Coming soon is a review for Melville House's Hans Fallada title, Every Man Dies Alone.
Monday, November 22, 2010
More talk about The Canal...
Thanks to Melville House's blog tour for the shout-out regarding my review of Lee Rourke's The Canal.
Their post here, http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=20266, is a collection of some reviews for Rourke's book, but also helped me find some new blogs to explore as well. You know, that whole "great minds think alike" thing. They also touch on the Guardian's Not-the-Booker contest...
Coming soon is a review for Melville House's Hans Fallada title, Every Man Dies Alone.
Coming soon is a review for Melville House's Hans Fallada title, Every Man Dies Alone.
Stone in a Landslide, Maria Barbal, translated fiction
Translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell
“I feel like a stone after a landslide. If someone or something stirs it, I’ll come tumbling down with the others. If nothing comes near, I’ll be here still, for days and days…”
Maria Barbal’s novella, Stone in a Landslide, is unique because it covers so much history in just a few pages. The fictional memoir begins in the Catalan region of Spain, when a young woman, just thirteen, is forced to leave her home because there are too many mouths to feed. The poverty in this time left many with few choices, and so her family sends her to live with a barren aunt and her husband. This quiet little girl, Conxa, leaves quietly, and without much fuss. A personality trait that becomes a description of her life, her quiet acceptance of what befalls her is what makes her story so intriguing.
In first-person, she recounts her adjustment to a new home, where she has to learn to navigate around her controlling aunt and the new chores put upon her. She works extremely hard both in their home as well as in the maintenance of their fields and animals. But this is no Cinderella story, her relatives are not cruel. They come to love her as a daughter, and the skills she learns help her as she becomes a woman with a family of her own. The novel covers the milestones of marriage and motherhood and loss, all against the backdrop of the famine and the violence of the Spanish Civil War.
Despite all she could say, she is actually quiet brief. It’s clear that being forced to leave her home as a child took something from her, possibly her sense of security or belonging. Because throughout the story, though she never directly states it, it’s clear that she felt like a burden, and that she should never speak up or contradict others. She raises her own children with loving attention but a sense of distance, always looking at them through the eyes of possibly losing them. “Perhaps deep down I was afraid of losing what I’d learnt to own.” Her insecurity combined with fear leave her mute in the face of problems, such as the menacing priest that threatens her family’s safety. It’s only when her worst fears are realized that she becomes more aware and invested in her own life.
In the case of the Catalan villagers, their very lives were impacted by decisions and actions far away in Barcelona-so far that even their oppressors didn’t quite know who they were. It would be easy to say these were simple people, but that implies that they were ignorant. These people were intelligent and wise, but their commitment to the land for basic sustenance gave them little time to dwell on the political happenings far from them. When the rebellion came close to home, she realizes that the rural villagers throughout most of Spain were like her, simple people as insignificant as stones found on the Catalonian mountainsides.
“There were those who wanted us not only to suffer but to feel guilty as well. Why do hundreds of stones always fall at once?”
This is a quiet book, filled with thoughts to contemplate. The slow pace of the village life and the tremendous hard work is unimaginable. After I finished the book, I found myself returning to it for the simple prose and the way she can say so much in so few words.
“I feel like a stone after a landslide. If someone or something stirs it, I’ll come tumbling down with the others. If nothing comes near, I’ll be here still, for days and days…”
In first-person, she recounts her adjustment to a new home, where she has to learn to navigate around her controlling aunt and the new chores put upon her. She works extremely hard both in their home as well as in the maintenance of their fields and animals. But this is no Cinderella story, her relatives are not cruel. They come to love her as a daughter, and the skills she learns help her as she becomes a woman with a family of her own. The novel covers the milestones of marriage and motherhood and loss, all against the backdrop of the famine and the violence of the Spanish Civil War.
Despite all she could say, she is actually quiet brief. It’s clear that being forced to leave her home as a child took something from her, possibly her sense of security or belonging. Because throughout the story, though she never directly states it, it’s clear that she felt like a burden, and that she should never speak up or contradict others. She raises her own children with loving attention but a sense of distance, always looking at them through the eyes of possibly losing them. “Perhaps deep down I was afraid of losing what I’d learnt to own.” Her insecurity combined with fear leave her mute in the face of problems, such as the menacing priest that threatens her family’s safety. It’s only when her worst fears are realized that she becomes more aware and invested in her own life.
 |
“There were those who wanted us not only to suffer but to feel guilty as well. Why do hundreds of stones always fall at once?”
This is a quiet book, filled with thoughts to contemplate. The slow pace of the village life and the tremendous hard work is unimaginable. After I finished the book, I found myself returning to it for the simple prose and the way she can say so much in so few words.
Special thanks to Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press, London UK for the Review Copy.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
THREE SECONDS winners
Time to come in from the beach and read!
Special thanks to Kimberly at February Partners for the opportunity to offer the 10 ARC's of THREE SECONDS to blog readers. This book will release in the US on January 4, 2011. Look for it at retailers.
A random generator selected the following ten commenters to win:
Karen Russell, PoCoKat, Melanie, Jacque, Dakota, Aurora, Julianne, Kim, Johnny, and Eileen.
I'm sending an email to each of these and they have 48 hours to respond or I'll select a replacement winner. Thanks for playing! Another contest coming soon!
Special thanks to Kimberly at February Partners for the opportunity to offer the 10 ARC's of THREE SECONDS to blog readers. This book will release in the US on January 4, 2011. Look for it at retailers.
A random generator selected the following ten commenters to win:
Karen Russell, PoCoKat, Melanie, Jacque, Dakota, Aurora, Julianne, Kim, Johnny, and Eileen.
I'm sending an email to each of these and they have 48 hours to respond or I'll select a replacement winner. Thanks for playing! Another contest coming soon!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Velocity by Alan Jacobson (crime)
A Karen Vail novel
Velocity is the latest in a series that revolves around Karen Vail, an FBI profiler, and in this case she’s in Napa Valley trying to catch a serial killer. Jacobson captures wine country perfectly, with the descriptions of winery operations, the rural countryside, and the personalities of the nouveau riche jumping into the wine industry. He clearly knows the region. Vail is not a ‘chick’ cop, and fortunately, there are no descriptions of her designer purse or what fashions she may be wearing. She’s a clever detective and works well as a consultant with the jurisdictional police; she doesn’t pull rank or play mind games.
As the story begins, several key events have already taken place. Vail’s boyfriend is missing, a suspect has been shot and is critically injured, and the police are trying to solve a string of murders and abductions. Vail is called away just as things start to look promising. But the search continues and leads across the country and creates a compelling mystery to be solved.
I hated it. No. "Hate" is too strong a word. In fact, I didn't really dislike it either. I was annoyed by it. I might have actually liked it a lot if it weren't for some distractions in the narrative. These made the story very hard to become fully involved in, despite the clever plot twists.
“Got a laptop,” Vail said. “It’s unplugged.” As Dixon joined her, she lifted the lid. The screen remained black. “Looks like it’s off.” Brilliant deduction!
This happens more than once. “She plucked the disc from the plastic spindle, then placed the DVD in the laptop tray and watched as Windows Media Player loaded.” Seriously, I am too wordy, I know it. But I’m also not a published author! Why does the reader have to plod through all that detail? A page later we read that “Windows Media Player closed.” Hardly exciting, and it detracted from the pace. Additionally, maybe because my mind was already distracted, there seemed to be a lot of product placement-the brand name of just about everything was noted. Instead of making it more true-to-life, it felt like filler. It occurred to me that fifty years from now-when a reader wouldn't care about a Blackberry-that the book would either feel dated or campy.
The most annoying thing of all, however, was the inclusion of two rather boring characters: “the SIG” and “the Glock”. Vail and her partner Dixon carry guns, no surprise. But every time they enter a building, chase a suspect, or sit in their car, we are told the status of their gun. In virtually any scene Dixon appears in, we are told “her SIG drawn” or “SIG in hand”. Vail's Glock is similarly noted. Having read other detective stories and seen countless episodes of Law & Order, I don’t think I need to be told that as they chase a suspected killer that they’ll have their guns out. It’s a given. And in this novel, it becomes a huge distraction. Maybe if I had read the previous books in the series I would know the characters better and not be inclined to notice these things. I do think if someone was familiar with the character of Karen Vail, they’d be pleased with this newest novel.
As the story begins, several key events have already taken place. Vail’s boyfriend is missing, a suspect has been shot and is critically injured, and the police are trying to solve a string of murders and abductions. Vail is called away just as things start to look promising. But the search continues and leads across the country and creates a compelling mystery to be solved.
I hated it. No. "Hate" is too strong a word. In fact, I didn't really dislike it either. I was annoyed by it. I might have actually liked it a lot if it weren't for some distractions in the narrative. These made the story very hard to become fully involved in, despite the clever plot twists.
“Got a laptop,” Vail said. “It’s unplugged.” As Dixon joined her, she lifted the lid. The screen remained black. “Looks like it’s off.” Brilliant deduction!
This happens more than once. “She plucked the disc from the plastic spindle, then placed the DVD in the laptop tray and watched as Windows Media Player loaded.” Seriously, I am too wordy, I know it. But I’m also not a published author! Why does the reader have to plod through all that detail? A page later we read that “Windows Media Player closed.” Hardly exciting, and it detracted from the pace. Additionally, maybe because my mind was already distracted, there seemed to be a lot of product placement-the brand name of just about everything was noted. Instead of making it more true-to-life, it felt like filler. It occurred to me that fifty years from now-when a reader wouldn't care about a Blackberry-that the book would either feel dated or campy.
The most annoying thing of all, however, was the inclusion of two rather boring characters: “the SIG” and “the Glock”. Vail and her partner Dixon carry guns, no surprise. But every time they enter a building, chase a suspect, or sit in their car, we are told the status of their gun. In virtually any scene Dixon appears in, we are told “her SIG drawn” or “SIG in hand”. Vail's Glock is similarly noted. Having read other detective stories and seen countless episodes of Law & Order, I don’t think I need to be told that as they chase a suspected killer that they’ll have their guns out. It’s a given. And in this novel, it becomes a huge distraction. Maybe if I had read the previous books in the series I would know the characters better and not be inclined to notice these things. I do think if someone was familiar with the character of Karen Vail, they’d be pleased with this newest novel.
Thanks to Julie Harabedian and FSB Associates for the Review Copy.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Blindness of the Heart, Julia Franck
Translated from the German by Anthea Bell
Winner of the German Book Prize
Most novels that explore the events of the Holocaust focus on the ‘Before’ and ‘After’-showing the events chronologically and the resulting impact. However, The Blindness of the Heart takes a reverse approach and begins by revealing a disturbing ‘After’: a young woman abandons her young son at a train station and disappears. We see how they’ve lived in horror for months, but his abandonment is still shocking. Then the author, Julia Franck, takes us back in time to the early years of this young woman, and the events that lead up to a lost little boy, confused, hungry and alone.
The mother is Helene, and her family is dysfunctional and damaged long before the Holocaust begins. Her identity as a person is in question before her identity as a Jew becomes relevant. As a nurse she helps care for her ailing father while trying to deal with her mentally ill mother. She thinks she finds a future, but nearly everything she is close to is taken away. She finds a way out of the impending doom by marrying a German who helps her with false papers that identify her as Anna, a German citizen, but their marriage yields nothing but the child. She raises him alone while working long hours in the hospital, assisting German doctors in the maternity ward, as well as in the forced sterilization of some female patients. Her son, Peter, is often left alone while she works, and while they remain together it’s clear she’s drifted away long before she leaves him literally.
The book is incredibly painful. A few times I put it down just to get away from the grief. The author makes a tremendous gamble by having her lead character do something that appears unforgiveable right off the bat. She is counting on the reader to ponder the back story and conditions of the woman’s life and see if her decision made sense. She shows how emotionally abandoned Helene had been, and the ugliness that fills her life. The problem is, despite Helene’s previous suffering, it’s very difficult to get over the impact of the first few pages of the book. The result is a tension that carries through the book and makes the narrative so compelling.
One factor I found fascinating was the details of the nurses and their struggles in Germany. The endless shifts, multiple duties, and repellent activities in their wards were well detailed, and a part of Nazi history that I wasn’t aware of. The fact that Helene works with new mothers is a link emotionally with her own insane mother and her own flawed nurturing. What motherhood means is an underlying theme, and the title makes you consider what kind of love is blind.
Additionally, Franck creates an unforgettably tense scene in which the hungry mother and son go mushroom hunting, and find themselves in flight to escape hunters that are not after animal prey. As she runs frantically, she appears to be hallucinating as she considers her escape route, Peter’s whereabouts, and the various ingredients for different recipes to cook, all spinning through her head at once. Her actions in the forest foreshadow what is to come.
In a few places I found Helene/Anna’s character to be incredibly cold. I understand that under her circumstances, self-preservation required her to withdraw emotionally. And very few aspects of her life were really under her control. Yet there was an element of simple kindness she seemed to lack, or perhaps, it was all used up. In any case, the glimpse we get of Peter's future shows how the cycle of pain is completed.
Winner of the German Book Prize
Most novels that explore the events of the Holocaust focus on the ‘Before’ and ‘After’-showing the events chronologically and the resulting impact. However, The Blindness of the Heart takes a reverse approach and begins by revealing a disturbing ‘After’: a young woman abandons her young son at a train station and disappears. We see how they’ve lived in horror for months, but his abandonment is still shocking. Then the author, Julia Franck, takes us back in time to the early years of this young woman, and the events that lead up to a lost little boy, confused, hungry and alone.
The book is incredibly painful. A few times I put it down just to get away from the grief. The author makes a tremendous gamble by having her lead character do something that appears unforgiveable right off the bat. She is counting on the reader to ponder the back story and conditions of the woman’s life and see if her decision made sense. She shows how emotionally abandoned Helene had been, and the ugliness that fills her life. The problem is, despite Helene’s previous suffering, it’s very difficult to get over the impact of the first few pages of the book. The result is a tension that carries through the book and makes the narrative so compelling.
One factor I found fascinating was the details of the nurses and their struggles in Germany. The endless shifts, multiple duties, and repellent activities in their wards were well detailed, and a part of Nazi history that I wasn’t aware of. The fact that Helene works with new mothers is a link emotionally with her own insane mother and her own flawed nurturing. What motherhood means is an underlying theme, and the title makes you consider what kind of love is blind.
Additionally, Franck creates an unforgettably tense scene in which the hungry mother and son go mushroom hunting, and find themselves in flight to escape hunters that are not after animal prey. As she runs frantically, she appears to be hallucinating as she considers her escape route, Peter’s whereabouts, and the various ingredients for different recipes to cook, all spinning through her head at once. Her actions in the forest foreshadow what is to come.
In a few places I found Helene/Anna’s character to be incredibly cold. I understand that under her circumstances, self-preservation required her to withdraw emotionally. And very few aspects of her life were really under her control. Yet there was an element of simple kindness she seemed to lack, or perhaps, it was all used up. In any case, the glimpse we get of Peter's future shows how the cycle of pain is completed.
Special thanks to Martin Wilson of Grove/Atlantic for the Review Copy.
The Kitchen Shrink by Dora Calott Wang, MD (nonfiction)
At first I thought that The Kitchen Shrink was going to be some sort of self-help book on how to find happiness at home, possibly meditating while doing dishes. I even put off starting it, because I feared it would be full of psychobabble and platitudes like "bloom where you're planted". I was wrong. Yet again.
Wang describes herself as "a doctor working in the medical profession as it became the health care industry." Trained as a psychiatrist, her training involved talk therapy, face to face communication, and a personal connection with patients that were seen over a period of time in order to determine what help would be best for their particular problems. However, as she admits "all my jobs since my training in 1994 have been to prescribe medication only." Wang uses this book to explore the processes of what used to be medicine and now could be considered nearly only a pharmaceutical business. While in the past, doctors would look for alternatives to prescribing medication, now the only question is what kind of medication to supply. It's basically a matter of time: talk is expensive, sending a patient off with a prescription is cheap.
She demonstrates, effectively, how the changes in the treatment of patients, due primarily to the influence of insurance companies that act like bullies, has harmed the most fragile of patients: those with mental problems and who need personal attention and interaction. According to Wang, "Insurance companies started to call the shots" in medicine, not only suggesting doses but also withholding approval of treatments that might aid the sufferers. In fact, at times their logic was so flawed that they'd refuse to cover a preventative procedure, which would save the money in the long term.
Wang describes the changes and problems with many anecdotal details that make it a fascinating read, and you can't help but see that medicine in other specialties is also likely to be turned into assembly line health-care, controlled by health insurance companies that not only lack medical degrees but also simple compassion and reasonableness.
One big player in the game that is as insidious as the insurance companies are the pharmaceutical companies. Wang notes with irony that her fridge is covered with Zoloft magnets, and that she writes on a Paxil notepad. While recent laws have cracked down on the practice of pharmaceutical companies providing free "goodies" for doctors, such as pens, clocks, scales, and vacations, the influence still remains strong. Incentives to prescribe their medications, rather than what the patient most needs, is a problem that doctors have to face. Additionally, with their face time with patients dramatically decreased, and the paperwork authorizing visits and procedures increasing, some doctors are leaving their practices out of frustration.
This book is eye-opening and at times, it makes you mad. Some cases of poor medical supervision has cost lives for no other reason than greed. Besides revealing this mess, though, Wang offers concepts to ponder in what your own medical care may be, and helps you see ways to benefit yourself by asking the right questions. This book would be a great supplement to How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, Mariner Books, 2008.
She demonstrates, effectively, how the changes in the treatment of patients, due primarily to the influence of insurance companies that act like bullies, has harmed the most fragile of patients: those with mental problems and who need personal attention and interaction. According to Wang, "Insurance companies started to call the shots" in medicine, not only suggesting doses but also withholding approval of treatments that might aid the sufferers. In fact, at times their logic was so flawed that they'd refuse to cover a preventative procedure, which would save the money in the long term.
Wang describes the changes and problems with many anecdotal details that make it a fascinating read, and you can't help but see that medicine in other specialties is also likely to be turned into assembly line health-care, controlled by health insurance companies that not only lack medical degrees but also simple compassion and reasonableness.
One big player in the game that is as insidious as the insurance companies are the pharmaceutical companies. Wang notes with irony that her fridge is covered with Zoloft magnets, and that she writes on a Paxil notepad. While recent laws have cracked down on the practice of pharmaceutical companies providing free "goodies" for doctors, such as pens, clocks, scales, and vacations, the influence still remains strong. Incentives to prescribe their medications, rather than what the patient most needs, is a problem that doctors have to face. Additionally, with their face time with patients dramatically decreased, and the paperwork authorizing visits and procedures increasing, some doctors are leaving their practices out of frustration.
This book is eye-opening and at times, it makes you mad. Some cases of poor medical supervision has cost lives for no other reason than greed. Besides revealing this mess, though, Wang offers concepts to ponder in what your own medical care may be, and helps you see ways to benefit yourself by asking the right questions. This book would be a great supplement to How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, Mariner Books, 2008.
Special thanks to Julie Harabedian of FSB Associates and Riverhead Books for the Review Copy.
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Chambered Nautilus, Oliver Wendell Holmes, poem
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more
-an excerpt from the poem from Oliver Wendall Holmes
This post was inspired by a photo similar to the one above. I had somehow imagined that the chambered nautilus was a shell that simply lay on the ocean floor. Seeing one actually swimming was inspiring! The amazing design of the nautilus, with its closed off portions as time passes, is unique and a fascinating research topic!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
How to Read the Air is the latest book from Dinaw Mengestu, and it's one that manages to explore the subtle differences between what we believe and what may be true.
Briefly, it is the story of a man named Jonas, who attempts to reconstruct his parents first years in the US when they emigrated from Ethiopia. Their marriage was fractured and strange, and in the wake of his own disastrous marriage, he hopes to find answers to his personal identity by going back to his parent’s lives. He believes that by better understanding them, he can make sense of his own awkwardness. He describes his youth:
“I had always suspected that at some early point in my life, while still living with my parents and their daily battles, I had gone numb as a tactical strategy, perhaps at exactly that moment when we’re supposed to be waking up to the world and stepping into our own.”
However, rather than being a straightforward story of nostalgia, Mengestu deepens the narrative by showing, immediately, that Jonas is not exactly truthful. He works for an agency that helps new immigrants acquire legal citizenship in the US, and he’s known for his smudging the lines of truth to create more sympathetic experiences for his clients. In other words, he lies, boldly yet with the awareness of remaining credible. Thus, we learn our narrator is unreliable. How much truth will be revealed as he relates the story of his parents and his own marriage? This creates suspense and makes understanding the characters that much more complicated. A reader is forced to examine each statement and weigh it for accuracy, and consider what Jonas may be trying to hide.
First, we learn of his parents. They emigrated separately, his father first with his mother coming a year later. They are two incredibly different personality types: his father is perceptive and quiet, with a gift for noticing his surroundings and an almost sixth-sense for staying out of trouble. His focus on intangible concepts makes him reserved and wise. His mother, on the other hand, is obsessed with the tangible: possessions made her feel safe and contented in Ethiopia, where her status was high. Now in the US, her position in the world has changed, and as a minority with less wealth than she’s used to, she is insecure and angry.
Jonas himself married Angela, another lost soul who finds security in squirreling money away, while occasionally succumbing to a pair of Jimmy Choos for their therapeutic benefit. Angela is the most fascinating character to me, and in one of her conversations, she also reveals what she thinks of ‘telling the truth’:
“There’s no such thing as kind of true. If I told you the whole story, you could say it’s true, but you don’t know the story. […] Everyone thinks they know the whole story because they saw something like it on television or read about it in a magazine. To them it’s all just one story told over and over. Change the dates and the names but it’s the same. Well, that’s not true. It’s not the same story.”
Angela is beyond needy, and her outlet for her insecurities is to control others as much as possible. She pushes Jonas to change every chance she gets. Despite her success as an attorney, her deep unhappiness is revealed in snarky remarks and a mistrust of everyone. Jonas and Angela are doomed by their inability to know truth. Significantly, Angela is portrayed much like his mother-focused on concrete items she can see and own, while Jonas is more cerebral and aloof. Does he realize how he has replicated his parent's dynamics?
Plot aside, the prevarication that Jonas is prone to makes reading this that much more interesting. It’s difficult to know what facts to accept or disregard, and he gives himself away at times. For example, at one point he describes his mother playing mind games with his father by making him wait endlessly in the car as they leave for their honeymoon. At one point she pretends to forget something and runs back into the house-she’s having a meltdown. Yet, her meltdown is counted in seconds (her little trick for calming herself), and so she allows herself a little more than 200 seconds to calm herself. Then she returns to the car. A stressed out woman with a meltdown that lasts less than four minutes? Seriously, how is that possibly a bad thing? Or is it that Jonas is letting us know that she isn’t actually as moody as he’s portrayed her? Could he be admitting that she's just as fearful as Angela, the woman he left? That would mean his version of both of these women, as controlling and difficult, may not be accurate. Is Jonas up for the challenge of truly understanding his own story?
As a reader, I enjoyed this overall but a few things bothered me. For one, while delving deep into some explanations, he skims over other details that would have bearing: he never explains why, aside from a shared race, that he and Angela married. And, when he takes a job teaching, why the sudden epiphany about his suddenly fitting into the world? What changed? He had worked before in the public sector-what was it about this new job that flipped his identity over? Lastly, a few sentences were structurally ambiguous, and I had to catch myself and reread them a few times to figure out who he was talking about. A minor thing, but it was enough to trip the pace a bit.
Briefly, it is the story of a man named Jonas, who attempts to reconstruct his parents first years in the US when they emigrated from Ethiopia. Their marriage was fractured and strange, and in the wake of his own disastrous marriage, he hopes to find answers to his personal identity by going back to his parent’s lives. He believes that by better understanding them, he can make sense of his own awkwardness. He describes his youth:
However, rather than being a straightforward story of nostalgia, Mengestu deepens the narrative by showing, immediately, that Jonas is not exactly truthful. He works for an agency that helps new immigrants acquire legal citizenship in the US, and he’s known for his smudging the lines of truth to create more sympathetic experiences for his clients. In other words, he lies, boldly yet with the awareness of remaining credible. Thus, we learn our narrator is unreliable. How much truth will be revealed as he relates the story of his parents and his own marriage? This creates suspense and makes understanding the characters that much more complicated. A reader is forced to examine each statement and weigh it for accuracy, and consider what Jonas may be trying to hide.
First, we learn of his parents. They emigrated separately, his father first with his mother coming a year later. They are two incredibly different personality types: his father is perceptive and quiet, with a gift for noticing his surroundings and an almost sixth-sense for staying out of trouble. His focus on intangible concepts makes him reserved and wise. His mother, on the other hand, is obsessed with the tangible: possessions made her feel safe and contented in Ethiopia, where her status was high. Now in the US, her position in the world has changed, and as a minority with less wealth than she’s used to, she is insecure and angry.
Jonas himself married Angela, another lost soul who finds security in squirreling money away, while occasionally succumbing to a pair of Jimmy Choos for their therapeutic benefit. Angela is the most fascinating character to me, and in one of her conversations, she also reveals what she thinks of ‘telling the truth’:
“There’s no such thing as kind of true. If I told you the whole story, you could say it’s true, but you don’t know the story. […] Everyone thinks they know the whole story because they saw something like it on television or read about it in a magazine. To them it’s all just one story told over and over. Change the dates and the names but it’s the same. Well, that’s not true. It’s not the same story.”
Angela is beyond needy, and her outlet for her insecurities is to control others as much as possible. She pushes Jonas to change every chance she gets. Despite her success as an attorney, her deep unhappiness is revealed in snarky remarks and a mistrust of everyone. Jonas and Angela are doomed by their inability to know truth. Significantly, Angela is portrayed much like his mother-focused on concrete items she can see and own, while Jonas is more cerebral and aloof. Does he realize how he has replicated his parent's dynamics?
Plot aside, the prevarication that Jonas is prone to makes reading this that much more interesting. It’s difficult to know what facts to accept or disregard, and he gives himself away at times. For example, at one point he describes his mother playing mind games with his father by making him wait endlessly in the car as they leave for their honeymoon. At one point she pretends to forget something and runs back into the house-she’s having a meltdown. Yet, her meltdown is counted in seconds (her little trick for calming herself), and so she allows herself a little more than 200 seconds to calm herself. Then she returns to the car. A stressed out woman with a meltdown that lasts less than four minutes? Seriously, how is that possibly a bad thing? Or is it that Jonas is letting us know that she isn’t actually as moody as he’s portrayed her? Could he be admitting that she's just as fearful as Angela, the woman he left? That would mean his version of both of these women, as controlling and difficult, may not be accurate. Is Jonas up for the challenge of truly understanding his own story?
As a reader, I enjoyed this overall but a few things bothered me. For one, while delving deep into some explanations, he skims over other details that would have bearing: he never explains why, aside from a shared race, that he and Angela married. And, when he takes a job teaching, why the sudden epiphany about his suddenly fitting into the world? What changed? He had worked before in the public sector-what was it about this new job that flipped his identity over? Lastly, a few sentences were structurally ambiguous, and I had to catch myself and reread them a few times to figure out who he was talking about. A minor thing, but it was enough to trip the pace a bit.
Special thanks to Lydia Hirt of Riverhead Books for the Advanced Review Copy.
Dinaw Mengestu was recently honored in the New Yorker's collection of "40 under 40".
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Nothing Left To Burn, Jay Varner, reconsidered....
Ethics in memoir-writing: exactly what are you entitled to reveal?
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2010/09/nothing-left-to-burn-by-jay-varner.html
A few months ago I reviewed a popular new memoir by Jay Varner, called Nothing Left To Burn (the link is above). It was his story of moving back to his hometown of McVeytown, Pennsylvania and becoming a journalist for the small town paper, covering the police and fire beat. His new position is significant because he was also writing the life story of his father, an extremely devoted firefighter, and his grandfather, who he depicts as the town crazy and a prolific arsonist. He also places himself in the story as he recounts numerous memories and anecdotal stories of the lives of the Varner family.
When I read it, I was fascinated by the dichotomy between having an arsonist and a firefighter within the same family, and I read with interest the small town details. I was a little bit annoyed by his constant complaints of his father placing his career over fatherhood, and I mentioned in my review that it seemed to lack balance because he admits most of his details are from his mother and her family. That might not seem to be a big deal, but he rips his father's family apart. They are portrayed as depraved and hostile, and he accuses them flat out of criminal activity.
I really didn't give that a ton of thought, although he does mention that he knows he is certain to alienate people. But I got quite a bit of response over the review from residents of the small town, and published two of the comments (the most civil, shall we say?). After reading their viewpoint, I see things from another perspective. Yes, it does bother me that he spoke of the family that way, and I think he should have in some way allowed them to comment or explain things. But that doesn't bother me as much as some smaller details that he allowed into the text. These don't pertain to his family's story, but invade the privacy of some of McVeytown's citizens.
For example, at one point I was horrified when he described an accidental shooting that killed a small child. He was very graphic in his details, far beyond what would be appropriate for a newspaper. In fact, none of those details would even be allowed into a newspaper-there is a limit to what is newsworthy and what is just gore. It never occurred to me at the time, but how would a family member of that small child feel reading those awful details? Certainly, they wouldn't have been privy to every graphic detail before, nor would any policeman or morgue worker subject them to it. As a journalist, Varner would know better to include it in a news story. So, why did it find its way into the memoir? At the time I didn't consider what it really was: a completely unnecessary invasion of the child's privacy as well as his grieving parents. Those who pointed this out to me via comments made a very valid point-how dare he put that into his own book when it had nothing to do with him?
Additionally, on his police beat duties, he covered other deaths and frequent suicides. Similarly, he included details that exceed what is necessary for covering a story. Was it for the shock value? To fill pages? He admits he was excited to cover this portion of the news, but at what point is he a thrill seeker and no longer a journalist? I looked online for what is considered the ethical standard for journalists, and found the website for the Society of Professional Journalists (spj.org). Below are some selected portions:
— Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing. At no point in the memoir does he give the family members an opportunity to confirm or deny his allegations.
— Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context. By taking information he gathered when acting as a journalist and using it in his personal memoir, for profit, he crossed a line. There was no point to the inclusion of the graphic descriptions of death and dismemberment in his memoir. It was not public knowledge.
I guess what bugs me the most is that I have no problem with him telling his story. But he goes further-he fills his pages with other people's stories, and not in a sweet Charles Kuralt sort of way, but rather exposing their most private pain for no discernible reason. In Mary Karr's memoir Lit, released earlier this year, she revealed many details about her struggle with alcohol, some tragic and shameful, but they were hers to tell. She didn't reveal any other person's struggles, and in cases where there may have been a connection, she altered names.
Given that I've read several memoirs lately, this subject really has me confused. How much can a person rightfully tell?
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2010/09/nothing-left-to-burn-by-jay-varner.html
A few months ago I reviewed a popular new memoir by Jay Varner, called Nothing Left To Burn (the link is above). It was his story of moving back to his hometown of McVeytown, Pennsylvania and becoming a journalist for the small town paper, covering the police and fire beat. His new position is significant because he was also writing the life story of his father, an extremely devoted firefighter, and his grandfather, who he depicts as the town crazy and a prolific arsonist. He also places himself in the story as he recounts numerous memories and anecdotal stories of the lives of the Varner family.
When I read it, I was fascinated by the dichotomy between having an arsonist and a firefighter within the same family, and I read with interest the small town details. I was a little bit annoyed by his constant complaints of his father placing his career over fatherhood, and I mentioned in my review that it seemed to lack balance because he admits most of his details are from his mother and her family. That might not seem to be a big deal, but he rips his father's family apart. They are portrayed as depraved and hostile, and he accuses them flat out of criminal activity.
I really didn't give that a ton of thought, although he does mention that he knows he is certain to alienate people. But I got quite a bit of response over the review from residents of the small town, and published two of the comments (the most civil, shall we say?). After reading their viewpoint, I see things from another perspective. Yes, it does bother me that he spoke of the family that way, and I think he should have in some way allowed them to comment or explain things. But that doesn't bother me as much as some smaller details that he allowed into the text. These don't pertain to his family's story, but invade the privacy of some of McVeytown's citizens.
For example, at one point I was horrified when he described an accidental shooting that killed a small child. He was very graphic in his details, far beyond what would be appropriate for a newspaper. In fact, none of those details would even be allowed into a newspaper-there is a limit to what is newsworthy and what is just gore. It never occurred to me at the time, but how would a family member of that small child feel reading those awful details? Certainly, they wouldn't have been privy to every graphic detail before, nor would any policeman or morgue worker subject them to it. As a journalist, Varner would know better to include it in a news story. So, why did it find its way into the memoir? At the time I didn't consider what it really was: a completely unnecessary invasion of the child's privacy as well as his grieving parents. Those who pointed this out to me via comments made a very valid point-how dare he put that into his own book when it had nothing to do with him?
Additionally, on his police beat duties, he covered other deaths and frequent suicides. Similarly, he included details that exceed what is necessary for covering a story. Was it for the shock value? To fill pages? He admits he was excited to cover this portion of the news, but at what point is he a thrill seeker and no longer a journalist? I looked online for what is considered the ethical standard for journalists, and found the website for the Society of Professional Journalists (spj.org). Below are some selected portions:
— Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing. At no point in the memoir does he give the family members an opportunity to confirm or deny his allegations.
— Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context. By taking information he gathered when acting as a journalist and using it in his personal memoir, for profit, he crossed a line. There was no point to the inclusion of the graphic descriptions of death and dismemberment in his memoir. It was not public knowledge.
I guess what bugs me the most is that I have no problem with him telling his story. But he goes further-he fills his pages with other people's stories, and not in a sweet Charles Kuralt sort of way, but rather exposing their most private pain for no discernible reason. In Mary Karr's memoir Lit, released earlier this year, she revealed many details about her struggle with alcohol, some tragic and shameful, but they were hers to tell. She didn't reveal any other person's struggles, and in cases where there may have been a connection, she altered names.
Given that I've read several memoirs lately, this subject really has me confused. How much can a person rightfully tell?
Friday, November 5, 2010
Three Seconds-Roslund and Hellstrum GIVEAWAY
Ready for some new Swedish crime to warm your winter? THREE SECONDS is the latest title from Roslund and Hellstrom, due to release on January 4, 2011. Perfect for the 2010 Scandinavian Reading Challenge, this combines all the elements of action, procedurals, and suspense in one award-winning title.
It's already been released in Europe, and received the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers’ Award (Svenska Deckarakademins pris) 2009 for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. It is now translated into English and ready to hit the US.
The Black Sheep Dances has been authorized to giveaway 10 free Advanced Review Copies to winners of this contest. Odds are, if you enter, you will win! Please leave a comment with your email and I will select the ten winners randomly on November 19, 2010. I will then give her the mailing addresses and your copies will be sent via publisher to you. US and Canada only. Followers only please!
You can visit the website for the authors and see their other titles at http://www.roslund-hellstrom.com/. The film rights have already been purchased by 20th Century Fox. I haven't read it yet, but am eager to see a new title for English readers. Will it be dark and gloomy? Probably. Do these guys look cynical? Possibly. Enter and see!
---------------------------
Elizabeth from Silversolara won the Breaking Night Giveaway...I've emailed her and she has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be selected! Congratulations!
It's already been released in Europe, and received the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers’ Award (Svenska Deckarakademins pris) 2009 for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. It is now translated into English and ready to hit the US.
You can visit the website for the authors and see their other titles at http://www.roslund-hellstrom.com/. The film rights have already been purchased by 20th Century Fox. I haven't read it yet, but am eager to see a new title for English readers. Will it be dark and gloomy? Probably. Do these guys look cynical? Possibly. Enter and see!
---------------------------
Elizabeth from Silversolara won the Breaking Night Giveaway...I've emailed her and she has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be selected! Congratulations!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The Rest is Jungle by Mario Benedetti
Translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales
Mario Benedetti is from Uruguay and the short stories within this collection are mostly set in the cities and villages of the South American nation. It would be incredibly cliche to say that these short stories feel tall, but they do. Some are only a few pages long, but the lingering effect is one of sighing acknowledgement that yes, this is how it is.
For, while diverse in characters and settings, Benedetti captures all the nuances of families and friendships, and the mind games that play on even after one participant is dead. Not all are depressing, some actually made me laugh outright. But it's an incredibly complicated study of human nature (a psychologist would probably love to evaluate this book and name all the symptoms) that never gets dull and is never predictable. Pay attention to the clues, just when you think someone may laugh they instead deliver a fatal blow. Benedetti doesn't do much foreshadowing (there's hardly time in a short story) so surprises occur. His writing is so subtle too, that after a particularly traumatic event takes place, he simply continues with the story and lets you reel from the implications instead of spelling them all out. He credits the reader with the intelligence and savvy to foresee what may happen, and doesn't prescribe it. This lingering sense of wonder will have you returning to the plot later, in your head, as you continue to grasp what went unsaid.
"The Sweethearts" is one of the most perplexing of the stories. A young girl is orphaned when her embezzling father commits suicide. An outcast in the city, one family opens its doors to her, and she becomes friends with the family's son. Almost thirty years pass in their friendship, and what you may expect to happen never occurs. Instead, you see how a common bond of dysfunction creates a strange world that neither escape from, nor appear to want to. Benedetti is especially observant when he notes how the community treats the innocent child: "that duality was that the good families were always ready to smile..." at her, but at the end of the day "this fulfilled their quota of Christian pity, while at the same time allowing them to conserve their energy for that hour when they closed all the doors of all their houses, separating her from all...and making her feel that she was somewhat tainted."
"The Rage Has Ended" was poignant and subtle, told from the voice of a loyal dog who is the only witness to its owners adultery. What the dog senses, and what it does, makes a tangible character in the play of secrets and lies. And while the dog knows loyalty, he doesn't understand revenge.
"Completely Absent-Minded" is one of the more amusing stories, of a man who flees his country for political reasons. He travels the world, not caring much about where he is going, completely lost in the thrill of the journey. "He liked people, but he didn't bond...." and "He got along well with children and dogs". Benedetti takes pains to describe the details that matter to the traveller, and more importantly, the ones that don't. The man mixes up nations and rivers and continents, shiftlessly journeying on. Along with him the reader also becomes disoriented as to his place in the world, and the strangely appropriate ending is still somewhat devastating.
Especially nuanced are the stories told of fathers and sons. Both wishing to appear to be more than they are, to impress the other. The dynamics are the same no matter how wealthy or poor, good or wicked, or even how tragically bored some of them may be.
The collection contains about 35 stories and some of them are expressed in an enjambment that is nearly poetic. On one page a quote from Benedetti sums up the book beautifully: "We are a small nook of America which has neither oil, nor Indians, nor minerals, nor volcanoes, nor even an army dedicated to coups. We are a small country of short stories."
For, while diverse in characters and settings, Benedetti captures all the nuances of families and friendships, and the mind games that play on even after one participant is dead. Not all are depressing, some actually made me laugh outright. But it's an incredibly complicated study of human nature (a psychologist would probably love to evaluate this book and name all the symptoms) that never gets dull and is never predictable. Pay attention to the clues, just when you think someone may laugh they instead deliver a fatal blow. Benedetti doesn't do much foreshadowing (there's hardly time in a short story) so surprises occur. His writing is so subtle too, that after a particularly traumatic event takes place, he simply continues with the story and lets you reel from the implications instead of spelling them all out. He credits the reader with the intelligence and savvy to foresee what may happen, and doesn't prescribe it. This lingering sense of wonder will have you returning to the plot later, in your head, as you continue to grasp what went unsaid.
"The Sweethearts" is one of the most perplexing of the stories. A young girl is orphaned when her embezzling father commits suicide. An outcast in the city, one family opens its doors to her, and she becomes friends with the family's son. Almost thirty years pass in their friendship, and what you may expect to happen never occurs. Instead, you see how a common bond of dysfunction creates a strange world that neither escape from, nor appear to want to. Benedetti is especially observant when he notes how the community treats the innocent child: "that duality was that the good families were always ready to smile..." at her, but at the end of the day "this fulfilled their quota of Christian pity, while at the same time allowing them to conserve their energy for that hour when they closed all the doors of all their houses, separating her from all...and making her feel that she was somewhat tainted."
"The Rage Has Ended" was poignant and subtle, told from the voice of a loyal dog who is the only witness to its owners adultery. What the dog senses, and what it does, makes a tangible character in the play of secrets and lies. And while the dog knows loyalty, he doesn't understand revenge.
"Completely Absent-Minded" is one of the more amusing stories, of a man who flees his country for political reasons. He travels the world, not caring much about where he is going, completely lost in the thrill of the journey. "He liked people, but he didn't bond...." and "He got along well with children and dogs". Benedetti takes pains to describe the details that matter to the traveller, and more importantly, the ones that don't. The man mixes up nations and rivers and continents, shiftlessly journeying on. Along with him the reader also becomes disoriented as to his place in the world, and the strangely appropriate ending is still somewhat devastating.
Especially nuanced are the stories told of fathers and sons. Both wishing to appear to be more than they are, to impress the other. The dynamics are the same no matter how wealthy or poor, good or wicked, or even how tragically bored some of them may be.
The collection contains about 35 stories and some of them are expressed in an enjambment that is nearly poetic. On one page a quote from Benedetti sums up the book beautifully: "We are a small nook of America which has neither oil, nor Indians, nor minerals, nor volcanoes, nor even an army dedicated to coups. We are a small country of short stories."
Special thanks to Host Publications for the Review Copy.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise
One recent beautiful day, I was curled up with a book outside, enjoying the change in the light and air of fall, with a fat orange cat on my lap. The baby was asleep, work was done, and it was finally a chance to relax. It was bliss. All was quiet. Quiet, until an extremely loud dirt bike, without a muffler, began doing circuits of the road below my house. I went from peaceful and content to plotting murder in mere seconds…just the whine of the engine made my teeth ache. The fact I was reading this book made the noise all the more relevant.
George Prochnik takes a subject that is universally annoying and studies it in ways that are both fascinating and frightening. He examines the sounds, both in volume and type, that trigger aggression (see dirt bike above). In one chapter he discusses scientists who study the cries of infants that makes them particularly vulnerable to abuse (and what can be done for prevention). He takes the research further and shows how some sounds are actually used in torture (see dirt bike above). For example, prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are sometimes forced to listen to the cries of screaming infants overlaid with a track of repeating Meow Mix commercials.
He also investigates where sound is used for manipulation in a retail setting. He meets with the sound designers behind Abercrombie & Fitch, who intentionally design the retail space to flood the ears with rapid, pulsating music to mimic a rave or nightclub. The lights are intentionally dim, so that a customer feels more like they are at a party than a store, and they’ll likely pay less attention to the price tag and more attention to the atmosphere. Geared towards college age students that have left home for the first time, A & F manipulates their senses for profit while at the same time creating and branding their identity of ‘cool’. Prochnik also examines the science behind music played at grocery stores, restaurants, and bars. If it’s too fast, customers will eat faster and leave before they run up a tab. If it’s the right pace and overly loud, researchers have found they will actually drink more alcohol, since gesturing for another drink is easier than conversation.
Some anecdotal findings throughout are fascinating, as he travels from a monastery where silence is required, and out into the streets, where boom boxes, car stereos, train whistles, and sirens bombard the area with noise. In no way is he a cranky old Mr. Wilson, yelling at the kids to shut up. Rather, he’s fascinated by the science of it all. For example, scientists in Japan devised a “Mosquito Teen Deterrent” that is a sonic repellent-it makes a noise only audible to those under 20 years of age. This was used in areas where the police and storekeepers wanted to prevent teenage loitering, but its use is now up for debate in terms of ear damage. The invention was shown in one of the most memorable episodes of 30Rock. Clever teenagers managed to turn the tables on adults by using the same technology to create a cell phone ringer that could be used in class-the teacher couldn’t hear it ring!
Is sound really a matter of personal preference? Can laws really be enforced to control sound output from cars or homes? Prochnik investigates the influence of loud noise on health, and one especially interesting finding was that excessively loud noise, such as at a rave, actually makes the drug Ecstasy more toxic to users.
Beyond the noise itself, he also researches and explains new developments in sound proofing and the new industry that has been built up around the desire for peace and quiet. New materials and inventive uses of old technology can create homes that actually resist external noise. This book covers a great deal of material, and at times it’s too much to absorb at once. But the chapters can stand alone and can be returned to without losing the conceptual thread. In all, it's a fascinating book made especially interesting by the quick writing and large amount of cited evidence and details.
George Prochnik takes a subject that is universally annoying and studies it in ways that are both fascinating and frightening. He examines the sounds, both in volume and type, that trigger aggression (see dirt bike above). In one chapter he discusses scientists who study the cries of infants that makes them particularly vulnerable to abuse (and what can be done for prevention). He takes the research further and shows how some sounds are actually used in torture (see dirt bike above). For example, prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are sometimes forced to listen to the cries of screaming infants overlaid with a track of repeating Meow Mix commercials.
He also investigates where sound is used for manipulation in a retail setting. He meets with the sound designers behind Abercrombie & Fitch, who intentionally design the retail space to flood the ears with rapid, pulsating music to mimic a rave or nightclub. The lights are intentionally dim, so that a customer feels more like they are at a party than a store, and they’ll likely pay less attention to the price tag and more attention to the atmosphere. Geared towards college age students that have left home for the first time, A & F manipulates their senses for profit while at the same time creating and branding their identity of ‘cool’. Prochnik also examines the science behind music played at grocery stores, restaurants, and bars. If it’s too fast, customers will eat faster and leave before they run up a tab. If it’s the right pace and overly loud, researchers have found they will actually drink more alcohol, since gesturing for another drink is easier than conversation.
Some anecdotal findings throughout are fascinating, as he travels from a monastery where silence is required, and out into the streets, where boom boxes, car stereos, train whistles, and sirens bombard the area with noise. In no way is he a cranky old Mr. Wilson, yelling at the kids to shut up. Rather, he’s fascinated by the science of it all. For example, scientists in Japan devised a “Mosquito Teen Deterrent” that is a sonic repellent-it makes a noise only audible to those under 20 years of age. This was used in areas where the police and storekeepers wanted to prevent teenage loitering, but its use is now up for debate in terms of ear damage. The invention was shown in one of the most memorable episodes of 30Rock. Clever teenagers managed to turn the tables on adults by using the same technology to create a cell phone ringer that could be used in class-the teacher couldn’t hear it ring!
Is sound really a matter of personal preference? Can laws really be enforced to control sound output from cars or homes? Prochnik investigates the influence of loud noise on health, and one especially interesting finding was that excessively loud noise, such as at a rave, actually makes the drug Ecstasy more toxic to users.
Beyond the noise itself, he also researches and explains new developments in sound proofing and the new industry that has been built up around the desire for peace and quiet. New materials and inventive uses of old technology can create homes that actually resist external noise. This book covers a great deal of material, and at times it’s too much to absorb at once. But the chapters can stand alone and can be returned to without losing the conceptual thread. In all, it's a fascinating book made especially interesting by the quick writing and large amount of cited evidence and details.
Special thanks to Judy Jacoby of Doubleday for the Review Copy.
Friday, October 29, 2010
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
 |
| carved of wood or ivory, most were the size of a walnut |
Antiques are often more valuable when their provenance can be determined, and the more details regarding ownership and travel, the better. Thus, the extensive history of the tiny netsuke described in this memoir makes them essentially priceless. Purchased in Paris in the 1870’s, the travels of these tiny figurines reveal a much bigger and more important story than one could imagine. In fact, the general history of WWII and the days leading to it, across the European continent, are a part of their history.
This ‘art memoir’ combines a narrative of both the personalities of the owners and world history into the netsuke origins (see photo). Edmund de Waal, who began to research their origins in 1991, is an esteemed porcelain artist on his own, and his perspective on the netsuke is more insightful due to his own artistic vision and relation to the family. It’s both personal and historical.
The collection was held by his uncle in Tokyo, and had been passed down from their original purchaser, Charles Ephrussi, in the 1870s. Charles Ephrussi was the ultimate collector. Wealthy beyond imagination, he left Paris for Italy and made extravagant purchases for his Paris apartment. He hung out with Proust, Renoir, and Degas, and was part of the high society in Paris that revered all things related to art and literature. De Waal uses impeccable research to discuss the catalogues of possessions that Ephrussi owned and the family dynamics in that opulent age. However, one detail made all the difference. Ephrussi was Jewish. Thus, while he died before the worst came, his family suffered greatly and the netsuke made their own significant journey.
In all the violence, a lowly maid named Anna (a Gentile) managed to quietly hide the netsuke in her mattress, and held them, not for certain profit but for the opportunity she was sure would come, when she could return them to the family. Her loyalty inspires the author, yet the irony of the netsuke’s survival is not lost: “why should they have got through this war in a hiding-place, when so many hidden people did not? I can’t make people and places and things fit together any more. These stories unravel me.” Thus, 264 of the netsuke were restored to descendents of the Ephrussi family.
Reading more like a thriller than a memoir, the details are rapid and shocking. Seeing how ordinary people behaved in horrific circumstances was revealing, in both their noble and barbaric acts. De Waal does not write simply in facts, but reveals subtler clues to the people involved. Rather than simply noting the wealth of Charles, he uncovers a more personal trait; Charles “does not know when to shade eagerness and become invisible.” Thus he makes a story of objects also an exploration of character.
This is truly a beautiful book. I’ve had to read a few art histories that seemed stale-there was no personality behind the stories. This is amazing both in content and form, as the lives interwoven with the netsuke make them unforgettable. I visited the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s recent Asian exhibition in hopes of seeing netsuke firsthand. There were none to be seen, and nothing that was displayed struck a chord within me as did the stories behind these pieces.
Special thanks to Chatto & Windus London for the Review Copy.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson
Translated from the German by Iva Jarosy
“One cannot cut the lines of experience out of one’s face, like the rotten bits in an apple; one has to carry them about in one’s face and know that one carries them; one sees them, as in a mirror, every day when one washes oneself, and one cannot cut them out, they belong there.”
“He had swore to her…that this was how it had all happened, as though he had first to mist the mirror slightly with his breath before he could dare to look into it. […] What can a man do but breathe at the mirror and look gently at his misted image?”
Mirrors are a repeating motif in Hans Keilson’s novel, The Death of the Adversary. Written during WWII, this novel has been republished this year. The Los Angeles Times wrote enthusiastically “It's as if, one morning, we were to learn that not only had Anne Frank survived the secret annex but was also still among us.” (Sept 26, 2010*) Mirrors generally symbolize self-reflection and contemplation, and are fittingly used to describe the inner questions that plague a young man as he realizes that Hitler’s influence was inevitably going to change his life. First, he hears his parents whisper and worry, and tries to decipher the codes they seemed to be speaking in. Next he finds himself an outcast in the neighborhood as the other children begin to avoid him. His mother takes the well-intentioned step of intervening on his behalf, trying to convince the children that they are all alike and should play together. His humiliation is complete, and never fully leaves him. Thus, he begins focusing on his “adversary”.
“…enemies will never die out in this world. They are recruited from former friends.”
The next salvo comes from a close friend who reveals he supports Hitler’s agenda. He explains to the unnamed protagonist that it is simply a matter of balance: just as elks need wolves to control their species and balance their habitat, so too, Germany is balancing itself. For the greater good, he implies. Their friendship quickly dissolves. The young man now explains the details of his experience, from strained friendships to watching his parents change to going into hiding.
Certainly, this novel has a more mature voice than Anne Frank’s diary. The protagonist is more somber and definitely more pessimistic. I didn’t find that the story gave any exceptionally new revelations about the time period, but it does provide a new perspective to describe the experience. One brief passage about the change in his parent’s attitude reveals a surprising aspect of human nature under trial: his father who bitterly lamented the rise of Hitler’s power becomes almost giddy with excitement when the horror begins, while his religious mother, who started out optimistic, begins to withdraw into depression and anxiety.
One thing that is especially fascinating is that Keilson never actually defines his adversary as Hitler. He uses the term “B” to represent him, although it’s clear of whom he speaks: a man with an evil plan and the power to implement it. Yet, at times “B” is also portrayed as an intangible force, a concept of evil bigger than the Holocaust. The ambiguity gives the reader pause to consider what defines evil and apply the revelations experienced to virtually anyone suffering oppression. Incidently, I was curious if by using the initial rather than the name, Keilson is attempting to lessen the power of Hitler’s name, giving it less fame. For example, notorious killers today are well known by name: Ted Bundy, Lee Harvey Oswald, or John Wayne Gacey. After a period of time when their horrific deeds are forgotten, they become simply a pop culture reference. By not using Hitler’s name, it could be that in some small way, Keilson doesn’t want to give him any further notoriety.
Special thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the Review Copy.
For details on Keilson’s life experiences as well as details about both of his newly rereleased titles, see the link below.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pajamas-Judy Parkinson
Popular Expressions-What They Mean and How We Got Them
- Did you know that the phrase "fifteen minutes of fame" originated with Andy Warhol?
- Or that the expression "here's mud in your eye!" originates with either horse racing or Jesus curing a blind man?
- Austin Powers "not my bag, baby" refers to early jazz when a person's interpretation of music was their signature style, their 'bag'?
- "Shake a leg" comes from a naval wake-up call? "Women were allowed to sleep onboard ship when the navy was in port. At the cry of "shake a leg", the occupant of a hammock had to show their leg. If it was hairy, they had to get up and work. If not, the woman could stay and sleep in. You needed to know that!
- Or that "to a T" refers to the measurement of a drafter, using a T-square to keep lines accurate?
Special thanks to Julie Harabedian from FSB Associates for the Review Copy.
E=MC Squared---Simply Physics by Jeff Stewart
Why Balloons Rise, Apples Fall, and Golf Balls Go Awry
In any case, I felt a twinge of stupidity when I received E=MC2 to review...was it going to be too tough? Would I have to resort to calling it poignant with intriguing explanations of the scientific method? Actually, no. Like the other books in the newest Reader's Digest series (I've reviewed two in the past and am hitting you today with two more), these are readable and the explanations make sense. I hate to think that the subject has been dumbed down, but maybe that's the key. For those of us who simply don't grasp things we can't really observe, this book is the way to go. It takes scientific principles but explains them in real-life examples, like car crash statistics or golf ball trajectories.
The book is broken into the different disciplines: Forces, Momentum, Energy and Power, Heat and Matter, Waves, Relativity, and Quantum Physics are just some of the subsections. My favorite was Waves because it explains both sound and light waves as well as the force of motion in oceanic waves. It discusses the interference principle, but also the power of each wave in proportion to its height, and then goes forward to a real-life example of how exponentially stronger waves that come with hurricanes behave, and why they cause so much damage.
It also explains the Doppler effect that you see on nightly weather forecasts and shows how that relates to what is known about the far edges of the universe. Stewart uses examples from the movies The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to explain the principles behind momentum.
This certainly is the most complicated of the books in the series, so it's definitely geared to an adult with curiousity about the natural world and the laws of physics: these laws don't change, and understanding how they work isn't just interesting, it's helpful in real life. A teenager or brainy preteen might also enjoy the explanations.
Special thanks to Julie Harabedian of FSB Associates for the Review Copy.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The House of Widows by Askold Melnyczuk
In this novel, The House of Widows, we see James try to make sense of it all. He travels to one of his father's oldest friends, looking for answers. Much about her is veiled in mystery, and her strange brother and her adopted Palestinian daughter complicate James' understanding as well. He discovers that what he thought about his father was so wrong that it has to change how he thinks about himself. In fact, James plays the unreliable narrator to perfection.
The novel travels throughout the world, with James on a quest for answers, yet ignorant to some of the solutions he carries with him. War is a repeating motif that underlines the emotional ties to history. They can't be separated and defined on a page. And the trouble that comes with searching for answers is realizing that the answers may be worse than your imagination. On top of that is the knowledge that in many cases, such as the Middle East (where portions of this book take place), there are no easy answers that are palatable to all.
A few times my jaw dropped in shock at some of the revelations, and at other times I was a bit overwhelmed by the tragedy of it all. It is engrossing...you may find it difficult to put down, which is probably for the best because it's easy to lose track of each character if you step away for long. Be prepared for surprises, and if you really want to appreciate it, have a map of Western Europe at hand. The only thing that mildly annoyed me about the book was some of the dialogue felt surreal-a bit unrealistic in the way seemingly ordinary people speak. Yet that too reveals part of the complexities of their emotional baggage.
Special thanks to Erin Kottke from Graywolf Press for the Review Copy.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Bosnia-In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip, Tony Fabijancic
If you are going to make a journey, you know it’s not going to be dull if your companion has a reputation for getting into fights. It could even be dangerous if you are travelling to a location still rife with racial and cultural tensions. Thus, it’s with great wisdom that Tony Fabijancic’s wife suggested his father go along as guide and possible referee on his journey to Bosnia. Why Bosnia?
First, Fabijancic’s father emigrated from Croatia, and the region has held his son’s fascination for a lifetime. But more intriguing is Tony Fabijancic’s obsession with understanding Gavrilo Princip, an obsession that leads him to research the cultural, political, and geographical influences of the former Yugoslavia-then and now. The result of that trip is Bosnia: In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip.
I never knew Gavrilo Princip by name, only his identity as the man who started WWI with his assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. I didn’t even see how the event was that big of a deal; as noted in the book, assassinations in the area weren’t exactly unusual. Why was the impact so big? And why did Princip do it in the first place? It’s a subject I’d wondered about but never pursued.
Similarly, in the 1990s, when the Bosnian conflict headlined the news, I had no way to differentiate between a Croatian, a Bosnian Serb, or a Muslim Slav, or if Kosovo was a person or place. I hate to admit that before this book, I probably couldn’t have found B-H on a map; my knowledge being especially vague about Yugoslavia and the USSR. And while history at times can be boring, learning it from the personal perspective usually enlivens it. Thus, this book is far more powerful than its size would suggest. From the perspective of a road trip, with anecdotes and photographs that make the journey more personal, a reader learns the history of the region from Austria-Hungary’s occupation through the Baltic Wars, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, as well as the religious differences (Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox) and the racial divide that still fuels pride and conflict.
The author addresses part of the image that Westerners may have of the area: “Because of Bosnia’s reputation as an inherently violent place, filled with ‘ancient ethnic hatreds’, it finds itself squarely situated within the ambit of the Balkans, which have acquired derogatory qualities in the West’s wider social imagination.”
He meets a Croatian shepherd that still lives off the land with his flock for weeks at a time, a lifestyle that’s millenniums old. They drive through cities nearly abandoned, houses still showing the scars of bombings, villages with just a few old residents remaining, and long neglected cemeteries. The ethnic divides are still steep, and various regions still feel volatile to a nervous traveler. Some subjects are simply not safe to talk about, as Fabijancic learns. Even the character of Princip is conflicted: some view him as hero, others as a scar on their reputation. As the travelers retrace his journey to Sarajevo, where he ultimately succeeds in killing Ferdinand, they are able to see places where he had lived, socialized, and plotted. In uncovering the history of the Serbian lands, they simultaneously uncover the biography of Princip, the events of the assassination, and the trial that ensued.
At one point, they visit the bridge over the river Drina, a location famous in literature by Nobel winner Ivo Andric and also in history: in 1992 “hundreds of Muslims were herded onto the bridge and along the riverbanks, murdered and dumped in the Drina, turning its green waters red. Others were forced into buildings and incinerated alive.” This type of ethnic cleansing occurred on all three sides of the conflict, but the realization that this happened within my children’s lifespan is a bit staggering. The violence in the conflicts seems especially heinous.
This is not a dry read…it’s sobering but still amusing at times-it reads like a novel. It reminded me a bit of Andrzej Stasuik’s Fado although exploring a different region. This is the way history should be read-through lively narration and not dry data and charts. I am terribly enthusiastic about this book because it feels valuable-it doesn’t solve the problems there but by neutral observation it helps an outsider understand them, as well as the bigger picture of the brutality of mankind’s yearning for domination. The photography should be noted: the black and white images are stark and bring out the humanity in the faces shown.
First, Fabijancic’s father emigrated from Croatia, and the region has held his son’s fascination for a lifetime. But more intriguing is Tony Fabijancic’s obsession with understanding Gavrilo Princip, an obsession that leads him to research the cultural, political, and geographical influences of the former Yugoslavia-then and now. The result of that trip is Bosnia: In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip.
I never knew Gavrilo Princip by name, only his identity as the man who started WWI with his assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. I didn’t even see how the event was that big of a deal; as noted in the book, assassinations in the area weren’t exactly unusual. Why was the impact so big? And why did Princip do it in the first place? It’s a subject I’d wondered about but never pursued.
Similarly, in the 1990s, when the Bosnian conflict headlined the news, I had no way to differentiate between a Croatian, a Bosnian Serb, or a Muslim Slav, or if Kosovo was a person or place. I hate to admit that before this book, I probably couldn’t have found B-H on a map; my knowledge being especially vague about Yugoslavia and the USSR. And while history at times can be boring, learning it from the personal perspective usually enlivens it. Thus, this book is far more powerful than its size would suggest. From the perspective of a road trip, with anecdotes and photographs that make the journey more personal, a reader learns the history of the region from Austria-Hungary’s occupation through the Baltic Wars, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, as well as the religious differences (Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox) and the racial divide that still fuels pride and conflict.
The author addresses part of the image that Westerners may have of the area: “Because of Bosnia’s reputation as an inherently violent place, filled with ‘ancient ethnic hatreds’, it finds itself squarely situated within the ambit of the Balkans, which have acquired derogatory qualities in the West’s wider social imagination.”
He meets a Croatian shepherd that still lives off the land with his flock for weeks at a time, a lifestyle that’s millenniums old. They drive through cities nearly abandoned, houses still showing the scars of bombings, villages with just a few old residents remaining, and long neglected cemeteries. The ethnic divides are still steep, and various regions still feel volatile to a nervous traveler. Some subjects are simply not safe to talk about, as Fabijancic learns. Even the character of Princip is conflicted: some view him as hero, others as a scar on their reputation. As the travelers retrace his journey to Sarajevo, where he ultimately succeeds in killing Ferdinand, they are able to see places where he had lived, socialized, and plotted. In uncovering the history of the Serbian lands, they simultaneously uncover the biography of Princip, the events of the assassination, and the trial that ensued.
At one point, they visit the bridge over the river Drina, a location famous in literature by Nobel winner Ivo Andric and also in history: in 1992 “hundreds of Muslims were herded onto the bridge and along the riverbanks, murdered and dumped in the Drina, turning its green waters red. Others were forced into buildings and incinerated alive.” This type of ethnic cleansing occurred on all three sides of the conflict, but the realization that this happened within my children’s lifespan is a bit staggering. The violence in the conflicts seems especially heinous.
This is not a dry read…it’s sobering but still amusing at times-it reads like a novel. It reminded me a bit of Andrzej Stasuik’s Fado although exploring a different region. This is the way history should be read-through lively narration and not dry data and charts. I am terribly enthusiastic about this book because it feels valuable-it doesn’t solve the problems there but by neutral observation it helps an outsider understand them, as well as the bigger picture of the brutality of mankind’s yearning for domination. The photography should be noted: the black and white images are stark and bring out the humanity in the faces shown.
Special thanks to Cathie Crooks of Canada's University of Alberta Press for the Review Copy.
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Charity to Help in a Scary Time- jackandabby.org
If you are considering a worthy charity to donate to, in any amount, let me share one that I discovered with a cause that is near to my heart.
The Jack & Abby Neonatal Foundation raises money for families of infants in the NeoNatal Intensive Care unit (NICU). Usually, it's because of premature birth that a baby has to stay in the NICU, and it often requires the transfer of the preemie to a hospital in a large city. This entails a huge amount of expense outside of the hospitalization: rooming, food, travel expenses, and gear for the smaller-than-average baby runs up fast. While some babies spend only a few days, others can be there for six months or more. This organization, found at http://www.jackandabby.org/ helps parents in that situation financially as well as with advice for handling the stress and medical terminology. It's a scary time....they can help.
Why is this subject dear to me? My youngest son was born in 2007, approximately 10 weeks early. He had to be immediately transported to a larger hospital about an hour a way from where he was born. He spent the next six weeks in that hospital. It was heartbreaking, because I couldn't immediately travel with him. I had to wait five days to even see him (but Daddy and Grandma got to go). In any case, I'll spare you the emotional drama but share that the an organization like Jack and Abby could have been helpful-I had no idea what we were in for.
The hospital was amazing, and they had an organization that provided small studio cottages for parents of NICU babies at $25 a night...a steal in the expensive location! But, we could only stay six consecutive nights, then had to leave to offer an opening to another parent, and after a space opened again we'd get another six nights at the low rate. This saved us a huge amount of money, but even with it, the hotel we had to stay in nearest the hospital was closer to $200 per night (and we weren't there to do anything but sleep). Being far from home meant living off cafeteria food and vending machine snacks. In that position, the last thing you want to do is find a restaurant, and the studios didn't feature kitchens. So, long story short, it was a difficult time, and an organization that can help a parent during such a time is a great thing-especially in that their own tragic experience makes them attune to the needs during this time.
In all, we were fortunate...our rainy day fund came in handy because indeed, it was symbolically stormy! We now have a perfectly healthy boy, and I credit the nurses and doctors at the NICU for helping him through various crises. Other parents with longer stays and medical complications may not be as fortunate: this organization can help them with their preemie needs during and after hospitalization!
If you are looking for an organization to send all your surplus cash lying around, I'm sure they'd appreciate it! Note that it's an .org suffix and not .com, it matters. Also, they are a 501 (3)(c) charity. Their page loads slowly at times, please be patient!
*One really cool memory: the six cottages that the hospital provided were known in the community for their purpose, so occasionally we'd return late at night from the NICU to find a bottle of wine, or vase of flowers, on the doorstep. Strangers are awfully sweet sometimes!
 |
| www.jackandabby.org |
Why is this subject dear to me? My youngest son was born in 2007, approximately 10 weeks early. He had to be immediately transported to a larger hospital about an hour a way from where he was born. He spent the next six weeks in that hospital. It was heartbreaking, because I couldn't immediately travel with him. I had to wait five days to even see him (but Daddy and Grandma got to go). In any case, I'll spare you the emotional drama but share that the an organization like Jack and Abby could have been helpful-I had no idea what we were in for.
The hospital was amazing, and they had an organization that provided small studio cottages for parents of NICU babies at $25 a night...a steal in the expensive location! But, we could only stay six consecutive nights, then had to leave to offer an opening to another parent, and after a space opened again we'd get another six nights at the low rate. This saved us a huge amount of money, but even with it, the hotel we had to stay in nearest the hospital was closer to $200 per night (and we weren't there to do anything but sleep). Being far from home meant living off cafeteria food and vending machine snacks. In that position, the last thing you want to do is find a restaurant, and the studios didn't feature kitchens. So, long story short, it was a difficult time, and an organization that can help a parent during such a time is a great thing-especially in that their own tragic experience makes them attune to the needs during this time.
In all, we were fortunate...our rainy day fund came in handy because indeed, it was symbolically stormy! We now have a perfectly healthy boy, and I credit the nurses and doctors at the NICU for helping him through various crises. Other parents with longer stays and medical complications may not be as fortunate: this organization can help them with their preemie needs during and after hospitalization!
If you are looking for an organization to send all your surplus cash lying around, I'm sure they'd appreciate it! Note that it's an .org suffix and not .com, it matters. Also, they are a 501 (3)(c) charity. Their page loads slowly at times, please be patient!
*One really cool memory: the six cottages that the hospital provided were known in the community for their purpose, so occasionally we'd return late at night from the NICU to find a bottle of wine, or vase of flowers, on the doorstep. Strangers are awfully sweet sometimes!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Tree by John Fowles, nature writing
"Do we feel that unless we create evidence-photographs, journal entries, picked and pressed flowers, tape recordings, pocketed stones-we haven't actually been intimate with nature?"
Fowles was known for writing The French Lieutenant's Woman as well as other fiction titles. Here, in this book, he discusses via anecdotes the relationship between humans and nature, and the juxtaposition between nature on its own and our experience of nature. First, the introduction by Barry Lopez comfortably sets the scene, and hints that this is no simple environmental manifesto. And never does Fowles lecture about how people should view nature; rather, he talks about what nature may or may not mean in a larger sense.
For example, he talks about his childhood home where his father cultivated small garden and fruit trees. Nothing was out of place, and while it was in the city, his father managed to tame anything unruly from the garden. Clearly it was his goal to conquer the plot of land. He was the victor over it. Yet his son, Fowles, purchases property that is larger, but by no means tame. Fowles neither cultivates or cuts back, he sees no point in amending the soil, pruning the trees, and to the horror of his father, the parcel of land is wild. Is it a moral battle over who conquers the natural world? Is it nature if you've directed its every movement? Fowles doesn't presume to answer, he just asks.
In a further irony, which tells a great deal about his father, Fowles recalls how his father could walk for miles in the city, yet would only hike a few hundred meters in the countryside. The untame pastoral scene frightened him or inhibited him, likely because of its chaos. Thus, Fowles discusses chaos in nature, and how the most lovely of scenes is never the most natural. He also makes a valid point that our modern society, with three decades of hindsight added since this was written, has used film and photography to 'show' nature, making the interaction with it less urgent. How often do people seek it out? Is putting a pot of daisies on the patio nature or decor? Do we travel to faraway places to imbibe unique cocktails or are we willing to hike in a forest for no other purpose than to look? Again, he gives no condescending or judgmental answer, he just asks thought provoking questions.
Since the last few years have produced epic and beautiful DVD collections for large screen televisions, like Planet Earth, does nature seem to be something we order up on the Netflix queue or purchase at Costco? It should be noted that this is not a nature 'journal', nor a guide to trees. There are no photos or etchings to illustrate it, and that's appropriate in that Fowles doesn't feel a photograph can replicate nature satisfactorily. I enjoyed this very much, and wish that Fowles would have spent a bit more time discussing his own experiences, as well as suggested ideas for conservation and preservation.
Special thanks to Rachel Bressler and Michael McKenzie at Ecco Books for the Advance Review Copy. This title is newly released.
Not The Booker Prize winner from The Guardian-a tie!
The UK’s Guardian newspaper has counted the tally for the prize for their Not the Booker Prize book contest. And it was a tie.
See, here’s the thing that ticks me off…the idea was great, but the execution was faulty, and the blame went to fans of the books rather than the setup of the contest.
Apparently, when the longlist for the titles was voted on, there was a lot of buzz for two of the titles. Many people wrote in to support their favorite (i.e. as instructed to by the Guardian). The Guardian, despite the massive hits their website gained, cried foul and complained that it was social networking that was generating the buzz. Implying that it was friends of the authors, particularly Lee Rourke’s, that inflated the tabulation, not actual talent. Vicious debate ensued via the Guardian discussion boards.
Note that voters could choose any title, regardless of whether they read it or any of the others. It was this fact that made the whole contest nonsense and created the debate. NOT any sort of networking conspiracy, which in fact is insulting to the authors themselves. Sure, I bet some of the called their mom and said ‘go to the website, create an account, log in, wait a ghastly amount of time for the page to load, find the link to make a comment, and write my name in’. Probably a mom would do that, not many else would take the time.
Then, when voting time came, the Guardian decides to implement a sort of gatekeeper strategy by requiring voters to show that they have previously participated in the discussions pre-vote (actually, a decent idea). After this, voting commenced, and The Canal (by that naughty Lee Rourke) and Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton received an equal tally of votes, the first tie the Guardian has reported.
What’s wrong with this picture? Because of the faults in their system, they blame those who participated, as well as the authors themselves. I can't get over how much has been directed at Rourke. It was their contest, and their rules. If they are so hung up on adoring another title, then why did they open it to the public? Were they sure that they could sway the results with their passive-aggressive digs at Rourke? If you let the masses vote, you better be ready for the results. Too bad they didn't take that into account.
Sam Jordison, upon announcing the results, ungraciously stated “the Not The Booker prize has long since ceased to be a literary competition,” but rather a result of the “quantity of names in the contact books of those promoting them.” Even with the tie, they still miminimized Rourke’s win with the remark “The Canal, meanwhile, is a sincere attempt to do something new and interesting. It might have a few flaws, but it does have a charm of its own.” Gee, that's big of them. Doesn’t that sound a little snarky given that it just tied to win their prize? It garnered the votes, as simple as that. Do they have to keep going back to diss on Rourke somehow?
Both authors were classy about the results and far less facetious in the wake of the results than its organizers were. Apparently, a duel is scheduled.
Now, despite my rhetoric, I did vote, even though I hadn’t read all the titles. I didn’t want to try and make a point by not voting for one of my favorite books of the last five years. Does this make me a family member, publicist, paid spokesperson or Facebook friend of Rourke’s? No, just a fan of some astonishing new writing. In terms of improving this next year, how about let the uneducated masses (all of us who participated, apparently) vote on judges for the contest, and make them read all the books. Perhaps this would be more agreeable to everyone. The Guardian needs to step up and grow some class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/oct/12/not-the-booker-prize-winners
See, here’s the thing that ticks me off…the idea was great, but the execution was faulty, and the blame went to fans of the books rather than the setup of the contest.
Apparently, when the longlist for the titles was voted on, there was a lot of buzz for two of the titles. Many people wrote in to support their favorite (i.e. as instructed to by the Guardian). The Guardian, despite the massive hits their website gained, cried foul and complained that it was social networking that was generating the buzz. Implying that it was friends of the authors, particularly Lee Rourke’s, that inflated the tabulation, not actual talent. Vicious debate ensued via the Guardian discussion boards.
Note that voters could choose any title, regardless of whether they read it or any of the others. It was this fact that made the whole contest nonsense and created the debate. NOT any sort of networking conspiracy, which in fact is insulting to the authors themselves. Sure, I bet some of the called their mom and said ‘go to the website, create an account, log in, wait a ghastly amount of time for the page to load, find the link to make a comment, and write my name in’. Probably a mom would do that, not many else would take the time.
Then, when voting time came, the Guardian decides to implement a sort of gatekeeper strategy by requiring voters to show that they have previously participated in the discussions pre-vote (actually, a decent idea). After this, voting commenced, and The Canal (by that naughty Lee Rourke) and Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton received an equal tally of votes, the first tie the Guardian has reported.
What’s wrong with this picture? Because of the faults in their system, they blame those who participated, as well as the authors themselves. I can't get over how much has been directed at Rourke. It was their contest, and their rules. If they are so hung up on adoring another title, then why did they open it to the public? Were they sure that they could sway the results with their passive-aggressive digs at Rourke? If you let the masses vote, you better be ready for the results. Too bad they didn't take that into account.
Sam Jordison, upon announcing the results, ungraciously stated “the Not The Booker prize has long since ceased to be a literary competition,” but rather a result of the “quantity of names in the contact books of those promoting them.” Even with the tie, they still miminimized Rourke’s win with the remark “The Canal, meanwhile, is a sincere attempt to do something new and interesting. It might have a few flaws, but it does have a charm of its own.” Gee, that's big of them. Doesn’t that sound a little snarky given that it just tied to win their prize? It garnered the votes, as simple as that. Do they have to keep going back to diss on Rourke somehow?
Both authors were classy about the results and far less facetious in the wake of the results than its organizers were. Apparently, a duel is scheduled.
Now, despite my rhetoric, I did vote, even though I hadn’t read all the titles. I didn’t want to try and make a point by not voting for one of my favorite books of the last five years. Does this make me a family member, publicist, paid spokesperson or Facebook friend of Rourke’s? No, just a fan of some astonishing new writing. In terms of improving this next year, how about let the uneducated masses (all of us who participated, apparently) vote on judges for the contest, and make them read all the books. Perhaps this would be more agreeable to everyone. The Guardian needs to step up and grow some class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/oct/12/not-the-booker-prize-winners
Friday, October 15, 2010
The Princess, The King, and the Anarchist by Robert Pagani
Translated from the French by Helen Marx
The Princess, The King, and the Anarchist is a combination of fairy tale and history book, with all the necessary components for an intriguing novel. The book has an almost mathematical precision to it. For some reason, I kept getting a sense of the number three throughout the prose. First are the obvious three characters in the title, who are revealed by their first-person voices in the text. Second are the three levels of society represented: the monarchy (the king and princess), the masses who attend the wedding procession “young and old, peasants with roughened cheeks, darkened by the harsh Spanish sun”, and the outsider who wants to destroy the monarchy. Finally, there’s the significant thread of the past, present, and future that is woven throughout the narrative.
The story itself is based on the actual events of a 1906 attempt on the life of Spain’s Alfonso XIII as his wedding procession winds through Madrid. He’s just married England’s Mary Battenberg, who has converted to Catholicism and now bears the name “Queen Maria Eugenia”. The setting and characters are accurate, but the events are imagined. However, this historical fiction novel reveals truths about the turbulence of Spain’s monarchy as well as the resentment building within the nation.
The King is a worldly playboy. He spends the ride in the royal procession trying to analyze if he chose the right bride; after all, he had a bevy of female royals from all over Western Europe (eight in all) to choose from. He observes the crowds, but from a distance, with no visible feeling towards the multitudes turned out to see the big day. He points out to his bride the Ministry of Finance building, laughingly noting that he’s never bothered to visit it. Maria admires his handsomeness, noting his particular skills without irony: “He was one of those fortunate people who know things before the fact: how to make an omelette, tie a sailor’s knot, drive a car…Spain was lucky.” Clearly, the King was a figurehead with little concern for the tumultuous condition of Spain’s people at the time.
The Princess is a hopelessly naïve, and spends the journey worried about her wedding night and wondering where she can find a bathroom. Her need to solve that practical matter contrasts with the pomp and elegance of the wedding day, where the streets have been washed clean and the city is bathed in decorations. Her heart appears more open to the people who line the streets, and this reveals a more practical side to her personality as well.
The anarchist, Fernando, is an especially fascinating character, obsessed with the propaganda of Francisco Ferrer’s Free Education movement. While not specifically detailed in the book, Ferrer’s role in inciting the anarchist to violence bears mentioning. Ferrer was part of a movement to improve on the current educational system in Spain, where illiteracy was as high as 73%. (1) Only a third of the children were educated in schools, and those schools were predominately clergy-run, paid for by students, and focused more on religious indoctrination than life skills. What Ferrer proposed was radical: secular schools for all children at a lower cost, where “the proponents of rational education believed in knowledge derived from both experience of, and interaction with the world - "learning by doing." (1) He proposed that in his La Nueva Escuelas , “Instruction was to rely exclusively on the spontaneous desire of students to acquire knowledge and permit them to learn at their own pace. The purpose of the school was to promote in the students "a stern hostility to prejudice," to create "solid minds, capable of forming their own rational convictions on every subject."(2)
Whether Ferrer was an active part of the assassination plot is disputed in history; however, in this novel Fernando feels himself impelled to act on behalf of the leftist movements. He recounts conversations in his head with Ferrer, and one can only wonder if they actually took place. His rage against the monarchy and the Church is profound; he can find no way to reconcile any future hope with the existing conditions. He views the crowd, “…these great personages so sure of their God-given rights, steeped in their own importance with their bald heads and wrinkled necks. Haughty and overweening, yet pitifully vulnerable.”
I think that while the author spins this tale he’s also commenting on the irony of how the anarchist is the only one who really knows the history and the political issues involved, while the King is simply daydreaming. The common people just want to see the parade, and while their lives will not be changed, they are deluded into joy for the oblivious king. That some of them suffer on the King's account is not insignificant. Meanwhile, the anarchist actually has a plan, intent, and a goal. He's filled with a solitary purpose, even though his violent means of action may not be effective. The denouement is far from predictable, even if you've read the historical text. Despite the anarchist's motivation, it is the practical nature of Maria that eventually settles everything.
As may be obvious, I really enjoyed this novel. My only complaint was it was too short! Despite my noticing the connection of things ‘coming in three’, nowhere does it become formulaic or dull. The characters are true to life, and the contrast between the rich and idle with the poor and overworked is easy to imagine. It would be possible to read the events of 1906 with a clinical eye in a history book, and miss the story beneath. While fictionalized, one is reminded that history is made up of real people, bad decisions, and terrible consequences.
This novel releases today, October 15, 2010.
Special thanks to Tamara at Helen Marx Books for the Advance Review Copy.
(2)http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/ferrer.htm
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Blood Knots Luke Jennings 2010 fishing, memoir, Britain
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2010, Nonfiction
Of Fathers, Friendship & Fishing
Luke Jennings memoir starts out as peaceful recollection of his early childhood and his drive to learn to fish. He recounts his upbringing, his fascination with the natural world, and his early fears while in the theme of angling across England. He speaks fondly of his father, as well as a country hand named Tom who helped him learn the intricacies, indeed, the art of fishing. Patience and observation are skills he learns that serve him for a lifetime.
What is the appeal of fishing? “On the surface, the answer appears simple: to catch a fish. You want to deceive a wild creature, take it from its element, marvel over it and return it to the wild. But that’s only part of it – what you call the ego element. The living, wriggling proof of your skill and cunning. Proof that, in the right circumstances, you can get one over the natural world.” It’s partly the hunt but also the mystery that draws him, “What I can’t explain is that…it’s the revelation – the opening and closing of the shutter on an alien world. The tall, mysterious chamber of green, speared with light but vanishing into darkness.”
As his life progresses, naturally it becomes more complicated. He forms friendships and looks to his future with a range of emotions. His British life is continually touched by historical and political events both past and present, and he finds his way trying to balance that knowledge and still maintain the childhood mystery. He always returns back to the pond or river to restore his outlook. He soon becomes acquainted with a larger-than-life figure, Robert Nairac, who influences his life as a friend and mentor, teaching him history while at the same time teaching him falconry. This influence can’t be minimized, and no doubt the violence that ends Nairac’s life is both shocking and somehow expected.
Throughout, however, the return to nature is much as Wordsworth describes-a function to restore peace. The book itself is peaceful, quiet almost, and the descriptions of landscape and people are detailed and revealing. The overall feel is just as soothing as a river, even when tragedy occurs. The author also is clearly devoted to fishing: he drops names of famous books and fishermen in British culture that may well be familiar to readers there. His description of fishing is not a hobby, but a lifestyle. Conquering the wild indicates more than a subtle hint about his personality.
While I enjoyed it overall, a few times the quiet pace felt a bit numbing. It seemed repetitive in some of the descriptions of the ‘hunt’. The other thing, strictly a personal issue, is that I simply cannot comprehend ‘catch and release’ fishing. It is supposed to be more humane, but seems barbaric to me. If someone wants to fish to provide food, fine. But to hook a fish, possibly damaging its mouth and scaring it to death in the process, just to throw it back, seems kind of sadistic. I realize it’s the thrill of the hunt that Jennings explains, but I still don’t understand. I realize some hooks are not barbed, but still, it yanks on their body and they fight against it, perhaps damaging their gills or other fish parts, for what? Lastly, since it is a true story, I thought photographs of some of the locations and people might have been helpful.
Special thanks to Atlantic Books in the UK for the review edition.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
The Ambassador by Bragi Olafsson (literary fiction)
Translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith
This is the world for Sturla Jon, a sucessful poet from Iceland. He’s tough, sarcastic, and is finding it hard to even respect himself anymore. He still writes poetry, but since he’s hit fifty, he wants to do something more. Novels, maybe. He’s dissatisfied with most of his life, and it’s starting to show:
“In Sturla’s opinion, there is an irony to this that results from a deception the poet himself perpetrates: when it comes down to it, his value is only ever evident from the price tag on the book…”
And to make one big step away from the starving artist that he imagines typical poets to be, he goes out and buys a top-notch overcoat, high style and big money. He’s old-fashioned, and decides the cell phone pocket will be perfect for his cigarettes. That one detail shows a great deal about him: he isn’t fitting in with the times.
“One moment Sturla feels there is depth and purpose to his writing but the next…he, the poet, starts to think that he can’t see anything in the production of poetry but emptiness and the surface emotion that still lifes offer: more or less beautiful textures, at best, things better suited to being the subject of a watercolor on the wall of a room.”
So with this new overcoat, and an invitation to a poetry festival in Lithuania, he makes a new plan. He’s going to move towards an experimental form of literature, and 'review' the events of the festival before it even happens. His cynical and disparaging review reflects all the clichés of poetry, and poetry festivals in general. Bad food, terrible lodging, and worse, pretentious poets who take themselves far too seriously than he thinks they deserve. His caustic review makes him feel fresh and innovative, and he leaves for Lithuania with low expectations.
However, despite the fact he condemns the poet’s lifestyle as often as possible, it’s revealing that he still wants to go. Why not just skip it? This is one of the complicating facets to Sturla: he’s not really sure what he wants to be, and at his age, it’s hard to change. His life is full of contradictions: he wins money (that he doesn't need) at a slot machine when he’s just killing time, and his aging father gets more attention from the ladies than he does. While he works part-time as a building superintendent (possibly the diametric opposite of a poet), he likes to hint to people that he’s a published poet. Who is the real Sturla?
Only in Lithuania does Sturla even begin to understand just how he fits in, and his exploits there are terrifying, frantic, and sometimes slapstick. He realizes that his “predicted” review is not only wrong, but almost criminally so.
Lest this sound too serious, keep in mind that Sturla is possibly one of the funniest characters I’ve run across. He’s snarky and witty, and throughout the narrative there is a remarkable amount of humor as he pokes fun at himself, his family, and most of all, the literary world. The author, Bragi Olafsson, writes Sturla as the least expected poetic figure: needy yet badass, sensitive but acerbic, and always unpredictable.
The book in whole is more comedic than serious. Yet it also gives a unique glimpse into the world of literature and translation, cultural disparities, and historical influences that define a geographic location. I loved the little things that make Sturla a real person: the way he’s annoyed by his Dad’s constant calls on the new cell phone he finally gets, his simple desire to just get a cup of decent coffee, and the way he mentally rehearses little remarks to himself to get them right. Additionally, Olafsson hints at the need for poetry and literature as a means of dealing with the contradictions and complexities we all face.
Special thanks to Chad Post of Open Letter Books (University of Rochester)
for the Advance Review Copy.
This title released yesterday, October 12, 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)