The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Wow!  This artistically written book begins in the early 1800’s in Charleston, as Sarah, at her 11th birthday, is presented with the gift of her own slave, Handful.  Repulsed even at this young age at the thought of owning another human being, she commits her first radical act by attempting to grant Handful her freedom.  Thwarted by her family and by the entire culture of the South of that time, Sarah is unable to accomplish this, but her desire remains steadfast.  As she grows, so do her beliefs in the evils of slavery.  Likewise, Handful, inspired by her very tough “mauma” Charlotte (a rebellious, inspired, and complex character in her own right), has the urge that she must be destined for something better than remaining the chattel of another.  She, too, has an independent spirit and she reaches out to achieve more.  As their lives unfold, both Sarah and Handful remain tied by their past experiences and united in their pursuits of breaking from their past.

The writing in this book is stunning.  As the narrative voice changes back and forth from that of Sarah to that of Handful, the story is enriched by the telling from both of their perspectives.  There is stark imagery and a spiritual and spirit-ful undertone that winds through this tale.  Religion and the Bible are frequently discussed as the author strives to depict the hypocritical use of the Bible to promote slavery and its evils.  But it is hard to depart from your home and your history and Sarah struggles with this.  It appears that both Sarah and Handful are slaves to their respective societies until they are able to break through in their own ways.

Their lives are full of great sadness, but of great hope as well.  This is a beautiful story that no one should miss!

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Strange, strange book!  Camille and Caleb Fang are performance artists who create a chaotic scene and find the “art” in the reaction to the chaos they create.  Unfortunately, their art often involves their 2 children, “A” and “B” or Annie and Buster as they are known to the rest of the world.  As Annie and Buster are now grown and feel the effects of being the props of their parents, they feel their lives falling apart and come home to reconcile their lives.  Suddenly, while they are home, their parents go missing, leaving a bloody crime scene.  It is up to Annie and Buster to find them, unsure as they are that they really do want to find them.

This story is totally bizarre if taken at face value; however, it rings true and familiar in many ways.  There are many funny, even quotable lines that are actually very poignant.  And the characters of Annie and Buster are endearing and sympathetic.

If you are open to the slightly off-beat, very allegorical book, this is one to take a look at.  I’d love to discuss it with someone, if anyone does!

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This book grabs hold of you right from the first word and does not let go of you until the last.  Theo Drecker has been raised primarily by his mother, as his father, an alcoholic, has abandoned them.  So when his mother is suddenly killed in an act of terrorism, Theo’s life is completely upended.  The trajectory of his life goes into twists and turns that are often sad, occasionally shocking, and always riveting.

The writing in this book is so detailed and realistic that you feel it must be autobiographical (but of course, it is far from that), but it is descriptive without being overly ornate.  The story is also utterly tragic, but the characters do not wallow in their tragedy–  they trudge through it and the story moves on with persistent force.  The characters are genuine and complex, with charm and humanity and frailties that make them utterly real.  And you love and hate and empathize with these characters just as Theo does.  It feels like Theo himself becomes an actual person.

At the end of the book, Theo waxes somewhat poetic and philosophical as he reflects on his experiences.  I rarely quote the books I read but I can’t help quoting this:

“… That life — whatever else it is — is short.  That fate is cruel but maybe not random.  That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it is our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open.  And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”*

Evidently, this book, too, is being made into a movie (by the team that has produced The Hunger Games, no less).  So hurry and read this quick before the movie comes out!  Because as you know, the book is always better!

*This quote refers to Theo’s love of beautiful things, especially his love for a particular painting which is critical to the story line.  But I think it can be applied to almost anything we love.

London Falling by Emma Carr (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Admittedly, I was looking for something mindless when I chose this, but I got more than my fair share of mindlessness with this choice.  It is the silly tale of Aimee, who finds herself in London, with all her money and possessions having been stolen.  Seeking a way to pay for her ticket home to Seattle, she finds her way to the estate of Simon, a handsome, rich, and of course, tender-hearted bachelor and begs him to hire her as a housekeeper.  Because he’s seeking the account of the Royal Family for his family-owned bank, he cannot be perceived to do anything illegal, including hiring anyone with no working papers.   Predictably, they figure out a sort of compromise, and of course, fall in love and become somewhat embroiled in a situation because of Simon’s father who reigns over him with a strong arm.

While it actually was a cute premise, the rather weak writing combined with the lack of imagination in the plot line kept it only at that.  It remained only superficial and did not really go anywhere significant.  I downloaded it for only $2.99 and even at that price, it was more than it was worth!

The Lowlands by Jhumpa Lahiri (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Once again, Jhumpha Lahiri has constructed another periscope into the world of Indian history, enabling an outsider like me a glimpse of what it is like to move from the congested, poverty-stricken lowlands of India to the blended and perhaps more bland culture of the West.  This tale begins with 2 brothers, Subhash, who is older and cautious, and Udayan, who is youthful and restless and daring. Although they are extremely close and share almost everything as children, they grow up toward divergent paths.  Subhash stays the course in academia, while Udayan becomes involved in the communist undercurrent that is taking place in India in the 1970’s.  The story unfolds as their paths determine their respective fates, with, of course, a woman and then a child who are caught in the middle.

While this book is well-written, it did not really grab me until deeper in to the story.  The characters are difficult to love.  They are kept at an arm’s length and are not easily accessible.  They are very complicated, though, and it is their depth that intrigued me and kept me with the story.

What I did love about this book is the history that is taught within its pages.  I did not have any prior knowledge of the political landscape of India during the ’70’s and this was enlightening.  It certainly presents a different perspective on the communism of Marx and Mao than I ever hear of as an American.

(I also have to admit that being from Rhode Island, it was really fun to read the many travels around some of my favorite territory — southern RI with the beaches and the marshes.  It was the RI of the 1970’s which is the RI that I lived and even such details as a shopping trip to the Warwick Mall made me smile and remember the shopping outings of my youth.)

Once again, Lahiri has written a winner.  Hope you all enjoy it too!

Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Thumbs down for this book by Jonathan Rosen.  The character development at the outset of this book was encouraging.    An elderly man, seeing that he was likely to have another stroke that might dampen his quality of life seeks to end it with dignity. A Reform Rabbi who happens to be a woman feels great reward from visiting the sick and meets this man in the hospital when his attempted suicide has failed.  With this beginning, the reader expects that it might lead to an interesting adventure in literature.  The reader is sorely disappointed…

The writing is frighteningly weak.  For example, as opposed to having the story told from one voice, or even from alternating voices in each chapter, this author volleys from character to character every few paragraphs. Very confusing!  There is little dialogue and much too much detail about what the character is thinking.   Better to leave some of this to the imagination of the reader, with more subtle suggestion from dialogue.   (The author should give the reader more credit for figuring some of this out!)  And unfortunately, even the plot gets a little ridiculous (the boyfriend poses as a rabbi and conducts an entire funeral??  Really??).

It was a struggle to finish reading this, so my advice is not to even start!

City of Thieves by David Benioff (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This is one of those great books that keep you up reading into the wee hours, while that little voice in your head keeps telling you that you will regret it in the morning.  But you won’t regret any minute of this book no matter when you read it.

In this book, Benioff tells the story of Lev (Benioff’s grandfather) and Kolya, an unlikely pair who are set upon a mission by a Russian colonel to find a dozen eggs in a city where none can be found — in Leningrad during its siege in the second World War.  The characters are beautifully developed; as they divulge their talents and passions to each other, they become more and more human and endearing to the reader as well.  The reader feels their hunger and the cold along with them and endures the horrors of their journey as they do.  But the reader also laughs along with their jokes and their sarcasm as they themselves see the insanity and inhumanity of their quest.

The reader even grows as they do, being enriched by the beautiful language and quotable wisdom on every page of this story.

Definitely one of the best books I’ve read so far!

 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

It is great, once in awhile, to return to the classics.  There is definitely a reason why a book becomes a “classic” and this book is the perfect example of this.  It is actually tragic that Harper Lee never wrote any other book — although I guess when you win the Pulitzer, there’s too much expectation and therefore pressure to write anything further.  I’d certainly be intimidated…

But back to this book.  Bottom line…  if you’ve never read this book (and even if you’ve seen the movie), this is an absolutely must-read.  It is a simply-told, but deeply emotional story of Scout, a young girl growing up in a small town in Alabama in the 1930’s, who watches her father get involved in defending a black man accused of raping a white girl.  Her father, Atticus, one of the most understated, yet bravest fictional characters of all time, in my opinion.  He is both gently honest and honorable, and in a time when black and white were hideously divided, he was ethically colorblind.  Furthermore, Atticus showed his children (both Scout and her older brother, Jem) not only that anyone of any color mattered, but also those who were outcasts but did no one else any wrong, also mattered.  And his children learned by his example, as seen in particular, by the subtle development of Jem.

This book is sheer excellence.  I am so glad I read it again.  Do yourself a favor and do the same!

Easter Island by Jennifer Venderbes (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This is a very intricately woven book with essentially 2 story lines that ultimately converge.  One is the story of Elsa, trapped by the circumstance of her father’s death in 1912 and her need to care for her developmentally odd sister and finding herself ultimately married to her father’s research disciple.  Her new husband takes Elsa and her sister on a journey to Easter Island, a remote, tiny island east of the coast of Chile, to study the history and culture of the people there.  The second story is the modern day tale of Greer, a botany researcher whose husband has recently died under unusual circumstances, who in search of a way to cope and to move on with her own life and her own project, comes also to Easter Island.  As both women study the unusual island and its people, they both stumble upon similar findings, even as they both learn a lot about themselves.

Both stories are well-told and build in momentum as the stories unfold.  The history that is knitted into the stories ultimately bind the two together, as does the science that is studied.  There are a lot of scientific details that are described — perhaps even too much even for me — although it is an essential part of the plot.  But I actually do like how the science is so closely tied to what is learned by both women and how science actually illuminates the history of the island.  It brings the laboratory to the real world, so to speak.

This is a very different book, at least for me, and I enjoyed all that I learned from it.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Ursula, the main character in this novel, gets what many of us would love — a chance to live her life over.  It is a very interesting premise, getting to start over and reaching different junctures in your life and then either dying or reliving your life again from those junctures. She has a vague feeling of deja vu during some of her life but she is generally not aware of having lived before.  No one around her, save a singular psychiatrist whom she consults has an inkling of what is taking place in her mind.

More interestingly, Ursula lives through both World Wars.  Born in England, she lives through the eye of the storm of the wars and is very personally involved, whether herself or her family members.  As she sees the mistakes made by the various players, she contemplates often what would have happened had Hitler, for example, not been born or not have arisen to power or had been stopped in his pursuit of power earlier.  This is the bane of her existence and she fights it and fights it throughout her life/lives.

The book is extremely well-written and the idea is creative and bold.  Unfortunately, it does become repetitive.  That’s the point, of course, but for the reader, it borders on tedious, even though many of the lives are quite divergent.  It does bring home the idea, though, that a single event in one’s life can impact not only the trajectory of that life but that of many, many others as well.

Much to think about!