mystery complete with an unsavory character, clues and a villain. The kids are smart and intrepid. I liked the depiction of an earlier more innocent time when children could move about their environment on their own and have big adventures.
CALDECOTT MEDAL: Finders, Keepers, William Lipkind, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 28 pp
The Caldecott Medal being an award for illustration, this is a picture book. Two dogs dig up a bone together and can't decide who should get it. They go asking other animals and people, who never give them an answer. Finally a bigger dog tries to take the bone away, they defend the bone together, then eat it together.
There is definitely an original look to the illustrations by Nicholas Mordvinoff. The title phrase, finders keepers is never used in the text of the story which seemed odd to me.
This completes the books I read for 1952. Soon, by this weekend I hope, I will have the next installment of Reading For My Life posted. I plan to spend either Saturday or Sunday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this coming weekend, seeing some authors speak and just hanging out with book lovers. Meanwhile I will post some reviews of current fiction I have been reading.
So without further ado, here is the final installment of books I read from 1952.
Voyage of the Dawntreader, C S Lewis, HarperCollins Inc, 1952, 248 pp
Lucy and Edmond (and their disgusting cousin Eustace) go to Narnia and join King Caspian on a voyage to the End of the World. They find several Narnians who had attempted the voyage earlier and had become enchanted; naturally the kids face dangers and free these trapped travelers.
I think the idea here is that they are traveling towards heaven or infinity. Cousin Eustace improves his personality and Reepicheep, the Chief Mouse, is the only one who gets to stay. Lucy and Edmond learn that this will be their last visit to Narnia because they are getting too old.
I liked this volume of the Narnia series. The story keeps moving and the descriptions of the End of the World are beautiful and entrancing. I recall liking it also when I was young. I wonder what comes next.
Charlotte's Web, E B White, HarperCollins Publishers, 1952, 184 pp
I cannot recall how many times I read this book as I was growing up, but it was several times. I read it again for the first time as an adult because it was published in 1952 and a new movie version had just come out.
It is still a wonderful story. What was new to me was the character of Charlotte, whom I did not remember as such a motherly person. I also noticed that Fern, the girl who originally saved Wilbur, quickly gets relegated to sitting on a stool in the barnyard and plays no further part in the story except to watch. Finally, in my memory, the story ended at the fair with Charlotte's death. How odd that the descendants of Charlotte who represent that life goes on and Wilbur's long happy life at the farm left little to no impression on me as a child. I guess I really loved Charlotte back then.
PULITZER: The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk. Already reviewed in Books Read From 1952, Part One, as it was the #2 bestseller in 1952.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD: From Here to Eternity, James Jones. Already reviewed in Books Read From 1951, Part One, as it was the #1 bestseller in 1951.
NEWBERY MEDAL: Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1951, 250 pp
Ginger Pye is a dog who belongs to Jerry Pye, ten year old son of the Pye family. In a small town in New York State, the Pye family is close knit, not particularly well off, but happy. Jerry has a sister named Rachel and a three year old uncle named Bennie.
The three children worked hard to get Ginger Pye, who cost $1.00 and then lost him. The search for their beloved puppy goes on for many months and becomes a mystery complete with an unsavory character, clues and a villain. The kids are smart and intrepid. I liked the depiction of an earlier more innocent time when children could move about their environment on their own and have big adventures.
CALDECOTT MEDAL: Finders, Keepers, William Lipkind, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 28 pp
The Caldecott Medal being an award for illustration, this is a picture book. Two dogs dig up a bone together and can't decide who should get it. They go asking other animals and people, who never give them an answer. Finally a bigger dog tries to take the bone away, they defend the bone together, then eat it together.
There is definitely an original look to the illustrations by Nicholas Mordvinoff. The title phrase, finders keepers is never used in the text of the story which seemed odd to me.
This completes the books I read for 1952. Soon, by this weekend I hope, I will have the next installment of Reading For My Life posted. I plan to spend either Saturday or Sunday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this coming weekend, seeing some authors speak and just hanging out with book lovers. Meanwhile I will post some reviews of current fiction I have been reading.
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