March, 2019--"March is the month of expectation /The things we do not know" (E. Dickinson)

Beginning the month with a huge doorstop: SHANTARAM is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts.

Roberts was a criminal who escaped prison and took refuge in the teeming streets of Bombay/Mumbai. This is a fictionalized account of his adventures.

900 pages and Roberts, despite some overlong sections, still keeps me interested. About a third of the way through, let's see how long he can sustain it.

Currently reading MaddAdam, mostly for completism's sake as I don't like Atwood's sf.

>2 iansales: I liked Handmaid's Tale and loved The Blind Assassin but haven't been thrilled by this trilogy.

I just started The Age of Surveillance Capitalism which is just fascinating already! I’m reading The Glass Bead Game out loud to Chris - we are about halfway done.

>3 justifiedsinner: Same

Got started on Sven Birkerts's The Gutenberg Elegies. Loving it so far.

Also, the Christian Century just published my review of Chigozie Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities: https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/trying-make-amends.

Wrapped SHANTARAM, an epic-length novel that turned out to be an engrossing read.

There are some rough bits--the romantic subplot features some pretty over-ripe passages--but the effect, as a whole, was impressive.

Looking for a fat read to take on vacation or to make a long commute more tolerable?

This could be the one for you.

The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
Audible audio performed by Colin Firth
3.5***

Maurice Bendrix recalls the affair he had with the married Sarah Miles. Bendrix is a writer, and he uses his experience exploring characters’ motivations and emotions to look at the attraction, passion and ultimate love-hate relationship he had with Sarah.

And that push-pull of the love-hate relationship is at the center of this little novel. Greene repeatedly has Bendrix reference it:
“So this is a record of hate far more than of love, …”
“Hatred seems to operate the same glands as love; it even produces the same actions.”
“I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end….It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.”
“My desire now was nearer hatred than love,..”
(All these quotes are in the first 50 pages.)

And this pretty much describes my relationship with this novel. On the one hand I love the way Greene writes, and the way he draws these characters, revealing them little by little, so that the reader eventually forms her own opinion about them. They are complex and conflicted, sometimes obtuse, often wary and prone to prevarication.

On the other hand, I really disliked all of them. I didn’t care about Bendrix and his obsession with Sarah (whether to love her or to hate her). I didn’t understand Sarah’s motivations at all. Always dissatisfied and constantly searching for “something more, ” she seemed to just walk through life, leaving a trail of destruction behind her. And yet, I’m supposed to believe that she was deeply religious – or becoming so – and sought atonement and forgiveness.

Colin Firth does a fine job narrating the audiobook. He’s a talented actor and breathes life into Bendrix’s sad tale of obsession and loss. He almost made me like Maurice!

Reading Memoirs of Madame Vigee-Le Brun, a portrait artist of XVIII century and one of the best female painters in history. She was very talented and very good at the social game as it was played at that time. She was admirable in many ways but you do get the sense that for her only the aristocracy and the artists are real people. Very interesting description of life before and after the French Revolution.

A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle
4****

This is a re-read and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it back in 2001. What a delightful diversion! Mayle's account of his and his wife's first year owning a house in Provence is entertaining, relaxing and inspiring. I love the way he accepts his status as an outsider but tries to understand and join in with the local traditions. A few of these characters are definitely memorable, including his plumber Menicucci, neighbors Faustin and Henriette, and the colorful Massot, who lives alone in a ramshackle mountain cabin with his trio of vicious dogs and feels proprietary about the national forest.

As they stumble from one catastrophe to another during the remodeling of their home, they still manage to find humor in most situations (almost anything is helped with another bottle of wine) and enjoy life in the surrounding villages. I loved his descriptions of the many extraordinary meals, the shops, markets and scenery. I could practically hear the bay of hounds on the hunt, smell the enticing aromas of butter, garlic and truffles, and feel the sunshine on my face. The book inspires me to enjoy life - good food, good wine and the siesta.

I’ve read many more of his books since first reading this one, including a couple of his novels. There are a few that I haven’t read and I’ll definitely add them to my TBR, and I may have to revisit some of those I’ve previously read. I will miss Mayle’s writing, now that he has passed away.

Finished 2 books in last few days.

Lynne Truss's funny take on the use of punctuation, EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES, as well as a collection of essays by Richard Russo titled THE DESTINY THIEF.

Both were excellent reads.

Eats Shoots and Leaves is indeed very funny.

I Was Anastasia – Ariel Lawhon
Book on CD narrated by Jane Collingwood and Sian Thomas.
3.5***

In February 1920 a young woman was pulled senseless from a canal in Berlin. Upon examination at a hospital, doctors found her body riddled with horrific scars. For some time she refused to speak or reveal her name, but ultimately she claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the sole survivor of the massacre of her entire family. Her detractors claimed she was a liar and charlatan, intent only on claiming the Romanov fortune. She became known as Anna Anderson and spent the rest of her life trying to prove her identity.

Lawhon uses a dual timeline / narration in this fascinating work of historical fiction. Anna’s story begins in 1970 and works backwards to 1918. Anastasia’s begins with the revolution in 1917 and moves forwards in time as the family is arrested, moved from location to location and ultimately faces the soldiers tasked with executing them all in July1918.

I remember watching the movie Anastasia starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner with my mother. I’ve also read other books about the possibility that Anastasia survived; most recently The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander. I was fascinated then and remained fascinated by the possibility that one of the Romanov family members managed to survive / escape the slaughter. I was not alone.

Lawhon relies on the reader’s desire to believe as she crafts this story. She gives us an Anna Anderson who shows a steely resolve, courage and tenacity, while simultaneously remaining fragile and wounded. And she gives us an Anastasia who is prone to teenaged dreams and desires, but also pragmatic about the very real and dangerous situation in which she finds herself and her family. Little by little we see the similarities and possibilities that these two stories will fuse as one. We WANT to believe.

I can hardly wait for my F2F book club discussion.

I find the author notes at the end fascinating and enlightening. But DO wait to read them until you have finished the book.

Jane Collingwood and Sian Thomas narrated the audiobook, with Collingwood voicing Anna’s chapters and Thomas taking on Anastasia’s storyline. They do a marvelous job. I particularly liked the youth and innocence of Thomas’s voice as the teenaged Anastasia.

Currently reading The Pyramid, which I'm not finding as engrossing as other books by Golding I've read.

Finished Kurt Vonnegut's TIMEQUAKE.

Haven't read ol' Kurt for years, used to enjoy him back in the 1980s.

TIMEQUAKE is an oddity, its structure a complete shambles, wandering all over the place. But Vonnegut's irascibility and curmudgeonly humor almost make it worthwhile.

Almost.

In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson
Book on CD narrated by the author
4****

Bryson turns his journalistic skills to an exploration of the only continent that is also a country, and an island.

I loved the small details that he included, was enthralled by his adventures (whether in person or through research), and really felt that I got a good sense of the country, the people, the customs and the landscape (varied doesn’t begin to describe the latter aspect). I felt as giddy as a child discovering a new wonder when I read about one obscure fact after another, or imagined myself traversing the outback in a four-wheel-drive vehicle (with TWO extra containers of petrol) with hardly a person, gas station, shelter or convenience store in sight. I could feel the cooling sea breezes, was just as annoyed as Bryson by the flies, delighted in the droll explanations of the locals, was warmed by his descriptions of desert-heat, and longed to witness the marvels of nature he depicted.

It’s a wonderful memoir / travel journal. If Australia weren’t already on my bucket list, it certainly would be now.

Bryson narrates the audiobook himself. I found his delivery rather dry and somewhat slow-paced; he hardly sounded excited about any of the sites he saw. I wound up reading at least half the book in text format, and found I preferred the “voice in my head” to the author’s actual voice on the audio.

Just started Eskimo Folk-tales by Knud Rasmussen. The first three are really prose poetry. These lines made me laugh though:

"It is said, that when the first man died, others covered up the body with stones. But the body came back again, not knowing rightly how to die. It stuck out its head from the bench, and tried to get up. But an old woman thrust it back, and said:

'We have much to carry, and our sledges are small.'

For they were about to set out on a hunting journey. And so the dead one was forced to go back to the mound of stones."

Inside Out and Back Again – Thanhha Lai
Audiobook performed by Doan Ly
5****

Ha is the 10-year-old daughter of a Vietnamese Navy Officer who has gone missing while on a mission. As the Americans pull out of the war and Saigon is about to fall, Ha and her family escape the country via ship. Eventually they gain a sponsor, and the family tries to start over in the USA, a strange land, where the language, food, customs and religion are all different what they are used to.

This middle-grade novel focusing on the immigrant experience is told entirely in verse, and I applaud Lai for how much she manages to convey in so few words. Ha is a strong little girl, focusing on becoming a star pupil at school (as she had done in Saigon), trying to make friends, to learn the customs and traditions of American celebrations like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, trying to NOT get beaten by bullies. Ha watches her mother work a menial job and slowly acknowledge that her husband is likely dead. In one heart-wrenching poem the child admits:
No one would believe me
but at times
I would choose
wartime in Saigon
over
peacetime in Alabama

Still the family perseveres, and makes their way in this new land, celebrating each accomplishment, and giving thanks for the opportunity to succeed. It’s a moving story and wonderfully told. It is at once complex and straightforward, nuanced, and simple.

The author note at the end of the work explains that much of what happens to Ha in the novel actually happened to the author.

The book won the National Book Award, and was also named a Newbery Honor Book.

The audiobook is performed by Doan Ly. She has a wonderful delivery for this book. Great pace and she’s believable as a young girl. I did read at least half the book in text format, however because I was anxious to finish it.

Just finished Mark Fisher's THE WEIRD AND THE EERIE.

A collection of essays on the presence of the eerie in abandoned places or ancient ruins--a sense of absence is involved but also the existence of something that shouldn't be there but is present nonetheless. Invisible, ineffable but indisputably THERE.

He used artists like Tarkovsky, Kubrick and Philip K. Dick to make his point--and those are the kind of touchstones that work for me.

A smart read and I shall be looking for more work by this author who, tragically, took his own life a few years ago.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree – Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
5*****

This young-adult novel tells the story of the “stolen girls” of northern Nigeria, where the militant terrorist group Boko Haram has been burning villages, kidnapping the young girls, and slaughtering the rest of the residents.

The author gives the reader a vivid picture of life in a small Nigerian village. The unnamed narrator is a young girl who excels at school, and dreams of new shoes, going to university, marrying a good husband – the kinds of things most girls dream of. She helps her mother keep the house, chatters with her best friend, and joins in village celebrations centered around the church. Christians and Muslims co-exist and work together for the good of the village and one another.

But when Boko Haram attacks the village and she is kidnapped, taken deep into the jungle to the militant group’s camp, it seems her dreams are shattered.

Forced to adopt a new name, to study to become “a good Muslim woman”, she learns to keep her thoughts to herself. Worried about her family and her friends, she must rely on herself – her intelligence, her prior education, her powers of observation – to survive with the hope of rescue or escape. How difficult to choose between escape and fear for your friends and family. How terrifying to witness your friend beheaded on the spot for refusing to swear allegiance to your captor’s beliefs. How easy it feels to succumb to the promise of better food and better housing that comes with adopting the “proper” demeanor and marrying a fighter. How impossible it is to maintain hope in these circumstances.

Nwaubani’s writing is poetic and lyrical, with vivid descriptions and heart-wrenching scenarios. This is the first of her books that I have read; it will not be the last.

The afterword is written by Viviana Mazza, an Italian journalist who has worked in several countries including Syria and Nigeria. The 2014 Boko Haram raid on a private school in Chibok where 276 girls were kidnapped captured world-wide attention – for a time. Since then most of the world has forgotten, if they ever knew, the names of these women (and many others taken in less widely reported raids). Mazza wanted to report on the continuing war, to document the real stories of women/girls who have been kidnapped by and rescued from Boko Haram. Her writing is more journalistic and suffers in comparison to the raw emotion of Nwaubani’s novel. However, it serves to educate the reader about the real atrocities being committed, the real challenges faced by those who escape Boko Haram. I applaud the courage of these girls and women who have come forward to tell their stories.

Finished HYSTOPIA, by David Means, a complex, intelligent alternate history, where John Kennedy survived Dallas and an experimental drug is being employed to heal traumatized Vietnam vets.

I'd read some of Means' short fiction previously and loved it. HYSTOPIA requires brain power, focus, a good workout for brains gone flabby with commercial fiction.

Recommended.

So here's a weird one, my son who is suddenly interested in anarchist philosophy loaned me a book by Guy Debord, the Society of Spectacle, written in 1967. It's interesting and thought-provoking so far, and sometimes I just sort of marvel at the kind of thing my son, who has never attended college, picks up out of the blue.

I wonder what he'd think of our current age, if he thought things were spectacle-oriented in 1967!

Debord is an interesting guy--I think he eventually committed suicide by shooting himself through the heart, a kind of comment on the world that was evolving. I think he would find the notion of "reality TV" and "fake news" very predictable, almost inevitable. That was part of his despair--nobody likes to be Cassandra...