SLAMMERKIN

Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue, Harcourt Inc, 2000, 334 pp

 A slammerkin can mean either a loose dress or a loose woman. Emma Donoghue is a fine writer whose most recent novel, Room,  was short listed for the Booker Prize of 2010. Recently I reviewed Room for BookBrowse and since I had never read anything by Donoghue, much less heard of her, I did a little homework.

This novel is historical fiction in the sub genre of prostitute tales, of which I have read my share. Memoirs of a Geisha, The Crimson Petal and the White, Forever Amber, come to mind. I am sure there are more. Donoghue adds her own twist.

 Mary Saunders turned 14 in the slums of London, 1760. Her father was dead, her stepfather was not happy about having to feed her, her mother was a piecework seamstress whose eyes were going. Like many impoverished children, Mary had an eye for color, for glitter and shine. And though her father's wish that she be educated had been carried out at great hardship by Mary's mother, the young girl knew that her future was bleak.

 Within months of that 14th birthday, Mary ran away and soon slipped into prostitution as a means to stay alive. Despite the disgusting aspects of her life style, for the first time she was having fun, wearing colorful and glittering gowns, having a best friend. Two years later Mary died by hanging, convicted of theft.

 Slammerkin is a great read, due to fine historical details, atmosphere, characters and storytelling. Never dull, never overbearing in the details, yet always realistic, the novel captivated me. The twist is this: Mary had a loving mother, education, moral training and intelligence, but even with all that, she could not rise out of poverty, servitude or oppression. This novel makes you think about why that is and how it could possibly ever change for men or women.

 Doll, a seasoned London prostitute only four years older than Mary, who met with a gruesome end, taught her friend three rules: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told. All true; still not enough.

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

THE COMFORTERS

The Comforters, Muriel Spark, J B Lippincott & Co, 1957, 228 pp

 This is Muriel Spark's first novel. I have only read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which I found fascinating, but I really know nothing about Spark except that she is considered eccentric when it comes to writing novels. Indeed, this is an unusual story.

  The characters are great. Caroline is a writer, recently converted to Catholicism, who has unstable nerves and hears voices accompanied by the clacking of typewriter keys. Her on and off boyfriend Laurence is a television actor, not super high on intelligence but hyper-observant of details around him to the point of thinking of himself as an amateur sleuth. 

 Laurence's grandmother, who is half gypsy, appears to be part of a smuggling ring which adds a mystery to the tale but in this highly English group of characters, that is just silly. Laurence's mother, a very proper Catholic wife, is constantly trying to help a woman who is clearly the evil character in the story.

 It goes on, it is almost too much and not until half way through this short novel was I at all sure what was going on. To her credit, Spark ties up all loose ends in closing but it was touch and go for a good while. Then, by making sense of it all, she secured my trust.

 The most incredible aspect though was that in 1957 comes this novel which is a piece of metafiction, in the sense of writing that draws attention to the relationship between fiction and reality; in the sense of exposing the illusion of fiction. The voices Caroline hears convince her she is a character in a novel that the voices are writing. The term metafiction was not even coined until 1970, another confirmation of my growing sense that 1957 was a year of major change in literature, even though the changes were creeping in quietly.

(The Comforters is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

ROOM

Room, Emma Donoghue, Little Brown and Company, 2010, 321 pp

My review of Room is now available for non-subscribers at BookBrowse. I begin thus:

      "When I finished this brilliant novel, besides being as locked into its story and world as Jack and Ma were in Room, I had no idea how I would review it. I was convinced there was nothing I could say about it without the entire review being one big spoiler. For me, what made Room so great was that I never knew from page to page what would happen next..." Continue reading here.

 Room is a finalist for the Booker Prize which will be awarded on October 12. I predict a win for Room. 

(Room is available in hardcover at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

IN THE WOODS

In The Woods, Tana French, Viking Press, 2007, 429 pp

 Wow! I really liked this book. Two murder mysteries connected because of one man, who is a police detective in Dublin. His incredible partner, Cassie. Excellent writing. Psychological and suspenseful with a true psychopath. What more could you ask for? Plus she has two more books published already: The Likeness and Faithful Place. Here is a female mystery writer who can stand up to Sara Paretsky.

  Apparently many readers hated the ending. I admit it was a bit disconcerting but I also understand that it is a set up for the next book. I had more trouble with Detective Rob Ryan, who is a great detective but a fairly shitty man. He makes Benjamin Black's Quirke, in Christine Falls, look like a together guy. Rob Ryan just kept making me furious as he let his past troubles get the best of him over and over. However, his relationship with his partner Cassie was a fascinating study in friendship and parnership, so fascinating that it almost trumped the mystery.

 In The Woods is one of the best books I read in August, which was a full month of excellent reading.

(In The Woods is available in paperback on the mystery shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

A TREE IS NICE

A Tree Is Nice, Janice May Udry, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1956, 28 pp

Last Sunday, I began to post my review of this surprisingly special book, but was foiled by Blogger when it came to uploading an image of the cover. The next day I came down with a deadly virus from which I have just recovered sufficiently a week later so I can sit at my computer with some brain cells available. Still I have the *#@** image upload problem. It has a lovely cover and if you click on the title and are lucky it may take you to an image of the cover, but I don't have high hopes. Blogger is great because it is free, but you know what they say about that. I am not wild about the HELP capabilities.

 Anyway I will no longer be denied. A Tree Is Nice is the perfect follow up to my Redwoods trip. (The flu was not.) I have always had a deep reverence for trees. I might never have made it through The Lord of the Rings trilogy if it hadn't been for the trees. I certainly would not have made it through life.

 Janice May Udry's picture book won the Caldecott Medal in 1957 for the illustrations by Marc Simont. That is a good thing because otherwise I might never have read it. Her title fairly well sums up the truth about trees.

 After providing dozens of reasons why a tree is nice, the book ends with how to plant a tree and some encouraging words about the fun of watching it grow "every day for years and YEARS...You say to people, 'I planted a tree.' They wish they had one so they go home and plant a tree too."

(A Tree Is Nice is available on the picture books shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BACK FROM THE REDWOODS

VACATION REPORT

My husband and I just spent the past five days in Northern California, celebrating our 30th anniversary amongst the redwoods. 

Redwood trees are big; I am small.

 With the aid of my trekking poles and lots of training before we left, I am proud to say that I managed a 6 mile hike with 500 feet elevation through the Gold Bluff Canyons at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

 Perfect final anniversary dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley

 Before we left I started reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee, the wild and revealing story of how Alice Waters created her unique restaurant. I did not get very far in the book because it seems I don't read much on road trips. Now that we have been and experienced a meal, the book means more.

 We had a fabulous time and Somehow are more in love than ever. I'll be back on the blog tomorrow with the regularly scheduled program.

ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA

Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010, 457 pp

 I am an unabashed fan of Isabel Allende and have read all of her novels. Recently she has toned down the magical realism that was such a strong flavor in her early books and I don't guess she has ever topped The House of the Spirits, but as a storyteller she always excels. Truthfully the magic is still there because the people whose stories she tells believe in it as part of life.

 Island Beneath the Sea, set in late 1700s Saint-Domingue (which became Haiti) is the story of Zarite, a sugar plantation house slave. It covers a time period and subject matter similar to Andrea Levy's The Long Song. Levy's book was set in Jamaica so it was interesting to see the parallel history of slavery on both islands.

 Later in Allende's book, after the slave rebellion, Zarite and her master relocate to New Orleans, giving the author the scope to explore sugar plantation and Creole society there at the turn of the 19th century through the eyes of both a white master and a slave. In My Big Fat Reading Project, I have visited New Orleans many times, so I felt right at home.

 What I love most about Allende's sensibility is her basic premise that women, for better or for worse, actually run the world because of their love of men, their sort of underground network and behind the scenes machinations, all of which are driven by a purpose to create children and families; to provide healing and wisdom; to deliver men from their foolishness. She makes me ponder questions about male/female balance and master/slave dynamics in a more spiritual, organic way than authors like Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood, adding another facet to the equation.

(Island Beneath the Sea is available in hardcover while the supply lasts on the new book shelves (also called The Barn) at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE ASSISTANT

The Assistant, Bernard Malamud, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1957, 246 pp

  I quite liked Malamud's first novel, The Natural. This is his second novel and I liked it less. 

  A poverty-stricken Jewish man runs a failing grocery store in Brooklyn. He is presented as a failure of a man. All he knows is dogged persistence and hard work. He considers himself unlucky, but actually he lacks the killer instinct needed for business success. He is an immigrant from Russian pogroms, his wife is a nag, he lost a son when that boy was young and has a grown daughter who would have liked to go to college but works as a lowly secretary to help support the family.

 The "assistant" is a non-Jewish orphan who has never succeeded at anything and has become a petty criminal. Due to various occurrences these two men enter into a relationship which is more like a deathlock, when the store owner hires the other as his assistant.

 The one thing I admired about this dark tale was the way the author would tease the reader into hoping that life would improve for these characters and then would dash those hopes as the fatal flaws of each sent them back to paths of hopelessness and destruction. Somehow, Malamud does this over and over, managing to raise the hope each time.

 When it all ended, I felt I'd been had. I concluded that the author's theme was that there were other sides to life than the happy, hopeful ideals of the 1950s.

(The Assistant is available by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE WIND DONE GONE

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The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001, 208 pp

I have not yet ever read Gone With the Wind, though I have seen the movie countless times. I have read Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley's supposed sequel and vaguely remember it. It's been seventeen years since I read it. The Wind Done Gone is a brilliant novel of imagination and truth concerning Cynara, daughter of Mammy and Mr O'Hara (the owner of Tara). Cynara was born in the same year as Scarlett. Through her diary we learn about her life, her relationship to Scarlett and Mammy and others from Gone With the Wind.

Alice Randall is a woman of color who most recently published Rebel Yell. She is also an award winning songwriter, a screenwriter and journalist. Man, can she write! She first read Gone With the Wind at age twelve and began to wonder where were the mulatto children of Tara? This is her imagined answer.

I love the title. I loved Cynara, her emotional journey, her strength and her wit. If you don't know the story of Gone With the Wind, you might not get how great is The Wind Done Gone. It would be worth reading both books or at least seeing the movie and then reading this lovely, intelligent, caustic novel.

I did like The Help, but I would like a book about that period of history from a black woman's side of the story. Actually, Alice Randall did write part of it in Rebel Yell. Now I've got to go read her second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, while I hope she keeps writing novels for years to come.

(The Wind Done Gone is available in hardcover, paperback and audio by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. To find it at your nearest indie bookstore, click on the cover image above.)

MIRACLES ON MAPLE HILL

Miracles on Maple Hill, Virginia Sorensen, Harcourt Inc, 1956, 232 pp

 I know I have some readers who like to read my reviews of children's books and I am sorry I have been remiss on posting them lately. For a while I was trying to post about a good family read every Sunday but suddenly my Sundays got full of family events, etc. So here we go with a family read on Monday!

Miracles on Maple Hill won the Newbery Award in 1957. It is a lovely story with a fast pace, believable characters and conveys much truth. I found it unique among the Newbery winners I have read so far because the loveliness is not cloying and the truths are nicely incorporated into the story, never coming across as "lessons." Virginia Sorenson is an extremely fine writer. Best of all, I was not bored once while reading it.

 Marly is an exuberant and perceptive young girl with an annoying older brother who truly does "know it all" and likes to be first. As Marly puts it, "Boys were queer. They seemed afraid they'd stop being boys altogether if they couldn't be first at everything." Still, she loves Joe and does her best to keep up with him.

 The big problem in their family is their father. He came back from the Korean War in bad shape: nervous, irritable and depressed. The solution is to go to their mother's childhood home in upstate Pennsylvania where maple syrup is made, where life is simpler and Daddy can recover in what Grandma calls "all outdoors."

 Of course it all works out but along the way the children meet unusual but wonderful people both young and old while they have the kinds of adventures that can only be had in rural areas. I think kids today, who are barely allowed to play outside and have most of their activities planned for them and supervised by adults, might just enjoy a story about kids who get to roam the "all outdoors," face a little danger and have adventures. The book did not feel old fashioned, it just felt rural.

 This is not a story about being a good child. Instead, Marly comes to understand herself, life and people by interacting with the unique qualities, both positive and negative, of individuals. Plus, the reader learns how maple syrup is collected and made.

 (Miracles on Maple Hill is available in paperback on the Newbery shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

A DRAM OF POISON

A Dram of Poison, Charlotte Armstrong, White Lion Publishers, 1956, 221 pp

 This mystery won the Edgar Award in 1957. It is unusual in that it is also a love story and a psychological portrait of a man finding his true nature. 

 Kenneth Gibson is a fifty-five year old bachelor leading a dull but comfortable and well-ordered life as a teacher. He is prone to helping people, especially fairly helpless characters. He takes on Rosemary, newly widowed and drowning in the fear of being alone. His attitude toward her is in a Henry Higgins mode but eventually they fall in love, despite a 23 year difference in age.

 Bad things begin to happen, Kenneth becomes distraught and reckless, while the suspense builds inexorably until the final pages when all is resolved. Kenneth's psychopathic sister and deadly poison are involved.

 Many intriguing and well-developed characters fill this very short book. In fact, the economy of the writing shows a master at work. Armstrong seamlessly incorporates philosophy and psychology into a unique take on a mystery.

(I could not find A Dram of Poison in any of my libraries. It is available from used book sellers.)

MOCKINGBIRD

Mockingbird, A Portrait of Harper Lee, Charles J Shields, Henry Holt and Company, 2006, 288pp

 Considering that he had no access to Harper Lee and that no one else had published a book length biography about her before Mr Shields, I have to admire what he put together in Mockingbird. My only complaint is that his writing style is so clunky that reading the book was rather a drowsy chore.

 I enjoyed reading about how Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, found an agent and publisher, went through the editing process and then the whole fame and publicity thing. I also liked the sections on her assistance to Truman Capote as he researched In Cold Blood. Because I had seen "Capote," the movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman, I had some background on that period of their lives.

 I was also pleased that Shields presented the information he discovered about Ms Lee's failure to publish any more novels without advancing an analysis of his own about why. He demonstrated a level of respect for the privacy she obviously desires.

 Somehow, I have never read To Kill A Mockingbird nor seen the movie. As this year is the 50th anniversary of the book's publication, it is a good time to add it to my reading list. Mockingbird is worth reading, both as a biography and as a look at that period in history. Just be prepared for some dry patches.

(Mockingbird is available in paperback at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE FIELD OF VISION

The Field of Vision, Wright Morris, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1956, 251 pp

The National Book Award winner for 1957 was a challenging read. The entire story, such as it is, takes place during a bullfight in Mexico. I have yet to read a bullfight story I liked. Most of the book consists of flashbacks concerning the people involved in the life of a man names McKee. For the entire first half of it, I was not completely sure who anyone was.

 Each character is a variation on eccentricity and most of them live in Omaha, Nebraska, though off the beaten path of mainstream American life. Some of them have sparks of being gifted, whether as an artist or a frontiersman, except for McKee himself who is a dud trying to make sense of all these oddballs.

 The bullfight and arena (the field of vision) are meant to be symbolic. The theme seemed to me to be something about the banality of America. Wright Morris claims that he wrote the book to show that "the range and nature of the plains imagination...contains elements that are peculiarly American...There, mirrored in the bullring, a group of touring plainsmen see, for the first time, the drama of their tangled lives."

 I am grateful he explained that on the jacket flap because otherwise I would have missed it. I did not enjoy reading this book.

(If, after my underwhelming review, you would like to read The Field of Vision, it is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

BARN BLIND

Barn Blind, Jane Smiley, Random House Inc, 1980, 218 pp

 Reading Jane Smiley's first novel was a pleasure and a revelation. I've only previously read one of her books: Good Faith. I liked it a lot but didn't love it. I've read most of her book about writing, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, which is a bit dry in parts but from which I learned more about literature and derived inspiration as a writer. One summer I heard Jane Smiley speak at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books where she impressed me with her intelligence. Later I met her in the ladies' room where she impressed me with her height; she is at least as tall as Julia Child was.

  So I've always had the idea that I would read more of her books, finally deciding to read them in the order in which she published them, which is my way of getting to know an author. Barn Blind is astoundingly good for a first novel. The characters are rich and deep. It is their interrelationships which drive the story: brothers and sister, kids to parents, mother to children and husband/father to wife and kids. With admirable economy she gets all these relationships into a little over 200 pages.

 The mother is much more invested in her career as a horse woman (breeder, riding instructor and horse show presenter) than she is in her children. She uses her children to advance her career dreams and they are overpowered by her, causing varying degrees of trouble. From the opening chapter, you know that tragedy looms and the impending doom stuck me like glue to the book.

 There is something about people and the connection with animals that makes for compelling stories. Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The Three Junes, The God of Animals, all came to mind as I read Barn Blind. I am excited to read more Jane Smiley. From interviews I can see that she lives by her own internal compass. That is my kind of woman and in the two books I have read so far, I have found a kindred spirit.

(Another out of print book. Wow, it is getting scary how many books are vanishing from stores. Anyway, it is available in paperback from libraries and used book sellers.)

BELOW THE SALT

Below the Salt, Thomas B Costain, Doubleday & Company, 1957, 480 pp

 About ten years ago, I decided I would like to learn the history of England. I got a straight ahead history text, started to read and soon gave up, defeated by the dry recitation of kings and battles. Such decisions have a way of infecting a life however. Because of the preponderance of historical fiction on the bestseller lists of the 1940s and 1950s, I have begun to get familiar with English history after all. Thomas Costain has been a key writer over these decades.

  Costain is a wonderful historical novelist, a Canadian who switched from journalism to fiction at the age of 57. His style is not quite so turgid as some of the other writers of that time and most of his characters are fully developed with the many virtues and faults all of us have. Below the Salt was the #9 bestseller in 1957 and takes place in 12th and 13th century England. After reading so much about Henry VIII and the Plantagenets in The Autobiography of Henry VIII and Wolf Hall, I was happy to find that this novel takes up the beginnings of that family as rulers in England, shortly after the famous Norman conquest in 1066.

 The main event is the writing and signing into law of the Magna Carta, which was the seed in England for an eventual democratic age and laid the foundations for the rights of the common man, rights which had no existence in the dark ages of feudal society and rule by monarchs. It is an exciting story.

 The only extremely odd aspect of Below the Salt is that the history is couched in a current story where an aging American politician has past life memories of his involvement in those earlier times. Not that I have a problem with past lives or recovered memories of them, but in this case it is awkwardly done. The approach does fit in with the influence of psychology and studies about the mind which feature in much of the fiction of the 1950s. Costain went on to write two more historical novels though none of them made top ten bestseller status, so I now bid him adieu.

(Below the Salt is another out of print 1957 bestseller. Look for it in libraries and at used book sellers.)

ROCK PAPER TIGER

Rock Paper Tiger, Lisa Brackmann, Soho Press Inc, 2010, 345 pp

 My review of this exciting read by first-time author Lisa Brackmann is now available at BookBrowse for a limited time without a subscription. If you like desperate-white-women-in-China stories, this one is for you.

 "Let's consider some popular qualities of the modern day thriller heroine: a painful incident in her recent past, residence in an exotic locale, a heightened ability to talk trash, and a complete inability to recognize danger as she walks right into it. Ellie Cooper has them all...Read the rest here.


(Rock Paper Tiger is available in hardcover on the new books shelves (AKA the Barn) at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

HIGH FIVE

High Five, Janet Evanovich, St Martin's Press, 1999, 292 pp

 Still making my way through Stephanie Plum's adventures in chronological order, although since Evanovich recently released #16 I wonder if I will ever catch up. I am always amazed at what a great relief it is to read one of these after weeks of reading from the 1950s or from the ever-growing stack of new literary fiction. I am grateful to Ms Evanovich because she does all the work.

  In High Five, Stephanie is supposed to be hunting an FTA, who turns out to be a midget--oops, I mean a small person--but spends more time looking for her missing Uncle Fred. Due to economic necessity, she has also been forced to diversify and do some highly questionable jobs for Ranger. The upside is that Ranger provides her with awesome vehicles, although being Stephanie these cars tend to explode and get stolen.

 But diversifying has entered her love life as well. Since Morelli has refused to marry her the poor girl is refusing him sex and has gotten so horny that she finds herself lusting after Ranger. That leads to the romantic cliffhanger which ends the story.

 Is it OK for reading to be this much fun?

(High Five is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

ON THE BEACH

On The Beach, Nevil Shute, William Morrow and Company, 1957, 320 pp

 This was one of the scariest books I have ever read. It was the #8 bestseller in 1957. In the story, there has been a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere which wiped out all the people. The characters in the book live in and around Melbourne, Australia. Due to planetary winds the fallout is gradually and relentlessly blowing south, so they all know they are doomed and will die within the next several months. (I don't know if such an outcome is scientifically correct. Comments welcome from more informed readers.)

  While the fictional war was over in 37 days, these people have some time to get used to the idea that they will soon be gone. Nevil Shute does an admirable job of imagining what that would be like. He brings it all to horrible life through a few characters: Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes, his young wife Mary and one year old baby; several of their friends; and a US Navy Commander who is stranded in Melbourne with his submarine and crew, the last operational ship on earth.

 In 1957, the prospect of a nuclear World War III loomed as a distinct possibility. I grew up under that potential nuclear cloud. Reading this book now made me realize how numb we have become to the threat of a nuclear end to life as we know it. I also realized that just because it hasn't happened yet in no way signifies that it won't ever happen.

 Impending doom is nearly impossible to deal with mentally and emotionally for human beings. We can deal with what to have for lunch, hoping our children turn out OK, maybe we can even figure out an investment plan in these incomprehensible economic times. However, contemplating the end of the world is a bit beyond the imagination of most. One character in the book becomes a race car driver and tries his best to die in a racing accident before the fall out gets him. Instead, he wins. Truly scary.

 On The Beach was made into a movie in 1959, starring Gregory Peck as the US Navy Commander and Ava Gardner as one of the Australian characters. Though as is usual, much of the story was left out, the movie had almost as much impact as the book. It is worth seeing, if you never have.

(On The Beach is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

AWAIT YOUR REPLY

Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon, Ballantine Books, 2009, 320 pp

 Wow! This novel blew me away. I read it for a reading group and it was my pick, but it turned out to be different and very much more that I thought it would be from the blurbs I had seen. Yes, it includes identity theft as a plot point, but actually it is about identity: how do we get our identity as a person, how do we become confused about it, lose it, change it? While identity is a timely concept and the story is modern, somehow Dan Chaon also makes it universal, timeless and personal to the reader.

 Then about halfway in, I realized I was reading a sort of hybrid thriller and a mystery, so had to search back in my memory for clues I hadn't spotted as clues. Very tricky, Mr Chaon.

 There are three story lines, each with its own main character, but whenever I put the book down, I could only remember one or at most two of the characters. I began to feel a little bit concerned about my short term memory and went through my daily activities with anxiety and other creepy emotions. Turned out there was a very good reason for all that, which I can't mention because it would be spoiler material.

 I don't imagine I will ever forget this book although someday I would like to reread it. The atmosphere of our oddly over-connected but disconnected modern culture which the author has created just out of those common elements of plot, character and description made me look at several aspects of my life in a completely new way. Now that is some righteous fiction!

(Await Your Reply is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE SCAPEGOAT

The Scapegoat, Daphne du Maurier, Victor Gollanz Ltd, 1957, 348 pp (Reprint: University of Pennsylvania Press)

 Scapegoat has an intriguing history as a word. Originally, in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the High Priest confessed the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement over the head of a live goat which was then allowed to escape, taking the sins with it. From this religious tradition developed the meaning of a person, group or thing who takes the blame for the mistakes or crimes of others.

  In Daphne du Maurier's excellent novel, an English history professor on his way home from holiday in France, is reflecting on his unfulfilling and lonely life when he meets a man in a restaurant. The man, Jean de Gue, is his double but of a very different character. By means of alcohol, possibly a drug, and trickery, the main character wakes up the next day with Jean de Gue's luggage and clothes, finds that his doppelganger has vanished, and that he is being picked up by de Gue's faithful servant.

 Feeling that the police will think him mad, feeling in truth somewhat mad, he allows himself to be taken to a rundown chateau in the country, where he is not suspected by anyone in the family. In this post WWII setting, the three generations live in genteel poverty amid bitterness and a failing glass factory.

 The man takes up Jean de Gue's life, penetrating the several mysteries of the family's past and in a bumbling fashion manages to fix everything and restore the family to happiness. All the while, though the reader is hoping this man will succeed, du Maurier in her inimitable fashion leaves you feeling that it cannot possibly end well. Of course it doesn't but the final scenes do support the title and the theme of the scapegoat. 

 What makes this book so good is the way the author handles all the improbabilities of the story. She had me willingly suspending my disbelief most of the time. Even when I could not believe that the family members did not realize it was a different man, I was so engrossed in the story that I did not care. I also love how this writer always makes some point of wisdom about life in her tales and she did not fail me in this one.

 (There was a movie in 1959, starring Alec Guiness and Bette Davis, with Gore Vidal getting credit on the screenplay. Wow! However, it got negative reviews at the time and is not at Netflix.)

(The Scapegoat is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE WINDUP GIRL

The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi, Night Shade Books, 2010, 359 pp

 So far, Paolo Bacigalupi has won the Nebula Award for 2010, the Locus Award (a readers poll) and has been nominated for the Hugo Award. So it is a big winning year for this author's first novel which most likely stands as a harbinger for what is to come in sci fi and speculative fiction. Bacigalupi has already been compared to Philip K Dick, William Gibson and Margaret Atwood for his sci fi and environmental chops. I would have to add Graham Greene for the colonial/political/third world savvy displayed. If The Windup Girl were not science fiction, which readers of a certain age often seem to fear with an almost racist mentality, it would be a competitor for the excitement accorded to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 

 In fact, Emiko, the "windup girl" heroine has some similarities to the tattoo girl. Emiko is genetically engineered and has been abandoned by her former master who once seemed to care for her. She is super human yet severely challenged when it comes to freewill, abused, depressed, yet determined to break free. Being the old feminist I am, I was routing for Emiko to overcome her preprogrammed compulsion to obey and serve.  

 The setting is Bangkok, 2300. Environmental disaster is fairly complete with all that we currently fear: no more oil, rampant plague, genetically modified food plants that succumb to "blister rust" and "genehack weevils," and a sort of futuristic steampunk hybrid of energy solutions. Global food corporations, whose origins lie in a defunct Empire of America, still operate by the same principles as Monsanto and the like. They are hot to get a foothold in Thailand, the one country who has managed to survive the rising ocean, the plagues and the crop killers by sealing itself off from the outside world, employing the feared whiteshirts of the Environmental Ministry to stamp out sources of disease while maintaining a top secret seedbank.

 But there are always cracks in the armor, always greedy villains within and without and perhaps most dangerous, certain wildcard characters who inadvertently upset everything. Paolo Bacigalupi has brilliantly combined all the elements of story telling and produced a fascinating, high energy tale which kept me glued to the page in horror and suspense, unable to turn away.

 One more thing: A couple months ago I turned down an assignment to review Dexter Palmer's debut novel, The Dream of Perpetual Motion. I read it and hated it for the writing style and the characters. I hereby eat crow. There is a new kind of writing rising up from a new generation, raised on TV shows I have never watched, music I don't listen to, and the undeniable influence of the Internet. It stands to reason that fiction of all genres is changing as it always does. It has taken me a while, but I think I am catching on. If you care to join me, read The Windup Girl.

(The Windup Girl is available in hardcover or paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING

A RECAP OF MY JULY READING

I missed posting this feature last weekend. As I recall, my reading in July was disappointing and not very prolific. Let's see if that is true. Here is the list:

Papa You're Crazy, William Saroyan. From the 1957 list. In his usual autobiographical way, Saroyan writes about bringing his son to live with him for a few months on the Santa Monica beach and giving the boy some pointers on being a writer. Not bad.

The Furies, Fernanda Eberstadt. I so loved her latest novel, Rat, that I wanted to read more. This one was incredible. Best thing I read all month.

Judy's Journey, Lois Lenski. Missed this one when I read the 1947 list. I read it many times while growing up, it had a significant impact on my life and re-reading was quite fine.

From the Terrace, John O'Hara. Here is where I ran into trouble. This 897 page bestseller from 1958 took me a week to read, was OK but had a terrible, horrible, very bad ending which depressed the hell out of me for days.

The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi. Wow!! The latest Nebula Award winner blew me away. Not a happy story but so powerful. Set in the future in Bangkok, it is as good as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Actually the writing is better.

Rock Paper Tiger, Lisa Brackmann. Fantastic first novel about a young American woman trying to find herself in modern China while being pursued by three types of security agents. 

The Winthrop Woman, Anya Seton. Another tome from 1958 though this one was great historical fiction about early days in Massachusetts colony.

Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon. One of the better contemporary novels I have read. Mysterious, odd, convoluted story about identity. 

High Five, Janet Evanovich. Well, I couldn't go through a whole summer month without Stephanie Plum. Could I?

Barn Blind, Jane Smiley. Her first novel and a promising debut. Originally I was going to take a "reading vacation" and spend the whole month of July just reading Jane Smiley. Clearly that did not happen.

Around the World With Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis. One more from 1958. About ten times better than the original Auntie Mame. Funny, sarcastic take on Americans in prewar Europe and the Middle East. 

OK, so I see that it wasn't a bad reading month after all. There are some real gems there. But I only finished 11 books which is low for me. What was worse is that I only read three books from the 1958 list; a personal problem, I know, but still. I blame it all on John O'Hara.

What did you read in July?

ELOISE IN PARIS

Eloise in Paris, Kay Thompson, Simon & Schuster, 1957, 62 pp

 The second Eloise book was the #6 bestseller in 1957. I found it even more charming and funny than the first, perhaps because I know Paris better than Manhattan. 

  It is clear that Nanny had more fun in Paris and though Mother sends cables, we still do not meet her. You find out what it is like to fly in an airplane in 1957 with 37 pieces of luggage! Imagine that in today's world.

 This was my first foray into the 1957 reading list and gave me hope that the year might not be all that boring.

(Eloise in Paris is available on the picture book shelves at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

THE FURIES

The Furies, Fernanda Eberstadt, Alfred A Knopf, 2003, 451 pp

 Fernanda Eberstadt is an author I discovered when I reviewed Rat for BookBrowse. The Furies almost did me in. It is wise and witty while at the same time serious and sad. The author has said on her website, "Few writers...have tackled the subject of pregnancy and children...the whole experience of bearing and giving birth to a baby has gone strangely unrecorded." Well tackle it she does, with the ferocity of a Greek tragedian: note the title. Her recording of bearing and giving birth to a baby is accomplished with excruciating detail, but so is her recording of the power of motherlove and the all encompassing nature of raising an infant: the obsession, exhaustion and joy.

 Eberstadt has written a most modern story. Gwen is a 30-something career woman in the midst of the 90s boom. She works in New York City, lives in a high end apartment, regularly travels the world and loves Russia with a passionate idealism. Gideon lives in a rent controlled dump, creating anarchist puppet theater and harbors a mix of Jewish mysticism and 70s socialist views. Their explosive sexual coupling is straight out of a Joni Mitchell song. At first I thought I was reading about a great love story, with two lost and lonely souls overcoming all barriers to create one of the world's great passions.

 Trouble is, so did they think but parenthood turns out to be their mutual Achilles heel because both are from badly broken homes, from parental abandonment and all they are really seeking is unconditional love though neither is up to the challenge of providing it. This to me was so real, possibly because I have lived it. The first child of such a romance changes everything in a variety of ways. The sex goes bad, the sharing of responsibility for each other and the child is beyond their basically immature capabilities. A child interferes with each parent's conception of personal freedom and tests every one of their idealistic tenants.

 This is not a Jodi Picoult or Anita Shreve novel. It is way more truthful while also being whip smart sassy and based on a frightening array of knowledge about everything from puppetry to post-communist Russia to world economics to New York City politics and more. Fernanda Eberstadt writes like a Fury herself and while her book is not for the faint of heart, it is about how we live now because of how our forebears lived before. It is about the human condition, how we muddle through and the true cost of love. Just be warned that if you read it to the end, it will take you a while to recover.

(I was shocked to learn that this excellent novel is out of print. It is available at libraries and used booksellers.)

BLUE CAMELLIA

Blue Camellia, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Julian Messner Inc, 1957, 430 pp

 Frances Parkinson Keyes had six top 10 bestsellers between 1945 and 1957. I have read them all. Blue Camellia was #5 in 1957. Most of her novels are historical fiction written in the style of women writing for women readers, though almost every book has at least one strong female character who defies convention. She produced over 40 novels in her career and I am happy that I did not have to read all of them.

  The River Road was my favorite with Blue Camllia as a second favorite. It is based on the history of rice cultivation in Louisiana. The story begins when Brent Winslow decides to buy land in Louisiana. He and his wife Mary are the children of Illinois settlers, they are farming people in the late 1800s and have just survived a brutal winter which left Brent bedridden for weeks with pneumonia.

 The story of their move with a nine-year-old daughter, the possibly shady land auction in Louisiana (which turned out fine) and their assimilation into what was essentially a rural Creole population, is good reading. Lavinia, the daughter, becomes a tomboy and runs wild with the Creole children but grows up to be an extremely self-willed and competent woman. Brent Winslow plants, works hard, studies and develops the best variety of rice in the area.

 Most everyone prospers, there are joys and sorrows, Lavinia suffers great loss and heartbreak, but it all comes out well. I've concluded that Keyes' work covers numerous lesser known aspects of American life in the early 20th century. Her research was thorough including her habit to spend extensive periods of time in the locales about which she wrote. She indulges in that wordy style of her times but it reads smoothly while she makes you care deeply about her characters.

(Blue Camellia is out of print but can be found in libraries and through used book sellers.)

AN EXPERIMENT IN LOVE

An Experiment in Love, Hilary Mantel, Henry Holt and Company, 1996, 250 pp

 I was so enchanted by Wolf Hall that I resolved to read Hilary Mantel's other novels. I had not heard of her before Wolf Hall won the Booker Prize and I don't think she was very well-known in the United States previously, but is highly respected in England. She has published ten novels, An Experiment in Love being her seventh.

  It is a sad, sad tale, very English and it reminded me of Anne Enright's The Gathering. Somehow, Mantel's writing just drags you into the hearts of her characters and keeps you there feeling all their sufferings, fleeting joys, hopes and confusions, as they move through their lives. It is actually excruciating but that is often just what I want in a novel.

 Carmel McBain comes from working class Irish-Catholic parents who settled in one of those mill towns in the Liverpool area (where the Beatles came from.) By the time their only child was born, the town was dying. Both parents worked and scrimped but Carmel's mother, in her own emtionally stunted way, pushed her daughter to aspire for more.

 This is a coming-of-age story of Carmel as she leaves her Catholic girlhood, goes to college in the 60s, learns about and lives through sex, love and birth control while she studies and starves on her scholarship grant. It is a familiar plot, this trajectory of a sheltered young woman moving into fuller life in the big wide treacherous world of late 20th century life. 

 The telling of the tale is what got me. From Shirley Jackson's Hangsaman to Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, we get these stories that are almost the female side of the Holden Caufield thing. And the female experience is more fraught with emotional danger just because we are the second sex.

(An Experiment in Love is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS

Rally Round the Flag Boys!, Max Shulman, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1957, 278 pp

The #4 bestseller of 1957 is a piece of fluff about life in the suburbs circa the mid 50s. This is a common theme in books from that decade and is usually handled with wit when it is not a psychological study of dysfunction. Shulman's is heavy on the humor.

  

 Harry Bannerman works in New York City but lives in a small Connecticut community with his wife, three children, two mortgages and his feeling that romance and excitement are behind him. He loves his wife passionately but she is community-minded and thinks he should grow up.

  In a totally 50s moment, the U S Army installs a Nike missile base on the edge of town. Then the disgruntled wife of a TV exec makes a play for Harry. In addition, there is the young public school teacher who brings psychological analysis to her students.

 Shulman is a fairly good writer and keeps the pace moving. The "slice of life" genre has been around since those early French novelists and I am sure will go on. Humor is the icing.

(Those 1950 bestsellers were apparently not keepers. This one also is out of print and can be obtained only in libraries or from used book sellers.)

RAT

Rat, Fernanda Eberstadt, Alfred A Knopf, 2010, 293 pp

 One of the best things about being a reviewer for BookBrowse Magazine is that I am exposed to books I might not have encountered on my own. Rat is an example. I loved it so much that I am now reading the amazing Fernanda Eberstadt's other novels. She is a unique and fearless novelist. 

  Rat is the nickname of Celia, daughter of a single mother, sister to an adopted brother and intrepid teen living in the Pyrenees Orientale region of France. This is the story of how she defied her loving but slightly crazy mom and went off to find her father. My review begins:

      "Once in a while a book comes along that I simply love. I sink into the story and am carried away for hours into another world and another life. I reach the end feeling that I have been on vacation. Rat  did that for me." Read the rest here.

(Rat is available in hardcover by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

JUDY'S JOURNEY

Judy's Journey, Lois Lenski, J B Lippincott Company, 1947, 212 pp

 I missed this one back when I was reading the list for 1947. It is the fourth volume in Lois Lenski's American Regional Series and I read it many times as a child. Being published in the year of my birth and having my name in the title made it special to me.

  But this book also had a large effect on my life. Judy is the oldest child of a migrant worker family. They follow the crops, live in a tent and are often hungry. Judy longs to go to school and live in a real house. Near the end of the book, the family picks crops in New Jersey, the state where I grew up.

 During high school, I had a summer job two years in a row as a teacher's assistant at a facility for migrant worker's children. Our goal was to help them catch up on missed schooling. It was a defining experience for me in terms of life choices and beliefs, but I hadn't realized until I re-read the book this time how it had steered me to take that job. Reading is so amazing!

 I learned at the job how things really were for these kids. Of course, it was 15 years later and most of the children were Black, while Judy's family was white; sharecroppers trying to better themselves. In Judy's Journey, her wishes come true but I am quite certain the kids I met were not so lucky.

(Judy's Journey is out of print, as are all of Lenski's American Regional Series books. Your local library children's section or used bookseller are your options.)

AUGUST READING GROUPS

Highlights from July:

 The discussion of Olive Kitteridge at Once Upon A Time gave me another viewpoint compared to the one I got from the discussion in June at Portrait of a Bookstore. I think there is just never too much when it comes to talking about books.

 It was a banner month for the number of readers who enjoyed the books read. If you haven't read The Angel's Game (or The Shadow of the Wind for that matter), just know that the readers of One Book at a Time Reading Group are in love with both. Zafon is the Dickens of the 20th century.

 The Help, over a year on many major bestseller lists in hardcover, turned out to be either loved or hated amongst the Portrait readers. I am always fascinated by the variety of responses to the same book.

 Bookie Babes is the group I have belonged to for the most years. We had a wonderful discussion about identity, anti-heroes and plotting in Await Your Reply.  I could see how much we have grown as readers in terms of the breadth of our choices and our willingness to look at different types of books. Well, our motto is: Take a chance on a book, and we do!

Now onto August:

Once Upon A Time Bookstore

Adult Discussion Group

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, Charles Shields

Tuesday, August 10; 7:30 pm 

Sunland/Tujunga One Book at a Time

Meets at Mi Casita, Sundland, CA

Contact for Reservation: Lisa

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Thursday, August 19; 7:30 pm

Portrait of a Bookstore

The Man in the Wooden Hat, Jane Gardam

Monday, August 23; 7:00 pm

Once Upon A Time Bookstore

Mystery Group w/ tea and scones

Finding Nouf, Zoe Ferraris

Wednesday, August 25; 8:30 am

Bookie Babes

Barnes & Noble, Burbank, CA

In the Woods, Tana French

Wednesday, August 25; 7:30 pm

What did your reading groups read last month? Any exciting tales?