THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows, The Dial Press, 2008, 274 pp


Here's the thing. This book has many of the elements I love in fiction: it is about books, readers and writers; it has an interesting and little known historical context; the main character is an outside-the-box, feminist, brave young woman; the remaining characters, including a very cool kid, are well-drawn and unique; finally tolerance, goodwill and reading save the day. I read it easily, at times with delight, but it just did not in the end turn out to be great.

I am in the minority here because people (mostly women) all over the country love this book to the point of raving. I think that is because, bottom line, it is a love story in the tradition of Pride and Prejudice. I read it for one of my reading groups and interestingly, it was the love story that got the most discussion, while the tribulation of living on an island occupied by Nazis for most of WWII was barely brought up (except by Lisa, who comments regularly here.)

One of the characters in the story is absent throughout, but she is in truth the lynch pin of the entire tale. That is an unusual twist. Again, only Lisa mentioned her.

In these times of publishing and book selling hardship, I feel like a spoil sport, complaining about a book that has sold extremely well. (We will not talk about Dan Brown here.) Then again, I feel like an outcast or a voice crying in the wilderness at some of the reading group discussions I attend. How can it be that I was practically tarred and feathered for making some women read The Gathering by Anne Enright? A book which left me gasping.

Where are the readers who like what I like? Perhaps they do not join reading groups. Hm.


(The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Pride and Prejudice are available on the shelf in paperback at Once Upon A Time Bookstore. The Gathering is available in paperback by special order.)

HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST

How I Became A Famous Novelist, Steve Hely, Black Cat, 2009, 322 pp


This one is truly funny. A spoof on the publishing industry that skewers everyone from the authors who write books intentionally following trends to create a blockbuster to the agents, publishers, reviewers and readers who encourage it all. Hely's main character, Pete Tarslaw, is your usual modern day slacker/anti-hero, with a twist. When he learns that the college girlfriend who dumped him in senior year is getting married, a desire for revenge gets him off the couch.

He "studies up" on bestsellers, Amazon reviews and the incomes of bestselling, blockbuster writing authors; boils it all down statistically; gets some drugs from his roommate that bring on an extreme hyper-activity; and writes a "bestseller." Due to certain connections and the high state of perplexity in the publishing industry, this works for him. He becomes a famous novelist.

But revenge is tricky business. Also Pete Tarslaw is far from adept when it comes to human relationships. He has to eat crow in the end and even learns the lesson he needed to learn.

If only all comedy could be this good. If only there were more books to ease my worried mind once in a while with a good laugh. If only dysfunctional creepy assholes actually learned their lessons. Sigh. OK. Back to literary fiction.


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

THE LAST EMBRACE

The Last Embrace, Denise Hamilton, Scribner, 2008, 378 pp


After five mystery novels set in contemporary Los Angeles, known as the Eve Diamond series, Denise Hamilton has written a noir crime novel set in 1940s Hollywood. Lily Kessler, former OSS spy, returns to her hometown to investigate the disappearance of her late fiance's sister Kitty, who had been a budding movie star.

Not surprisingly, Kitty turns up murdered under the Hollywood sign. In a milieu of competitive starlets, gangsters, special effects people and LA's homicide division, Lily relentlessly pursues all possible leads and finally gets her man. She also gets a new lover who, in true Denise Hamilton style, may be a good guy or may be an enemy.

This is a good long satisfying read, though I hate it when the killer turns out to be someone you've hardly heard of throughout the book. But the pleasure for me in reading a mystery is not so much finding out who done it as it is participating in the investigation.

The best aspects of The Last Embrace are the sights and scenes of Los Angeles from 60 years ago. Having now read hundreds of books from the 1940s in My Big Fat Reading Project, this one fit right in. I did not live in LA then, but it is my city now and I love reading about its past.


(The Last Embrace is available on the shelf in paperback signed copies at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

READING GROUPS

Reading groups are not for everyone. They can be fraught with issues such as members don't read the book, members chat about their lives instead of discussing the book, one or more members seek to dominate the discussion, etc. Some people just like to keep reading as a private activity.

I joined my first reading group in April, 2004, because I was just dying to talk to people about books. I have wonderful friends but oddly enough, none of them read like I do. Then it all snowballed and I now am a member of five groups. That is working for me though I don't always like the books that are chosen. Even that problem isn't bad, since I work in a bookstore and need to be able to suggest books for all types of readers.

As far as the issues go, I won't stay in a group if the members don't read the book or can't stay focused on discussing the book. Those dominating types: well there seems to be one in every group but if there is a competent moderator or an agreed upon mode of discussion, the loud mouth can be kept down to a dull roar.

Finding reading groups is easy. Ask at your favorite bookstores, your local library and amongst your reading friends. They are everywhere, member turnover is usually high and groups often need new members. In my experience, less than 8 attending members is just too small to keep a good discussion going.

As a regular feature here on my blog, I am going to post news about some of the groups I attend. Not all of them are open to new members but the ones I post are. Of course, if you don't live in the Los Angeles area, you won't be attending, but you might be interested in the books we read.

Here are upcoming meetings for the rest of September and into October. For info on locations or to order the book, click on the name of the store or the book's image.

Wednesday, September 23; 8:30 am
Mystery Reading Group with tea and scones
Once Upon A Time Bookstore
Montrose, CA
At Risk, Stella Rimington

Wednesday, September 23; 7:30 pm
Bookie Babes
Barnes & Noble
Burbank, CA

Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck

Monday, October 12; 7:00 pm
The Women's Bookclub
Portrait of a Bookstore
Studio City, CA
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer



Tuesday, October 13; 7:30 pm
Adult Fiction Reading Group
Once Upon A Time Bookstore
Montrose, CA
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich



Thursday, October 15; 7:30 pm
One Book At A Time Reading Group
Usually meets at Mi Casita Restaurant in Sunland, CA
Contact Lisa, the leader for reservations
American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld

OUT STEALING HORSES

Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson, Graywolf Press, 2005, 258 pp


This is the sort of book I love the most. I like to read widely and enjoy many types of stories: mystery, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction. But there is a special satisfaction that certain novels bring when I am drawn into what almost feels like a dream state, full of wonder and emotion and an explication of the state called human being.

Trond Sander came of age just following World War II. His country of Norway was occupied by Germans during the war bringing hardships, but he was only a child then. The hardship for his family was that the father was often gone and his activities had a mysterious air.

In 1948, the war was over, Trond was 15 and spending the summer with his father in the country, living in a cabin by a river. He makes a friend from a neighboring farm, as one does when one is away from home and living mostly outdoors. It is an idyllic time for Trond, especially because he is so happy to be alone with his father.

Tragedy strikes. Trond gradually realizes that there is more going on in the small village and surrounding farms, between his father and the people there, than he had been aware of at the beginning of the summer. The mystery of his father is revealed.

The structure of the novel has Trond as a 67 year old man looking back to what became the most fateful season of his life. When I read about this structure on the cover flap, I felt instantly bored. This novel is not boring for one single sentence.

Petterson creates the world of an old lonely man in equal power to the world of an adolescent boy. Norwegians are characterized in part by their love of the natural world, which is evident in writing that put me there in the woods and fields, on the riverbank, in summer and winter, as though I could feel, smell and taste.

Petterson's calm, quiet prose, exquisitely translated, pulled me through heart wrenching emotions of love, desire, abandonment and fear. In spite of a great deal of emotional and physical violence, I came to the end feeling at peace and grateful for the moments of grace in Trond's life as well as my own. The story said to me that we are defined more by the grace than the violence and sorrow.

I am so glad I read this book. I feel enriched by it.


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

LAURA RIDER'S MASTERPIECE

Laura Rider's Masterpiece, Jane Hamilton, Grand Central Publishing, 2009, 214 pp


I have always liked Jane Hamilton's writing. Her characters are like actual people but also unique. She has a slightly skewed outlook on humanity and at the same time views most people as somewhat off the beaten path of life. She gets beneath the social persona and lets us in on what really goes on.

Laura Rider is a forty-something successful business woman who, with her husband Charlie, has created Prairie Wind Farm, a beautiful gardening and landscaping center. The local people of small town Hartley, WI, come there for plants and advice on their yards and flowers.

Laura is also a secret novel reader, has a dream of becoming a writer and is an avid fan of Jenna Faroli who hosts her own show about books and authors on Milwaukee Public Radio. Jenna has recently moved to Hartley with her husband, who is a judge.

Laura stopped having sex with Charlie because he was so good that he wore her out after twelve years of marriage. Due to a difficult first pregnancy and birth resulting in a hysterectomy, Jenna and her husband have not had sex for over a decade. So when Laura finally meets Jenna at a garden club gathering, and then Charlie meets Jenna by chance on the road later that day, Laura goes into the mode that has always brought her success. She starts managing people and situations.

She literally creates an affair between Charlie and Jenna, so that while studying her how-to books on writing a romance novel, she can also watch a romance in progress. In a nod to modern times, much of the affair is conducted by email between Charlie and Jenna, except that Laura reads all the email exchanges and even helps Charlie compose his.

Most of the reviews and blurbs make much about how funny this book is. Amusing, I guess; sexy for sure; comical in the way that certain romance movies from the 50s were, but not funny. Jane Hamilton has written a spoof on wannabe writers who have never spent a day being literary. Weirdly, I had recently finished How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely (watch for the review, coming soon), which was truly funny. I think we are supposed to not like Laura Rider, but perversely, I did.


(This book is available in hardcover by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BITTER MEDICINE

Bitter Medicine, Sara Paretsky, William Morrow and Company Inc, 1987, 222 pp


Now the pace picks up. Sara Paretsky has always had consummate plotting skills. In her fourth book, she moves over into thriller mode. Bitter Medicine starts right out with action and never lets up.

At a for-profit hospital in suburban Chicago, a 16 year old girl dies of complications during childbirth, as does the infant. The next thing you know, one of the attending doctors is beaten to death and a group of anit-abortion fanatics stages a demonstration at the woman's clinic of Lottie Herschel, V I Warshawski's closest friend.

There is more, including injury to V I and a fling with another doctor. In between all the mayhem and romance, Paretsky also employs a biting wit, throwing in pithy comments about chauvinist males, slimy PR guys and government officials, not to mention remarks about what V I is wearing and why.

I was excited to learn that Paretsky has a new volume of this series coming out this month entitled Hard Ball, which has got to be about Chicago baseball. Can't wait.


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

THE MAGICIANS

The Magicians, Lev Grossman, Viking, 2009, 402 pp


My review of The Magicians is now up on BookBrowse.


"I loved every page of The Magicians. For anyone who grew up reading fantasy, who started with E Nesbit and The Chronicles of Narnia or awaited each Harry Potter release, who openly or secretly continued to read fantasy wondering if it was appropriate to be drawn to tales of magic as an adult, this is a perfect read..."

Read the entire review here.


(The Magicians is available in hardcover by special order at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

I DON'T USUALLY DO THIS

I don't usually post links to other stuff on my blog, as many lit bloggers do. I like to keep my blog purely about books and authors. But I couldn't resist on this cool article from The New York Times about people reading on the subway. It is such a cross-section of people, who they are, what and why they read. There is also a related slide-show.

Enjoy!

PARADISE

Paradise, Elena Castedo, Grove Press, 1990, 328 pp


This excellent novel was suggested to one of my reading groups by Mary Helen Ponce, who wrote The Wedding. Elena Castedo was born in Barcelona, raised in Chile and now lives in Massachusetts, when she is not traveling.

Paradise tells the story of a family of refugees from Franco's Spain, now living in a city in South America. We see it all through the eyes of Solita, who is not quite ten years old. Solita worships her Papi but he is rarely home as he roams the town looking for work and getting caught up in labor disputes.

One day Solita's mother tells her they are going to Paradise where everything will be wonderful. Pilar dresses her daughter and four-year-old son in their best clothes and they leave their poverty-stricken pensione life among the refugees to become house guests at El Topaz, the hacienda of a wealthy eccentric.

In this glittery world filled with artists, politicians and "all the best people", Solita is expected to exhibit good manners and be an entertainment for the three daughters who live there. She does provide amusement for these spoiled girls who torment Solita in ways only children can.

As the days go by, Solita tries to navigate this treacherous territory while wondering what her mother is up to and when her Papi will arrive. Castedo has written a fabulous satire of the rich and their crazy customs. Gradually the reader begins to discern Pilar's purpose and strategy by picking up the clues from what Solita observes. As we read, we see what Solita sees and yet we bring our grownup perspective to the story. Brilliant.

In one other writing feat, Elena Castedo develops a certain sympathy for Papi and Pilar as well as for Solita. Each one is strong, brave and persistent; not one of them is completely admirable. They do the best they can to work out a possible life in this new land that has saved them from Franco and the Nazis but has no place for them in its culture.


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

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day, Winifred Watson, Persephone Books Ltd, 2000, 234 pp


First published in 1938, the third of six very different novels by Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew is having a second life due to the film of the same title which was released in 2008. The book is lighthearted and clever, which as you my readers know, is not exactly my cup of tea. But read it I did, because part of being in a reading group is reading the book, at least by my personal creed.

I have to admit that I spent a few minutes wishing I could solve my friends' problems as easily or that on the few occasions when I have succeeded, I would have reaped such glorious rewards. It was entertaining in a Seinfeld episode sort of way to watch Miss Pettigrew having her wicked fun while rescuing the flighty and indecisive Miss LaFosse from disastrous men.

Having said that, I will now say that Winifred Watson could be the grandmother of chick lit. Once in a while even this grandmother can be entertained reading about a woman who is having a harder time than I ever did and coming out of it better than I ever have.


(This book is available on the shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

TILL WE HAVE FACES

Till We Have Faces, C S Lewis, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1956, 309 pp


It is possible that this book made me a feminist. I realize what a weird thing that is to say, considering that the author is male and a Christian writer; also considering that the story is a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. But it was a favorite book of mine as a teenager and I read it over and over during my high school years. It never failed to give me an emotional beating.

Orual, the heroine, is the ugly older sister of Psyche, whom she loves deeply. When bad things happen to Psyche, Orual tries to save her but only ends up destroying her instead. Orual is left with bitterness towards all of life but especially towards "the gods." Although she eventually becomes the Queen of her country and a wise woman, her own life is forever ruined.

It is one of the saddest books I have ever read. I too have a younger sister whom I have always loved, though nothing very bad has ever happened to her. I was fixated on how to be beautiful as a teen and though I was probably a decent looking young woman, I usually felt ugly. But reading the book now as a woman in her early 60s, I realized that it was Orual's intelligence and toughness that appealed to me the most, even as a teenager.

She took nothing lying down; she always fought back, against her father, against restrictions imposed on her as a female and against her fate. She rose to all occasions, learned to ride horses, to fight with swords, to lead an army, to make her country solvent and impregnable, etc, etc. From her beloved Greek teacher, she learned how to think and thereby to outwit any oppressors. But she lost her sister through her own refusal to take advice from anyone. The one man she loved, she could never have. After losing Psyche, her long life was arid and empty.

Tragedy was a Greek invention or possibly they merely recognized it as the underlying theme of life. Juxtaposed to tragedy in the human heart is hope and the pursuit of happiness. In Till We Have Faces, C S Lewis has brought this conundrum to life in what I consider his best book.


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

KILLING ORDERS

Killing Orders, Sara Paretsky, William Morrow and Company Inc, 1985, 288 pp


Sara Paretsky is as fearless as her private investigator V I Warshawski. In Killing Orders she takes on the Catholic Church in a story of financial corruption and Mafia connections. She also gets in some good digs against the church's anti-abortion views.

Like Harry Potter in The Order of the Phoenix, Warshawski gets deserted by her friends and is in a bad mood throughout most of the book. She is dealing with way too many factors which she doesn't fully understand, including the truth about her long dead mother. She loses most of her material possessions and does not know who she can trust. As usual, she comes to extreme physical harm.

But it is her heart that is in the most danger as she presses on toward the truth and while she solves the crime, she loses the better part of whatever moral innocence she might have had left. It was all oddly and deeply affecting for a mystery novel and I cried at the end.

(This book is available in mass market paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

CODEX

Codex, Lev Grossman, Harcourt Inc, 2004, 348 pp


Since my next paid review will be on the latest book by this author, I decided to do my homework and read his earlier book. Grossman had a first novel published in 1997, entitled Warp, about a recent Harvard graduate trying to figure out what to do with his life, but I skipped that one. Looking at Lev Grossman's bio, I learned that he is a Harvard grad, a Gen X guy himself and eventually landed at "Time" magazine as their book critic.

In Codex, Edward Wozny, a successful young New York investment banker, has just landed a significant promotion to a bank in London and has two weeks off before starting the new job. It is his first vacation in years and having been a Type A workaholic, he is majorly adrift after just one day.

Within hours, he has fallen into a mysterious world of the obscenely rich and weird and has begun a quest to find a missing medieval book, a codex. Also on that first day of the rest of his life, Edward's college friend Seph, a computer geek, has given him a burned CD of a new computer game called MOMUS, which inserts the player into a quest, starring himself. Edward quickly finds himself addicted and playing instead of sleeping or eating. Soon that virtual reality begins to parallel his so-called real life.

One more thing: Edward enlists the help of Margaret Napier, brilliant Medieval scholar and consummate book nerd. Off we go on what is called a "literary thriller", reminiscent of Micheal Gruber's Book of Air and Shadows or Geraldine Brook's People of the Book, with the added "Wired" feel of cyber punk. Thoroughly entertaining!

Books like this would be perfect for readers in their 30s, if only that age group still read books. Luckily I get to read and enjoy them, getting a vicarious thrill of excitement and recalling my own mad years of early adulthood. Because, as Edward finds out, whether it is marriage, children or a career, most of us settle in the end for a settled down life.


(The books mentioned in this review are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. People of the Book and The Book of Air and Shadows are usually in stock and on the shelves.)

THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE

The Story of a Marriage, Andrew Sean Greer, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2008, 195 pp


I liked this book. I like it when an author tweaks my heart in unexpected ways, leaving me wondering how he did it. That is the ultimate alchemy of reading. Now I know why every review I read of The Story of a Marriage led me to expect an entirely different story than what I got.

In under 200 pages, Andrew Sean Greer sets up a scenario, proceeds to reveal that scenario as false and then with tantalizing restraint, uncovers what lies deep in the hearts of his three main characters. Thereby he shows, rather than tells, the realities behind the book's first sentence: "We think we know the ones we love."

I could complain about a few minor points: the way certain revelations feel too abrupt; some unbelievability in the character of Pearlie, the wife; the first person voice that is almost omniscient third person in disguise. But if those were really issues, I doubt that the story of this marriage would have hit me so hard.

I went around for days wondering about my husband, my parents, my sons. Do I really know the ones I love?


(The Story of a Marriage is available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

FINAL STOP ALBUQUERQUE

Final Stop Albuquerque, Alice Zogg, Aventine Press, 2009, 200 pp


Alice Zogg has done many good things for me. She has forced me to learn how to spell Albuquerque for one. She has been a good friend ever since she sent me an email after reading my very first column about books on our very small local paper. Most of all, she has been an inspiration to me as a writer in two ways.

Alice decided that she wanted to write mysteries. Rather than wait for any gate keeper's permission, she went ahead to write and self-publish her first one, Reaching Checkmate in 2003, though she has forbidden me to read it because, well it was her first and she now doesn't think it is very good. I was inspired by her energy and passion in following her dream.

Also, having read her other five books in the order in which she wrote them, I have proof that if a writer just keeps writing, she keeps improving. As I struggle every day to put words together and make them sound good, I remind myself that Alice has completed and put into print six entire books!

As I say every time I read her newest book, Final Stop Albuquerque is her best one yet. She has always been good with plot. Now she has made a new leap in the creation of her characters. R A Huber, the PI in her mysteries, is no Stephanie Plum; wrong age, wrong city and despite being feisty and determined, she is fairly conservative. But in this new book, we see a bit deeper into Huber and what makes her tick. Her new assistant, Andi is young, impulsive, dresses in jeans, leather and cowboy boots and is the perfect foil for Huber.

When 24-year-old Elena Campione goes missing, R A and Andi go into action, dealing with a mad scientist, a horny nightclub owner, a fractious step-mother and a go cart racer; all complex characters capable of killing Elena. Covering plenty of ground between LA, several Arizona towns and of course Albuquerque, NM, they solve what has become a murder and nearly lose their own lives in the process.

Good stuff. Looking forward to the next one.


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

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman, Alfred A Knopf, 1996, 399 pp


I have been wanting to read Philip Pullman for a long time. For some reason, his books would call to me from the shelves at work, but it wasn't until the movie for The Golden Compass came out that I seriously put this book on my TBR list. I didn't make it to the theatre to see the movie, so last week the DVD arrived from Netflix and I (almost) always read the book first.

Within thirty pages I was enthralled and grew more amazed after each chapter. This is NOT Narnia. I am not even sure it is a children's book or even YA. Yes, Lyra is only eleven and the story is told from her viewpoint though not in first person, but there are some meaty concepts being put forth here. In fact, omniscient third person in a mostly eleven-year-old voice is a pretty good trick: that young energy propels the plot, the actions, even the emotions, but Pullman gets to put his views in there as well.

His views are fairly unique to him. I have not read a huge amount of fantasy beyond C S Lewis, Tolkein, Anne McCaffrey and Neil Gaiman, but I can recognize a fantasy writer with a well thought out world view. It was clear to me that the uproar from the religious right when the movie came out was not so much because Pullman is an atheist (and is he really?) but because he is strongly against organized religion. I have no problem with that.

What he is in favor of is knowledge, wisdom, freedom of thought. Those are my passions as well, so I am now a Pullman fan.

The writing is wonderful with lots of action. The story moves at a great pace. As far as characters go, I thought the main children and a few sympathetic adults, such as King of the Gyptians John Faa, and Farder Coran, their spiritual leader, were the most fully developed, as naturally were their daemons. The bears, good and evil, were also deep characters. But most of the adults, including Asriel and Mrs Coulter, seemed like types, which was perfect because again, it gave the reader Lyra's perspective. She could understand John Faa, Farder Coram, Iorek Byrnison and even his rival bear, Iofur Raknison, while Asriel and Mrs Coulter were somewhat incomprehensible and dangerous to her. Isn't that just the way it is for children?

For me, everything about this book was a wonder. I love the parallel universes, the mystery of Dust, the nefarious use of children ("for their own good", of course) and Lyra's deep sense of loyalty and fair play. The conceit of the daemons as human souls is brilliant. How can any reader not be dying to read Book 2, The Subtle Knife, after such a cliff hanger of an ending.

(All of the books of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy are available in paperback versions of the single volumes, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass at Once Upon A Time Bookstore. We also have the omnibus volume of His Dark Materials in paperback.)

WRITING IN AN AGE OF SILENCE

Writing in an Age of Silence, Sara Paretsky, Verso, 2007, 138 pp


I am reading my way through Paretsky's V I Warshawski mystery novels. I have read four of the twelve so far and liked them all. This slim volume is a combination memoir and polemic on why she writes what she writes.

Ms Paretsky grew up in Kansas, where she and her siblings were kept isolated on the outskirts of town because her brilliant but dysfunctional parents were also Jewish and could not buy property in town. Drinking, fighting, violence and drudgery were the key elements of her childhood. But so was reading; she escaped, she got an education and the second wave of feminism came along just in time.

This author is clearly a liberal; championing underdogs of all types and adamantly opposed to corruption in big business and government. That is clear in her novels. She was also strongly anti-Bush, a hot topic in 2007 when the book was published, which sounds dated already in 2009. But her diatribes against the Patriot Act and Homeland Security are strident, as are her opinions on the anti-abortionists.

Women are usually accused of being strident when we speak up. The Old Testament prophets were also strident and mocked. Are our women of a certain age the new prophets? Possibly so. Barbara Kingsolver was labeled strident for things she had to say in her Small Wonder essays. I must read those someday.

I most enjoyed Paretsky's stories of becoming a writer. In fact, that is a story I never tire of reading and in the telling of it she is at her most eloquent. Jonatha Brooke, my second most favorite singer/songwriter after Joni Mitchell, wrote a song called "The Angel in the House" (recorded on an album of the same title in 1993 when she was still a member of the band The Story.) A line from that song has stuck with me always, "Even in my wildest heart, I cannot kill the angel in the house." Turns out it all goes back to Virginia Woolf and an essay she wrote entitled "Professions for Women" (available on line at Professions for Women and in the book Death of the Moth & Other Essays) in which Woolf takes on the phantom of the selfless sacrificial female ideal of the 19th century, whose sole purpose was to soothe, to flatter and to comfort the male. In a poem by Coventry Patmore, celebrating domestic bliss, this type of woman is named the Angel in the House. "Killing the angel in the house," wrote Virginia Woolf, "is part of the occupation of a woman writer."

Sara Paretsky had her own Angel in the House to overcome. She writes about how she did it, she mentions Jonatha Brooke and Virginia Woolf. I now have The Death of the Moth & Other Essays on order. One of the best things about reading is the way one thing leads to another in a continuous path of discovery and realization. Thank you Sara Paretsky for connecting those dots for me.

(The books mentioned here are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE READER

The Reader, Bernard Schlink, Pantheon, 1997, 218 pp


Rarely does a book just ram into my heart and mind like The Reader did and then leave me feeling deeply satisfied with the whole experience. I've yet to see the movie but suspect it will not disappoint.

Anyone who has seen the movie (probably more people than have read the book) will know the whole plot but I don't want to give it away. Easily half of the greatness of the book is the way the plot is revealed and I for one, did not see any of it coming. Each revelation caused me to catch my breath and marvel.

The theme of guilt is strong and tough and hit me where I live because of my ancestry (German) and religious upbringing (Lutheran). Schlink creates a stew of desire, sin and lost dreams but the broth is guilt: personal, familial, societal and judicial. If that sounds daunting and heavy, it is; but the writing is so perfect and seems to soothe the reader, seems to indicate that it will be alright in the end. Until the end, when nothing is right.

Michael Berg, a teen just recovering from a long illness, with hormones raging and longing for a closeness with his father that he will never have, tells the story from his viewpoint. He is a typical European postwar individual, growing up in a world with few ideals.

Hannah is a mature woman with a hard, cynical veneer that barely hides all manner of conflicts as mysterious to Michael as they are to herself. Once they begin a relationship, they are locked together by forces that neither understand. In an admirable economy of words, Schlink takes us through the years, the twists and turns that seem to ruin Michael's life, until we see that the ruin is mankind's.

(This book is on the shelf in paperback at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BENEATH A MARBLE SKY

Beneath A Marble Sky, John Shors, Penguin Group, 2004, 344 pp


This historical novel about the building of the Taj Mahal, is a big seller at the store where I work and a reading group favorite around the country. I probably would have skipped it but two of my reading groups picked it, so now I can sell it knowing that it is a perfectly good example of the historical novel genre.

It is also an unabashed romance novel written by a man. Two love stories entwine: that of the last great Emperor of Hindustan and his favorite wife plus an illicit but passionate affair between the Emperor's daughter Jahanara and Isis, the architect of the Taj Mahal. Another obvious great love is the author's for that period of Indian history.

With plenty of action, intrigue, adventure and passion, the story is never dull. Shors addresses the conflicts between Hindu and Muslim, the dichotomy of force versus reason in ruling a country and the theme that force usually prevails but great works of art are born out of reason and passion.

One of the reading group members complained that the princess Jahanara is like the female Indiana Jones. So? What is wrong with that? She is quite a fabulous heroine. Are our reading group readers becoming buried in postmodern cynicism? Now I am trying to think of a recent literary novel with a fabulous heroine.

(This book is available on the shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

WHEN THE WORLD WAS STEADY

When the World Was Steady, Claire Messud, Granta Books, 1994, 270 pp


Claire Messud had a success with her 2007 title, The Emperor's Children. I decided to read her first novel before reading her latest. I did not care for it. I found it dull and could not bring myself to care for the characters.

Two sisters are opposites in personality and location. Virginia lives in London with her widowed mother. She has never married, is a devout Christian, fussy and nervous. Emmy married a wealthy Australian and moved there but now her husband has left her for a younger, thinner woman. Both sisters are in their 50s when the book begins.

Virginia, who believes in God but certainly not in people, has been recently thrown out of her dull routine by a series of events. She agrees to a journey to the Isle of Skye with her somewhat dotty mother. Emmy, who believes she creates her own luck, is traveling in Bali, looking for some spiritual awakening but merely gets mixed up with various European losers.

I know; it all sounds exotic with plenty of potential, but the characters are not up to the locales nor do they change much despite anything that happens around them. I kept reading and waiting for the moment which would explain why the author wrote the novel, but that moment never arrived. Still, there was some promise in the writing, so I may try another one of her books.

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

DEADLOCK

Deadlock, Sara Paretsky, Dial Press, 1984, 263 pp


In her second V I Warshawski mystery, Paretsky has her private investigator looking into the Great Lakes shipping industry. Vic's cousin Boom-Boom, a former hockey star with a ruined ankle, is supposedly the fatal victim of an accident on Chicago's waterfront. He had taken a job with one of the shipping lines and gotten a tad too interested in certain discrepancies.

In the course of determining whether or not her cousin's death was truly an accident, Warshawski prowls the Port of Chicago and ends up stowing away on one of the ships headed for godforsaken Thunder Bay at the northern tip of Lake Superior. One of my favorite things about Paretsky's books is the crackpot, unusual and desperate ideas that Warshawski comes up with to find out what she wants to know. Putting herself at extreme risk is her trademark. She will not be denied and she usually gets badly hurt, which worries me even though I know she will live. That is good mystery writing.

A rather daunting cast of characters required me making a list to keep them all straight and I had to resort to map study in order to picture all the locations. All worth it because the suspense was intense, the plot twists were hairpin turns and the criminals were ruthless.

Warshawski is still my top crime investigator. So smart, so tough and so intrepid.


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

UPCOMING EVENT AT ONCE UPON A TIME

A Very Special Evening with Kerry Madden
Friday, August 7 at 7 PM
Once Upon A Time Bookstore
2207 Honolulu Avenue, Montrose CA 91020
(between Zeke’s and Rocky Cola Cafe)

PHONE NUMBER
( 818) 248-9668

One of our store's most favorite authors - Kerry Madden - is here to discuss her latest book, the young adult biography of author Harper Lee. Arguably the most beloved American classic, Lee's only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is required reading for millions of students. Why did Lee never write another novel? How has the success of the book changed her? Who were her influences? Come hear Madden explain her research in writing the well-reviewed biography. Middle school & high school students, teachers and adults will be fascinated with Madden's painstaking efforts to create a bio truly worthy of this gifted author. Wine & cheese reception.

THE LITTLE STRANGER

The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters, Riverhead Books, 2009, 473 pp


One of the main stories of 20th century Great Britain is the decline of the landed gentry class. I have read many novels based on this sad tale, some of which were enjoyable, a few which were great. In these novels, there tends to be a dark family secret involved which is connected to the gradual dissipation inherent in inheriting money and land rather than having to work for it. The final death knells are the two world wars and the rise of the middle class.

Sarah Waters has brought all of these elements to bear in her story and centered it around a haunting. The Ayres family home, Hundreds Hall, is a crumbling Georgian edifice inhabited by a widow, her war damaged son, her unattractive spinster daughter, a teen aged servant girl and "the little stranger." Doctor Faraday, local doctor, long time bachelor, who worked his way up from humble beginnings and has a struggling practice, is called in one day when the Ayres' family physician is unavailable. He becomes rather injudiciously entangled in the family's affairs. In fact, he is besotted by them all but especially Caroline, the spinster.

The Little Stranger has gotten mostly glowing reviews from readers and critics. Just this week it was added to the longlist for the Man Booker Award. "Deliciously creepy," said one critic. "A stunning haunted house tale...as horrifying as...Shirley Jackson," proclaims another. I found the novel mind numbing and endless with a far from satisfying conclusion.

Too much repetitive description, painfully slow plot development and characters about whom I could not care, were my main objections. Doctor Faraday remained an unimaginative, bumbling clod throughout. Despite a glimpse of hope that Caroline would rise above it all and claim a life for herself in the modern world, alas the ghost vanquishes her as well. (Plot spoiler. I know. But you are probably not going to read the book now, are you?)

The worst epithet is that, like a joke that isn't funny, a ghost story that isn't scary is not worth a reader's time.


(If you DO want to read it, this book is available in hardcover by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

LOVE INVENTS US

Love Invents Us, Amy Bloom, Random House Inc, 1996, 205 pp


Amy Bloom's novel. Away, was one of my favorite books in 2008. While in Michigan for my mom's memorial in June, I stopped in at Shaman Drum Bookstore in Ann Arbor (which sadly closed its doors on June 30) and picked up Love Invents Us, Bloom's first novel. I had been slogging through Sara Water's lugubrious The Little Stranger (which I will review next), but once I read the first few pages of Amy Bloom's novel, I fell again under her spell.

I read all through lunch at Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Roadhouse (they serve 6 varieties of macaroni and cheese; I had the spinach and pancetta), I read while waiting to board my plane home at Detroit Metro, I read through the 5 hour flight and then in bed that night, when I finished this astonishing book.

The story opens thus:

"I wasn't surprised to find myself in the back of Mr Klein's store, wearing only my undershirt and panties, surrounded by sable.
'Sable is right for you, Lizbet,' Mr Klein said, draping a shawl-collared jacket over me. 'Perfect for your skin and your eyes. A million times a day the boys must tell you. Such skin' "

A bit alarmed that I might have stumbled into some modern day Lolita but hopelessly captured, I read on. Not Lolita, but erotic while heartbreaking, as Elizabeth, the pudgy, lonely middle-grade daughter of an interior decorator and a lawyer, searches for love and thereby clues to who she might be.

She falls in love with Mr Klein, then a piano teacher, her high school English teacher, and finally an African American basketball player from her high school team.

It is not that Elizabeth does not come to harm. She does and she has no one but herself to fall back on. But, as the title states, her loves do tell her who she is. She grows into a strong unique individual. Still lonely, still off the beaten path of normality, but fiercely the champion of those she loves, Elizabeth is a character only Amy Bloom could have created.

Love, like life, is dangerous, illuminating, messy and even humorous. While reading Amy Bloom's book, I got a new look at my own loves and how they have formed me.


(Both books by Amy Bloom are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE STRANGER

The Stranger, Albert Camus, Alfred A Knopf, 1988, 123 pp

(Originally printed in French by Librairie Gallimand, Paris, 1942; translated by Matthew Ward.)

Albert Camus, born to a family of French settlers in Algeria, journalist, essayist, playwright, and philosopher, also wrote three novels: The Stranger (1942); The Plague (1948) and The Fall (1956). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957 but died in an automobile accident in 1960, at the height of his career.

I missed The Stranger during my reading of 1942 novels, mostly due to my confusion between his French and English publication dates. Essentially this is his first published novel, written in his late 20s.

Meursault, the main character, is definitely among the class of anti-heroes. He lives alone in a rooming house, has a job he doesn't mind but cares little about, a mistress and an assortment of odd friends. He is not ambitious, has no concrete plans for his future and is not given to commitments. When his poor mother dies in a nursing home, his life begins to unravel as he involves himself unwisely in his friends' affairs.

Eventually Meursault kills a man but it is not clear whether it was an intentional murder or an accident. Camus obscures the nature of the killing for the reader in order to put us into the uncertain moral state of his main character. As Meursault languishes in prison awaiting trial, he passes through various mental states which are Camus' philosophical positions, but as in The Plague, the writing absorbs the reader in the drama, making the philosophy practically painless.

The accusations and investigations of the police, the advices of the lawyers and finally the trial itself, are as full of absurdities as anything by Kafka. I was left feeling that most of life is absurd, although questions of innocence and guilt hold importance.

In a little over 100 pages, Camus packs an amazing amount of incident and idea. The result is a deeply affecting story that has stayed with me for weeks.


(All three of Camus' novels are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. Sometimes they are also on the shelf in our classics section.)

NURSERY CRIMES

Nursery Crimes, Aylet Waldman, Berkley Publishing Group, 2000, 215 pp


This is the first in a series (The Mommy-Track Mysteries) of which there are seven titles. It was a fun, fast read; as enjoyable as any Janet Evanovich, though with a different twist.

The sleuth here is Juliet Applebaum who has given up her job as a public defender to be a stay-at-home mom. In an effort to enroll Ruby, her exuberant and fairly spoiled two year old, into a premier Hollywood preschool, Juliet runs smack into a murder when the school's principal is killed. Realizing that she is truthfully bored just being a mom, Juliet dives into solving the crime.

It is all good: the characters, the plotting, the dialogue and the satire on Hollywood/Los Angeles. Very up-to-date with email, newsgroups, cell phones and the wonders of Internet research and hacking. Juliet's husband is a writer who works at home. He writes at night, sleeps in the morning and provides childcare in the afternoons. Clearly he is patterned on Waldman's husband Michael Chabon.

I always claimed that I didn't read mysteries but now, along with the Sara Paretsky and Janet Evanovich books, I am hooked on a new series. But it is good light reading and a needed relief from most of the literary stuff. Do I dare start reading Tana French?


(As far as I can tell, this book is out of print and can only be gotten at libraries or from used book sellers.)

MAPS & LEGENDS

Maps & Legends, Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, Michael Chabon, McSweeney's Books, 2008, 210 pp


In this collection of essays and other writings from the early years of the new millennium, Chabon covers a good bit of territory. Basically though he is holding forth in his entertainingly wordy way, on his philosophy of reading and writing, exhorting us to get over being stuffy and pretentious and just read for enjoyment while praising those who write well.

In other words, the categories devised by the marketing departments of publishing houses and bookstores are no guarantee of anything in terms of quality of writing. A book of literary fiction can be boring and a mystery or science fiction book can reach the highest levels of literary skill.

I enjoyed every page because Chabon's literary skill is considerable and he himself admits, yea proclaims, that he writes to entertain. One of my favorite sections was "On Daemons & Dust," in which he riffs for 18 pages on Philip Pullman, fantasy, religion and the perils of writing in the borderland between worlds.

I also learned about the backgrounds of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, as well as another novel he wrote which was never published. Of course, he waxes eloquently on cartoons and superheroes and in "Golems I Have Known" answered many questions I had about those mysterious artificial Jewish beings, all the while spinning one of his most outrageous tales.

In my mind, a collection of essays can be one of the most mind deadening forms of reading, but in Maps & Legends I realized, it is all in the writing.


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

THE TATTOO MURDER CASE

The Tattoo Murder Case, Akimitsu Takagi, Soho Press Inc, 1998, 324 pp


I read this for a reading group and was underwhelmed, though I found out that Takagi is one of Japan's most respected crime writers.

I did learn much about tattoos as a forbidden Japanese art form, especially full body tattoos which are stripped from dead bodies and curated in museums. Even more interesting to me was a look at Japanese society in the years just following WWII.

However the writing was abysmal and the form seemed such a pale imitation of western mystery writers. Possibly the translation was partly at fault. I finished the book because I always do and because I had to discuss it with other readers, but I was alternately bored or laughing at the lame writing all the way through.


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

STONE'S FALL

Stone's Fall, Iain Pears, Spiegal & Grau, 2009, 594 pp


Three years ago, I read Iain Pear's The Dream of Scipio and it has remained in my mind as an intriguing piece of historical and philosophical fiction. Stone's Fall was an equally challenging read; Pears makes a reader work as far as paying attention to characters and time periods while keeping track of hints that he hides in the text.

The story begins in 1909, with the death of immensely wealthy financier and arms dealer John Stone, the Baron Lord Ravenscliff, a patriot, but essentially a businessman. His wife, Elizabeth, Lady Ravenscliff, has summoned a lowly reporter on the judicial beat of a London newspaper and offered him an outrageous sum to investigate certain aspects of her late husband's life, in particular the identity of a previously unacknowledged child mentioned in his will.

In the space of nineteen pages, the reader has been thrown into a whole set of mysteries, not the least of which is the nature Lady Ravencliff's game. By the end of Part One, I was fascinated by Elizabeth and John Stone but felt more confused than ever and wondered how the author would make sense of the story.

Part Two is set in Paris during 1890. The origins of Elizabeth are revealed and she is not at all what she appeared to be. The abilities and power that John Stone wielded avert a potential financial collapse interestingly similar to the one we are currently experiencing. Henry Cort, a man who was inexplicably in Elizabeth's confidence during Part One turns out to be a British spy who almost causes more trouble that he averts. Each of these characters is complex with levels below levels of personality and desires.

Not until the very end of Part Three does all become clear. In Venice, 1867, John Stone is a young man trying to find his way in life. He makes the kind of mistakes that young men make and which haunt a man no matter how successful he becomes. The intricate puzzle of Stone's Fall was frustrating, even maddening to read. In the end I decided it was worth all I had been put through as a reader, because I had been entertained and informed as well as deeply drawn into these characters' lives.


(Stone's Fall is available in hardcover at Once Upon A Time Bookstore)

THREE TO GET DEADLY

Three to Get Deadly, Janet Evanovich, Scribner, 1997, 300 pp


Janet Evanovich is as fearless as her bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. This time she enters the seamy world of pornography. One of Stephanie's FTAs (failure to appear for a court date) is a beloved neighborhood candy store proprietor who "would never do anything wrong." You know the rest.

But the plotting here is some of her best so far. To add to the fun, Stephanie gets a new sidekick: Lula, one of the hookers from One For the Money, now works as a filing clerk at the bailbond office. Even though Lula has determined to go straight, filing is just a bit too tame. Besides, she is a great help to Stephanie finding people on the streets of crime, even if she longs to get violent with the crims, lock them up in trunks and so on.

I complained in my review of Two For the Dough about the lack of sex between Stephanie and Morelli. No problem. Plenty of build up in the sexual tension leads to their hottest encounter yet. Can't wait for Four to Score.


(All of Evanovich's books are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

IN THE KITCHEN

My review of In The Kitchen, by Monica Ali is now published at BookBrowse Magazine.

In The Kitchen, Monica Ali, Scribner, 2009, 436 pp


In the Kitchen is essentially a descent-into-madness tale, and we're warned of this in the novel's very first paragraph:

When he looked back, he felt that the death of the Ukrainian was the point at which things began to fall apart… it was the following day on which, if a life can be said to have a turning point, his own began to spin.

Read the full review at BookBrowse.


(This book is available in hardcover by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

GODS IN ALABAMA

Gods in Alabama, Joshilyn Jackson, Grand Central Publishing, 2005, 288 pp


I read this novel for one of my reading groups and while I gobbled it down in a few hours, I was left feeling a little queasy. Arlene Fleet, raised a Southern White Baptist, has fled to Chicago because she killed a young man and got away with it. She made a deal with God that included never going back home as long as the body was never found.

So, in the nature of deals with God, it all starts to unravel and Arlene finds herself back in Possett, Alabama with her African American fiance, her terrifying Aunt Florence, her mentally ill mother and her perfect cousin. As you read, you get the story of the murder and in the end, the truth you never saw coming is revealed. All told, it is good storytelling.

Except for all the sex and swear words, this could almost be a YA novel. Except for all the intelligent ideas about writing, race, religion and women, it could be chick lit. It if wasn't for large doses of laugh out loud humor, this would be a tragedy about Southern dysfunctionalism.

That sums up my problem with Gods in Alabama. What is it? Looking back on the reading of it, I feel similar to the way I feel after wolfing down an entire medium pizza with too many toppings that I might have ordered on a night my husband was out of town: very full, quite guilty and, well, queasy.

I got my copy at the library and had to take Large Print because all the regular copies were checked out. But I picture books like this being bought off big messy sale tables by women shopping at WalMart or Costco and while I am glad these women are reading a book once in a while instead of watching TV, I am afraid that they also ate the entire medium pizza and are now signing up for Weight Watchers. I'll take Toni Morrison and a chicken Caesar please.

(Available by special order in paperback from Once Upon A Time bookstore.)

INTERVIEW WITH MARY HELEN PONCE

Senator Alarón presents MHP with Senate Resolution to commemorate the Lifetime Commitment to Literacy Award from the Friends of the San Fernando Library


*************************************


Mary Helen Ponce was born in Pacoima, CA. She attended Pacoima Elementary, San Fernando High School, earned BA and MA degrees from California State University Northridge. She has studied history at UCLA on a Danforth Fellowship, was awarded a UCSB Dissertation Fellowship, and obtained her PhD from University of New Mexico.

Publications include Taking Control, 1987; The Wedding, 1980 & 2008; Hoyt Street: An Autobiography, 1993.

Ponce’s work has been translated into French, German, Spanish and Romanian. She has presented her work at UNAM, El Colegio de Mexico, and published in “Fem”, Mexico’s leading feminist magazine. She taught literature and creative writing at UCLA and UNM. She contributes to “Hispanic Magazine”, “Los Angeles Times”, and “Saludos Hispanos.”

She has raised three sons and a daughter and lives in Sunland, CA. She is currently working on a historical novel about 19th century Mexican-Spanish women.

I see Mary Helen at least once a month at the meetings of the Sunland/Tujunga Reading Group, also known as “One Book At A Time.” We often meet at Mi Casita in Sunland, eat, drink magaritas and get rowdy and discuss like our hair’s on fire. They love us there even though they usually have to kick us out.

So for this interview, I attempted to get professional and sent Mary Helen my questions by email. I believe she took time from her intense writing schedule to jot down some answers, which was more than gracious of her. I have put her thoughts into sentences and now she will undoubtedly send me an email with edits. That’s OK. We are also in a writing group together, so I can get her back.

KTW: You originally wrote and published The Wedding in 1989 and then revised it for the publication in 2008. Is there a story behind this? What changes did you make to the book after almost 20 years?

MHP: Arte Publico (the current publisher) asked to republish the book. I rewrote it because the first edition had many typos and the editing was sloppy. This was difficult because the original manuscript was on old floppy discs which I had to transfer to CD, so I also typed from the book. Ughhh. I cut repetitive words, but overall the story remained the same.

KTW: I was touched by the plight of Blanca, who seemed to have really no future happiness after the wedding, and this appeared typical for women in the barrio. Is this still the case or have Mexican/American women improved their chances of finding a good man and creating a stable family?

MHP: You misinterpret Blanca. She was happy (blind, but happy) as her life would now change, her mother could brag about the wedding and weddings were such fun! Her future was not unlike that of other women, say in Appalachia or the Deep South during the early/late 1940s.

I would argue that Mexican/American women today are a far cry from those of previous generations. Many graduate from highschool. If any one group is living Blanca’s experience, it is newly arrived immigrants from Central America and Mexico. The influence and dictates of the Catholic Church still predominates.

When I wrote Op-Eds for the “Los Angeles Times”, I wrote, “Go forth and multiply, Latina,” as a rebuttal to the pastor’s sermons at my church. I can zap.

KTW: I think your book would touch both Chicana women as well as women in general. When you wrote The Wedding, who did you expect your audience would be? What feedback did you get?

MHP: I got some positive reviews, but one USCB professor, who used it in her teaching, called in a Pachuco novel, as did her students. I saw it more as a love story. Once male critic didn’t like it and men in general thought I was too tough on them. Think I hit a raw nerve?

As to the new edition, there were lots of positive responses. A neighbor (male, 26) loves it. Students at Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, invited me to lecture and read from it. They found it fascinating and relevant. Weddings are still FUN!

KTW: Tell us a good story about your adventures in getting published.

MPH: I published very early in my writing career. I was first published at CSUN (California State University Northridge) in “El Popo”, the student newspaper in about 1980. I submitted three items and all were published.

My biggest thrill was to publish in Mexico (about 10-15 works), Spain (Catalonia), France, Germany, and Romania. The Germans like my work. I learned a lot about Catalonia. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is popular there as they seek autonomy.

KTW: What are you working on now?

MHP: Ay! You would ask. In 1984, while a Danforth Fellow at UCLA in history, I was assigned to research early Mexican/Spanish women in New Spain, as Mexico was called before 1848. The group I studied about was part of the first overland expedition to Alta California, as it was then known. I was intrigued by women who, although pregnant, would contemplate an 800 mile trek to Monterrey to establish a pueblo near the fledgling mission there. I conceived the novel then and wrote the first chapter.

I write in my head, so it has been festering for ages. Once could say it has had a long gestation. I began seriously putting it together about three years ago, then took three or four months to rewrite The Wedding, and in between wrote other stuff. The novel has been in my head for eons.

One problem is I like long, developed chapters (like The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova), so my first chapters were long. Then I saw other authors were into minimalism; even Tolstoy wrote uneven chapters and here I was trying for parallelism. So I cut up chapters, made a mess, recapitulated, and am finally finished with Part One. Now I am tired.

KTW: Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers here?

MHP: I like literary works. Hoyt Street, I’ve been told is very literary, but not The Wedding. Much of what is out there today is trite and not developed. I don’t use a lot of metaphors and similes, as they interrupt narrative flow. Lyricism is one thing but some authors overuse metaphor. Still, it takes time and craft to infuse a story with so much baggage. I prefer to try for lyricism (which is harder), than metaphors, etc.

I once read what I think was the epitome of similes: “Her voice on the phone was like crushed violets.” WOW!

KTW: Thank you so much, Mary Helen. I eagerly await your next novel and wish you luck in getting it finished.

THE WEDDING

The Wedding, Mary Helen Ponce, Arte Publico Press, 2008, 195 pp


A couple years ago I read Hoyt Street, Mary Helen Ponce's memoir of growing up as a Chicana in Los Angeles. As things go in the world of books, I later met Mary Helen through a mutual friend and we are now in a reading group together.

The Wedding also takes place in a Chicano community located on the edge of Los Angeles. It is early 1950s, a time of zoot suits, big hair and big cars. Life in the barrio is grim, jobs are hard to find and about all a girl can hope for is a big wedding which will impress the neighborhood.

The story follows Blanca Munoz, high school dropout, who finally gets a job cleaning turkeys, as well as a boyfriend named Cricket. The boyfriend, whom Blanca has known all her life, is a gang member and lives to rumble. In fact, The Wedding is the Mexican version of S E Hinton's The Outsiders, told from a female point of view.

We follow Blanca's trials and troubles as she prepares for the wedding: choosing the wedding party, the dress, the flowers, etc. Then comes the ceremony and a full day of festivities including a breakfast, pictures, a reception and a dance. The specter of a possible rumble haunts the day but most heartbreaking of all is that Blanca's prospects with her future husband are dim: just children, lack of money, lack of love; really no security or happiness is in store for this couple.

The title says it all. The wedding is going to be Blanca's one big day of happiness. She worked hard to get it and by the end of the day, she has even begun paying for it.

I have not had a Mexican friend until I met Mary Helen. She is highly educated, has taught literature at university level and is a published author, but she came from the barrio, she knows this world and her books put me in it. The writing is simple yet highly evocative of place, people and customs. Quite an accomplishment.

(Both The Wedding and The Outsiders are available on the shelf in the Young Adult section at Once Upon A Time Bookstore. However, both books make excellent reading for adults.)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Today is the 4th anniversary of Keep the Wisdom. It has been fun for me and I hope for you, my readers.

My first post got the most comments ever--6!! Want to beat that?

Right now I am reading Claire Messud's first novel: When the World Was Steady. I sense an Iris Murdoch influence.

Next I will read The Fall by Albert Camus, as part of My Big Fat Reading Project.

What are you reading today?