The News from Paraguay - Lily Tuck

Title: The News From Paraguay

Author: Lily Tuck

Year: 2004

Pages: 248

Rating: 2 out of 5

First sentence: For him it began with a feather. 

The News From Paraguay chronicles the relationship between Francisco Solano, the future President and dictator from Paraguay, and the Irish courtesan Ella Lynch, who follows Francisco back to Paraguay, bearing and raising his children. The story is set amidst a backdrop of war and violence as Francisco, as President, declares war on virtually all the countries surrounding Paraguay.

There is not much to like about this book other than the first sentence. The story is disjointed, and jumps from character to character, never fully explaining anyone or anything. As historical fiction, it never gave me the feeling that the author really understood the time period and country she was talking about; the exploration into Paraguay's War of the Triple Alliance and its relationship with other South American countries, England, and the United States was superficial at best. Most of the scenes were almost immediately forgettable. I am amazed it won an award.

If you have read this book and would like your review listed here, just leave a comment with the link to your review!

Giveaway: The Blood of Flowers!

Title: The Blood of Flowers

Author: Anita Amirrezvani

Year: 2007

Country: USA/Iranian-American

Pages: 377

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

You can find the author's website here. The book was also long-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize.

First sentence: First there wasn't and then there was.

Blood of Flowers is set in 17th century Iran, and describes the journey of a young woman and her mother from a small village to the large Persian city of Isfahan. The pair are forced to migrate to Isfahan after the death of the girl's father leaves them without a dowry for her marriage. They seek out shelter and assistance in the home of a wealthy uncle. The uncle, Gostaham, is a master rug designer and colorist for Shah Abbas. Although his wife Gordiyeh treats the mother and daughter as servants, Gostaham sees a natural rug-making talent in the young girl, and begins a personal tutelage that is usually only reserved for boys.

The fourteen-year-old girl, who is never named in the novel, is a headstrong individual who tends to make rash decisions that often lead to disastrous results. One such decision puts her in a position in which she is forced to accept a sigheh--temporary marriage--to a wealthy son of a horse trader. Throughout the story, she struggles through a personal journey on many levels: arriving in an unknown city, honing her skills as a rugmaker, but most importantly, growing into a greater maturity level while staying true to her inner spirit.

The tradition of rug-making is explored in-depth, and is a delight to read about; Amirrezvani describes this rich tradition in a beautiful, insightful prose. Folktales are interspersed throughout the narrative in a style reminiscent of Arabian Nights, paying homage to Iran's rich oral tradition. One of my favorite aspects of the book is the description of the Isfahan. All of my senses were awakened with the lush descriptions of the city's great square--The Image of the World--and the adjacent bazaar filled with thousands of vendors selling food, spices, carpets, wool, shoes, leather, in a cacophony of food, culture, and entertainment.

Historical fiction is a wide, varied genre, and has its fill of not-so-great books. Blood of Flowers is definitely one of the more original stories in this genre that I have read in a while. This story is about a girl in a male-dominated culture wishing for more independence, as well as a rich description of the arts-centered Persian culture and traditions of the 17th century. The paperback edition includes a conversation with the author, where she hints at another novel exploring Iranian history. I am eagerly looking forward to her next publication! I also greatly appreciated her recommended reading appendix. I love when books include these lists, and while I have read a few on the list, and already have a few mentioned on my TBR list, there were enough new-to-me titles named to get this book lover's heart racing.

"All our labors were in service of beauty, but sometimes it seemed as if every thread in a carpet had been dipped in the blood of flowers." (p.351)

More quotes from the novel can be found in my last Sunday Salon post here.

Blood of Flowers Giveaway

The publisher was kind enough to include an extra copy of the book along with my review copy, so I will be giving away a copy to one lucky reader! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The drawing will remain open until Friday, June 6th, at 5pm EST. You can receive an extra entry--and double your chances of winning-by linking to this giveaway on your blog. Just leave a link in the comment section. Sorry to those outside North America, but this contest is only open to those in the United States and Canada.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See

Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Author: Lisa See

Country: USA

Year: 2005

Pages: 269 pgs.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

First sentence: I am what they call in our village "one who has not yet died"--a widow, eighty years old.

See's historical novel takes place in a remote part of China during the 19th century - a time when all girls had there feet bound at the tender age of seven, marriages were arranged by the time they were ten, and women were confined to the upstairs room of their home for the majority of their life. We meet Lily, daughter of a farmer, and Snow Flower, who is the descendent of a wealthy, respected family. They are paired up as laotong, or "old sames" in a match meant to last a lifetime, a bond that is stronger than marriage. Communicating through nu shu, a secret women's language, Lily and Snow Flower send messages to each other on a fan, sharing their hopes and dreams.

It has taken me a long time to work out a review for this novel. One reason is my currently chaotic life as we prepare to pack up and move out-of-state. But I have also had a hard time putting into words what I feel about this book. On a purely entertainment level, it is a wonderful read. However, Lisa See's American perspective dominates the novel, and I felt she really didn't have a firm grasp of the culture and time period of 19th century Hunan China to write this story. It is not necessarily a book to read for insight into Chinese history and customs, as I fear it may be filled with inaccuracies. For that I would recommend Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang.

The Birchbark House - Louise Erdrich

Title: The Birchbark House

Author: Louise Erdrich

Year: 1999

Country: USA (Ojibwa)

Pages: 244

Rating: 4 out of 5

First sentence: The only person left alive on the island was a baby girl.

The Birchbark House takes place on an island in Lake Superior in the late 1800's. It follows one year in the life of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas. The novel is divided by season, starting with Omakayas' grandmother, Nokomis, building the summer birchbark house on the lakeshore. It then follows Omakayas and her family through the summer (fishing, harvesting the rice), fall (moving to the winter log cabin), winter (battling disease and hunger), and spring (harvesting maple sugar). The reader meets many delightful people along the way, Old Tallow, a strong-spirited, independent older woman who wears a coat woven from a variety of furs; LaPautre, who believes all of his dreams hold hidden meaning and visions; and Fishtail, a quiet, dignified young man.

When writing a story about complex experiences in children's literature, it is easy to oversimplify events, creating a novel that lacks authenticity. The Birchbark House does not succumb to this pitfall. Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa, breaks through the stereotypes present in some other books set during this time period (Little House on the Prairie comes to mind) and delivers an eloquent and powerful story about one Ojibwa Native American family. We learn about the cultural and historical experiences of the Ojibwa (such as the devastating effect of smallpox, the relationship the Ojibwa have with animals and nature, and the difficulty of making it through a winter season without starving), but Erdrich emphasizes themes that cross race, ethnicity, and time: dealing with pesky siblings, coping with the death of a loved one, and searching for your own identity and place within your community. It is a book that would delight almost any age (the devastating death halfway through the novel causes me to hesitate recommending it as a read-aloud book for pre-readers).

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Country: Australia

Year: 2005

Pages: 552

Rating: 5 out of 5

First sentence: First the colors.

From the back cover: It is 1939, Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, adn it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

What I thought: I can not come up with the words to describe this book that would do it justice. It is that good. It is written from the unique perspective of Death, a wry, frank, and compassionate character who sees moments in shades of color: The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness. (p.12). We learn how Death comes to know the book thief and her story. It is an emotionally draining read. 

Towards the end, I was reading parts out loud to my daughter when she was fussy, so that I could calm her down and try to finish the book at the same time. I had to stop, I literally could not read the story out loud without crying. 

There is plenty of foreshadow. I know what is going to happen. I know how it is going to end. And I still sobbed through the last few chapters. Yet, a narrative filled with death and despair, one of the overarching themes is that of hope and love. There is so much love in this story, and overflows from the pages to the reader. 

And, always a favorite for bibliophiles, it is very much a story about words: 

She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. 

Then a chapter.

Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better. 

What good were the words?

She said it audibly now, to the orange-lit room. "What good are the words?"(p.521)

I was particularly captured by the story within a story - the writings and illustrations of Max, the Jew hidden in the basement. His short story, The Word Shaker, could easily be a stand alone children's book. The book is marketed as young adult fiction, but is just as enjoyable and meaningful for adults.

Favorite quotes:

For now, Rudy and Liesel made their way onto Himmel Street in the rain.

He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. 

She was the book thief without the words.

Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain. (p. 80)

I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right. (p.528)

*** A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH***

I do not carry a sickle or scythe.

I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold.

And I don't have those skull-like

facial features you seem to enjoy

pinning on me from a distance. You

want to know what I truly look like?

I'll help you out. Find yourself

a mirror while I continue.

(p. 307)

March - Geraldine Brooks

Title: March
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Country: USA
Year: 2005
Rating: 5 of 5
Pages: 280

First sentence: This is what I write to her: The clouds tonight embossed the sky.

I always hesitate to pick up books that are based on characters from classics, especially a classic as beloved as Lousia May Alcott's Little Women. March, by Geraldine Brooks, tells the previously untold story of the absent father. Fortunately for readers, it does not disappoint.

In this beautifully written novel, we get to experience life from Mr. March's perspective. Told largely through a series of flashbacks after he enlists as a Chaplain for the Union Army, we hear about March's childhood, his life as a young peddler in the pre-Civil War South, how he makes his fortune, and how he loses it. We learn about his dreams, hopes, failures, hopeless idealism, and indiscretions. The writing is exquisite, and sounds like an authentic voice from the past.

Brooks' detailed research of the Civil War era is evident, and I learned about aspects of the war that I had not previously known about, such as what happened to runaway slaves that crossed the federal lines during the war. Referred to as contraband, they worked on plantations taken over by Northerners for a small wage.

Like Alcott, Geraldine Brooks draws largely from Bronson Alcott's life for inspiration. Yet, this is a novel that easily stands on its own. Lovers of Little Women may not like the freedom that Brooks took with the characters, which were portrayed as an ideal family. Through this novel, they are a bit more realistic, and seen in a different light. It is a book about the harsh realities of life; she does not cast Mr. March in the role of a hero.

I promised her that I would write something every day, and I find myself turning to this obligation when my mind is most troubled. For it is as if she were here with me for a moment, her calming hand resting lightly upon my shoulder. Yet I am thankful she is not here, to see what I must see, to know what I am come to know. And with this thought I exculpate my censorship: I never promised I would write the truth. (p.4)

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie

Title: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Author: Dai Sijie, translated from the French by Ina Rilke
Country: France/China
Year: 2000
Rating: B
Pages: 184 pgs.

First sentence: The village headman, a man of about fifty, sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, close to the coals burning in a hearth that was hollowed out of the floor; he was inspecting my violin.

Short Summary: Two city boys, both sons of intellectuals who have been identified as class enemies during the Cultural Revolution, are sent for re-education in a remote mountain village. There they meet the daughter of a local tailor, and discover a hidden stash of Western classic novels.

Is this a Challenge book? I read this for both the Books to Movies challenge, and my own personal Reading Across Borders challenge. Which leads me to a debate I have been having with myself (aren't those the best kinds of debate?), about how to classify this book. I originally have it listed under my China selection. It is written by a man born in China. But, the novel itself was written in French, 16 years after he left China. So, technically, it could also be considered a French novel, right? Yet, it is a story about China. There are so many books out there written by refugees and other immigrants, this thought keeps coming up in my mind. Hmmm. I've decided to keep Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress as my China selection, but may read another book down the line that is translated from the Chinese.

What did I think? On starting this novel, I realized I have read very few books about re-education during the Cultural Revolution, and they have all been non-fiction. Since this is the first time I have come across this topic as the centerpiece of a novel, I was quite excited to dive into the story.

For the most part, it did not disappoint. It is a charming story filled with beautiful imagery and subtle humor. The non-linear storytelling may be a turn-off to some, but I personally enjoy this style. If done well, it keeps the reader on their toes. As the story progresses, however, I started to get the impression that the author began the story almost as an autobiography, introducing a few bits of fiction. But, as the story continues, the fictional aspects grow greater, yet at the same time unrealistic. The resulting effect is a story that feels a bit disjointed and out of tune with itself. However, I still believe the overall power of the story makes it a worthwhile read.

For those who have read it, I am curious what you thought about the ending. That I did not like!

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Title: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Author: Susanna Clarke
Country: UK
Year: 2004
Rating: A-
Pages: 782 pgs.

First sentence: Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.

What I thought: Other than the fact that it was hard to read this book with a belly the size of a basketball, I really enjoyed it. :) It took me two weeks to finish the book, but that is not a sign of weakness. I have heard many people refer to JS&MR as an "adult Harry Potter". I believe that does a disservice to both this novel and the Harry Potter series. Yes, it involves magicians in the UK, but that is where the similarities end. What makes this story unique is the foray into magical theory and a fantastical history of England. Large portions of the book are occupied with debate over the history of magic in England, and how it should be brought back. Don't let this description turn you off, it's a very hard book to describe, but well worth the time it takes to read it. It does become a bit murky in the middle, but last 200 pages really pick up the pace!

Update: Check out the wonderful review of this book by Dewey at Hidden Side of A Leaf, who felt the same way about JS&MN as I do.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland

Title: Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Author: Susan Vreeland
Country: America
Year: 1999
Rating: C-
Pages: 242 pgs.

First sentence: Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself.

I don't enjoy writing reviews about books that I don't like. After all, I'm just one opinion, and by no means an expert. Why slander a book? But, if I only ever posted reviews of books I enjoy, would that be helpful?

I was very disappointed in Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The story is set up as a series of vignettes (many of them were first printed as short stories as it states in the Acknowledgments). As I started reading I wondered how she could publish so many of the individual chapters on their own, while still creating a cohesive novel. My question was answered, as I discovered the novel was not very cohesive at all.

The plot is an interesting one. The first chapter presents us with a modern day owner of a painting he claims to be a Vermeer formerly unknown to the art world. Each chapter traces the ownership of the painting, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, back to the original owner and creator.

However, Vreeland's technique does not seem to work as the painting at the centerpiece of the novel. Very few of the stories flow well together. I was left unsatisfied, wondering what happens to some of the people in each chapter, or trying to figure out how others fit into the overall history of the painting. Large gaps of time seem to be present, and I had a hard time following the chronology and how the painting was passed between owners. Never mind the fact that the last two chapters don't even adhere to her reverse chronology.

Some novels don't have a resolution, and it works. This one doesn't have a resolution, but as a reader I ended up more frustrated and annoyed. It doesn't even have a proper ending. You never return to the original narrator and finds out what happens to the painting in the modern day. Ultimately, for a book of such small size, it took an extremely long time to finish, and I've already forgotten a lot of the details.

Ahab's Wife - Sena Jeter Naslund

Title: Ahab's Wife or, The Star-Gazer
Author: Sena Jeter Naslund
Country: America
Year: 1999
Rating: B+
Pages: 668 pgs.

First sentence: Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.

With this first sentence, Sena Jeter Naslund sets the scene for a historical novel that brings the female perspective to an American classic, Moby Dick. Through the eyes of Una, we are given a glimpse into mid-19th century America, a time when abolition was beginning to gain momentum, whaling was an acceptable trade, and transcendentalism abounded (at least in Una's realm).

Although slow to start, I ultimately enjoyed this epic novel. The first 100 pages or so dragged as you first meet Una as a young girl living in the Kentucky frontier. Raised by a liberal, Quaker mother, and a fundamentalist Christian father, somehow Una grows up agnostic. Her religious differences with her father finally lead her parents to send her to New England, where her Aunt and Uncle maintain a lighthouse on a small island. It is here that the story picks up in its momentum. We follow Una as she experiences the world, partaking in her own adventures, which eventually lead her to Captain Ahab and beyond. The story could be described as adventure, but overall it is a romantic novel. A very well-written one.

Ahab's Wife, as attested by numerous reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, certainly has its flaws. I do not believe that Naslund set out to write a masterpiece, as so many reviewers cite her for failing in this goal. Una herself sometimes does come across as flat and unchanging, and although I really liked her, I found myself drawn more to the outlying characters (Mrs Maynard, Aunt Agatha, Uncle Torchy, Mary Starbuck and the Judge were some of my favorites). Although I felt that overall it worked quite well, famous individuals of the time do make somewhat random appearances--the most glaringly contrived is that of Una's run-in with Henry David Thoreau.

But you know what? I don't care. Simply for the fact that I enjoyed reading this book. It kept me up at nights, a feat which usually only occurs with mysteries and other suspenseful books. I felt the story was truly entertaining. And isn't that what reading for fun is all about? Ahab's Wife is simply a good, well-written story. I initially picked up this book since Naslund will be at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC in September. I definitely look forward to hearing her speak and delving into her latest novel, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette.

A runaway slave Wanted poster on a steamboat in Kentucky (Una's mother tore it down):

WANTED
Large, strong, coal-black $800 male Shifty eyed,
bit-broke teeth on left
Clover-leaf brand left shoulder
Dangerous and Desperate
$50 for information
$500 for return to Sweet Clover Farm
(p.25)

A personal revelation:

Since my time on the Sussex, I have ever feared the weathervane in me. Sometimes I point toward Independence, isolation. Sometimes I rotate--my back to Independence--and I need and want my friends, my family, with a force like a gale. I have in me a spinnaker sail that finds the breeze and leads all my sails in that direction. (p.190)

An interesting cure for that dreaded female 'disease', hysteria:

And very soon I was eating buttered toast, followed by bacon, followed by fish, followed by oatmeal--all to ward off hysteria. And it worked very well. After a while, the judge took up business again.

Fall On Your Knees

Title: Fall On Your Knees
Author: Ann-Marie MacDonald
Country: Canada
Year: 1996
Rating: A
Pages: 508pgs

Amazon describes Fall On Your Knees as a sprawling saga, which I feel is the perfect description for this novel about love, loss, religious fanaticism, guilt, redemption, race and class differences, abuse, and guilt...just to name a few. The reader is quickly captured and enthralled by the Piper family, and despite the emotional landslides and despair that surrounds virtually all of the characters, FOYK remains a page-turner to the very end.

Every character has their own secret, which leads to the further unraveling of the family over time. Materia, the child-bride married to James, lives a life of regret, and struggles to love her first-born child. James constantly struggles to reign in an inner demon: his journey is one that is deeply real and haunting all at once. Their children, each taking a special place in the family, are consumed and affected by the struggles of their parents. It is a story that is filled with darkness and sadness, yet is also humorous and loving. It is no easy feat to pull off such a story, and Ann-Marie MacDonald did an amazing job, especially when you consider the first line of the story: 'They are all dead now.'

The beginning of a secret:
'Everyone agrees to this fiction, and the only people who'd breathe a word of the actual facts to the the illegitimate child are those who are so malicious to begin with that they are easily dismissed as liars. As in truth they are. For the beneficent lie tells the truth about the child, which is "you belong to this community," whereas the malicious truthtellers use fact to convey a lie, which is "you don't belong." This is an imperfect system but it's the prevailing one. And as the years go by the facts get eroded and scattered by time, until there are more people who don't know than people who do.'

A Cape Breton sunset:
'This is the best of summer. Not yet eight in the evening, the sun has brought out the green of the ocean and bathed the sky in a soothing balm of fire. Days like this are so precious. Frances stops and looks out at the sea, which trembles at the caress of the sun.'

Red Earth and Pouring Rain

Title: Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Author: Vikram Chandra
Year: 1995
Country: India
Rating: B+
Pages: 520 Book From: Personal library (used book sale)

Woohoo! Another Chunkster down the hatch! This is a book in which I truly feel accomplished after finishing, as it had previously been so daunting.

Interesting fact: The title of Vikram Chandra's first novel is taken from a Tamil poem that is amongst the oldest available, dating to approximately 200CE. 'Red Earth and Pouring Rain' refers to the first monsoon rains of the season falling on the dry, parched soil of the red-earthed hills.

Red Earth and Pouring Rain
What could my mother be
to yours? What kin is my father
to yours anyway? And how
Did you and I meet ever?
But in love
our hearts have mingled
as red earth and pouring rain

I first heard of Red Earth and Pouring Rain about three ago, when I spotted it on a friend's bookshelf. A few months later, I nabbed a copy for myself at a used book sale, but since then it has been lingering on my bookshelf. I'm so glad I added it to the Chunkster Challenge, as it is a wonderful book.

Red Earth and Pouring Rain bursts with stories in a language that is powerful and emotional. You are quickly introduced to a dizzying array of characters whose stories are slowly woven together as the novel progresses. At the center of this is Sanjay Paraher, for it is he, once a 19th century Brahmin poet, who has been reincarnated as the typing monkey that is relaying these tales to a captive audience. (Yes, you read that correctly--a typing monkey.)

Rounding out the tales, but not necessarily enhancing the storyline, are the adventures of a young Indian's journey across modern-day America. Many of the characters making an appearance in the novel are based on real historical figures that played a part in the colonizing of India. In the fashion of a true storyteller, you never quite know where you're going to end up. But ultimately, Red Earth and Pouring Rain is a story about redemption.

What brought this novel down a notch is the stories of Abhay, the Indian who went to college in America. It was hard on the senses to be transported from epic battles, Rajput chidren born of magic laddoos, and immortality, to somewhat annoying college students that drive while intoxicated and high on cocaine. I assume there is some sort of symbolic connection between the two stories, but I didn't quite catch it.

How to tell a story properly:
A calm storyteller must tell the story to an audience of educated, discriminating listeners, in a setting of sylvan beauty and silence. Thus the story is perfect in itself, complete and whole. So it has always been, so it must be.
-and-
All stories have in them the seed of all other stories; any story, if continued long enough, becomes other stories, and she is no true storyteller who would keep this from you.

The beginning of colonization in India:
Though cities are often destroyed, sometimes they do not vanish, sometimes they become invisible and invade the hearts and minds of the destroyers, who then live forever changed. So the newcomers and the old ones collided and metamorphosed into a thing wholly new and unutterably old, fell into new orbits around new centres of gravity.

The endurance of hope:
Then they were both quiet, and they walked on, their faces set towards the sunrise, night their sanctuary: in this fragile darkness, delivered of the malignant judgements of reason, the past and present are the same, and the future is lit by the radiant light of hope, and the spirits of your ancestors walk beside you; in the trembling of the earth underneath and the movements of indistinct animals is all the pain of the mother, who loves the universe and makes it well.

The Moon is Down - John Steinbeck

“My whole work drive has been aimed at making people understand each other.”
- John Steinbeck

Title: The Moon is Down
Author: John Steinbeck
Year: 1942
Pages: 144 pgs Rating: A-
Book From: Personal library (I commandeered my father's Steinbeck collection)

I love John Steinbeck. I have read a large portion of everything he has written. And I always enjoy reading one of his novels for the first time. This definitely holds true for The Moon is Down.

Continuing on with my March Madness’ John Steinbeck theme read, I just finished this short novel. It is a departure from many of his other novels. First of all, it does not take place in North America, but is located in Europe during a thinly veiled World War II. Written in 1942 at the height of the Second World War, Steinbeck was criticized and attacked for his humanistic portrayal of the German invaders. Was he daring to suggest that Nazi soldiers could be a human being? Well, yes. He does not forgive or condone their actions, but simply tells a story in the way that he does best, portraying people that want to be understood. In this case, that just happens to be occupying soldiers who are part of a larger force that commits horrendous atrocities.

The story has two sides. On one is the courageous story of a small, close-knit community (probably located in Norway), that is occupied by an un-named invader (Germany). It is a story about villagers that do not accept defeat, but silently and diligently continue their fight for freedom. On the other side are the occupying soldiers, mostly young men who have never engaged in any form of combat. As time passes, and their continued presence is abhorred, you witness the soldier’s growing yearning to return home, to be able to walk the streets without fear of reprisals, to eat at a restaurant in which their food is not purposely over salted or spit in. They long for human companionship, kindness and understanding. They strive to escape from the inevitable terror of war-time occupation. It is solely the reader that has the privilege of understanding both sides, as they are destined to never understand each other.

On the inability to fully and completely occupy a village, a person:
Lanser looked at him and smiled a little sadly. “We have taken on a job, haven’t we?”
“Yes,” said the Mayor, “the one impossible job in the world, the one thing that can’t be done.”
“And that is?”
“To break man’s spirit permanently.”
-AND-
“All invaded people want to resist.”

On remembering the horrors of war, and understanding:
Orden said quietly, “A man of certain memories.”
Lanser stopped in the middle of an order. He looked over slowly at the Mayor and for a moment they understood each other. And then Lanser straightened his shoulders. “A man of no memories!” he said sharply.

I will be taking a mini-break from Steinbeck to head back to the much-neglected TBR challenge, and have just started reading Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.

The Grapes of Wrath

Title: The Grapes of Wrath
Author: John Steinbeck
Year: 1939 Pages: 473pgs
Rating: A
Book From: Personal collection (originally my father's)

Grapes of Wrath is a story about ordinary people stuck in hard times. They strive to preserve their humanity in the face of overwhelming odds, and people who view them as little more than wild beasts: “Well, you and me got sense. Them goddamn Okies got no sense and no feeling. They ain’t human. A human being wouldn’t live like they do. A human being couldn’t stand it to be so dirty and miserable. They ain’t a hell of a a lot better than gorillas.” Steinbeck’s epic novel personifies the nature of (in)equality and (in)justice in Depression-era America.

The migration west during the Dust Bowl involved hundreds of thousands of people. John Steinbeck’s style incorporates the plight of one family, the Joads, while interspersing chapters that chronicle the struggle that is taking place on a much larger level. It is stark, real, and extremely powerful.

The Grapes of Wrath is one of the great masterpieces of American Literature. You feel the bitterness and loss as the Joad family looks upon Uncle John’s home for the last time; taste the cherished coffee that quickly becomes a luxury; and feel the confusion and hurt the first time Ma Joad is called an Okie. It is a story that depresses me. But, more than anything, and I believe is true to Steinbeck’s purpose in writing this book, it is a story that makes me angry. It makes me angry to know that so many Americans starved because people were afraid, disgusted, and in denial. It makes me angry because, more than 60 years later, many things have not changed. Only the face of migrant labor has changed, from downtrodden Americans, to downtrodden Mexicans and other immigrants. I first read this book in 10th grade, and at the time it had a profound impact on me, stirring both my love for John Steinbeck and a desire to help those in need. Ten years after I first read it, and it still has a powerful affect on me.

The feeling that there is no possibility for starting over:
“You’re not buying only junk, you’re buying junked lives.”

On religious difference in the labor camps:
The string band took a reel tune-up and played loudly, for they were not practicing anymore. In front of their tents the Jesus-lovers sat and watched, their faces hard and contemptuous. They did not speak to one another, they watched for sin, and their faces condemned the whole proceeding.
-AND-
"Wisht I knowed what all the sins was, so I could do ‘em."

The sound of dissent being stirred:
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Half of a Yellow Sun

Title: Half of A Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Year: 2006
Rating: A-
Country: Nigeria
Pages: 435 pgs. Book From: Public Library

I read Half of A Yellow Sun for my Reading Across Borders challenge. Travelling on from Austria, I hop across the Strait of Gibraltar, trekking across the Sahara to eventually arrive in Nigeria. I arrive in 1960's Nsukka, a small university town in the southeastern, largely Igbo region. Once there, I meet Odenigbo, a Nigerian professor; Olanna, his mistress who is from an elite Nigerian family; and Ugwu, a village boy that is employed as a houseboy in Odenigbo's home.

1960's Nigeria is one of turmoil. This epic story follows the plight of Odenigbo, Olanna, and Ugwu, as they are caught in the middle of the Biafran War. Following discrimination and massacres against Igbo in northern Nigeria, the south-eastern provinces of Nigeria seceeded to form their own nation of Biafra. What follows, both in history and this novel, is a brutal civil war in which hundreds of thousands lose their homes, are forced to flee numerous times, and ultimately face starvation and disease.

As Caribousmom has said, this is not a feel good novel. It is a novel about the realities of a post-colonial nation burdened by distinctions of class, race, and ethnicity. It is a novel about the horrors of war. It is a novel about death and destruction. That Chimamanda portrays such devestating topics with such depth, clarity, and compassion, is a sign of a masterpiece. And ultimately, in many ways, it is a story about love and survival.

On the creation of Biafra and secession from Nigeria:
"Olanna watched them and realized with a sweet surge that they all felt what she felt, what Odenigbo felt, as though it were liquid steel instead of blood that flowed through their veins, as though they could stand barefoot over red-hot embers."
The moment when regular people become refugees:
"Evacuate now! The federals have entered Nsukka! We are evacuating now! Right now! I am going to all the houses occupied. Evacuate now!"... "Gini? What things?" Olanna asked "What will I take?" Baby started to cry. There was the sound again, boom-boom-boom, closer and louder. "It won't be long, we'll be back soon. Just take a few things, clothes." Master gestured vaguely before he grabbed the car keys from the shelf.

On class distinction:
She hoped Professor Achara had found them accommodation close to other university people so that Baby would have the right kind of children to play with.

On war:
He writes about the world that remained silent while Biafrans died...In the United States, Biafra was "under Britain's sphere of interest." In Canada, the prime minister quipped, "Where is Biafra?" The Soviet Union sent technicians and planes to Nigeria, thrilled at the chance to influence Africa without offending America or Britain. And from their white-supremacist positions, South Africa and Rhodesia gloated at further proof that black-run governments were doomed to failure.
-and-
"The world has to know the truth of what is happening, because they simply cannot remain silent while we die."

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Title: Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Rating: A-
Pages: 335

Jacob Jankowsi is ninety. Or ninety-three. He has lived a fulfilling life, yet is plagued by someone else's secret. Her secret is the story of this novel, told from Jacob's perspective. At the age of twenty-three, after the tragic death of his parents, Jacob flees veterinary school at Cornell and hops aboard the train of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Hired to care for the animals, such begins a story of a varied group of people and animals, trying to make their way through the height of the Great Depression. Being kicked off the show means certain homelessness, and possible starvation.

Jacob meets a variety of characters that make the novel such a treat: Walter and Queenie, a dwarf clown performer and his dog; Marlena, one of the star performers; Camel, a baggage stock bloke who has run into some bad luck; Rosie, a loyal elephant and loving to those who treat her right; Rex the toothless lion, and many many more.

The story flows back and forth between the young 1920's Jacob and the present-day, cantankerous and feisty Old Jacob. Sara Gruen does a wonderful job of whisking you away to the world of the circus in the 1920's, and her meticulous research shines through. The animals really make this story, which is why the scenes of neglect become so heart-wrenching (especially if you are like moi, an animal lover). The ending was absolutely perfect, which ends in the present day with Old Jacob, but that's all I'm going to say.

More than anything, this story resurfaced my unfulfilled wish of being able to go back and time and talk to my grandmother about her life. After severe bouts of depression and numerous ECT treatments (when ECT was still very problematic), by grandmother was unable to recover many of her memories. Which also brings me to one of the few minor discrepancies in the novel. My grandmother was diagnosed as bipolar, which she was not (she did have major depressive disorder-the most common mental illness among elderly). August, the equestrian director and Marlena's husband, is described as paranoid schizophrenic. Yet, the term "schizophrenia" only began to be used after 1911, and the subset "paranoid schizophrenia" appeared officially in the DSM III in the 1980's. Small detail, as August very well could have been paranoid schizophrenic, but I'm highly doubtful that the circus manager would have known that in the 1920's. And now I'll push my psychology education back into its little compartment now. :)

My favorite quotes:
"I don't talk much about those days. Never did. I don't know why--I worked on circuses for nearly seven years, and if that isn't fodder for conversation, I don't know what is.
Actually, I do know why: I never trusted myself. I was afraid I'd let it slip. I knew how important it was to keep her secret, and keep it I did--for the rest of her life, and beyond. In seventy years, I've never told a blessed soul."

"The memory of last night htis me like a wrecking ball. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to force my mind to go blank, but it won't. The more distressing the memory, the more persistent its presence."

"Walter and Camel spend the night making the noises men make when they're trying not to cry, and I spend the night punching my pillow up around my ears trying not to hear them."

"August marches off. I turn back to Rosie. She stares at me, a look of unspeakable sadness on her face. Her amber eyes are filled with tears."