Twilight of Avalon - Anna Elliott

Title: Twilight of Avalon
Author: Anna Elliott
Published: 2009 Pages: 426
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

Let me preface this review by stating that my knowledge of Arthurian legends are foggy at best. I've heard of Tristan and Isolde and have seen the movie with James Franco (yum!), but I don’t know the details of the story. I was going into this book with a nearly clean slate. For me this was a positive, but I wanted to note that Elliott’s retelling deviates a little from the most common elements in the Arthurian legends. In this book, Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, had an affair with Arthur’s son Mordred and mothered Isolde.

Twilight of Avalon is a beautifully told story of Trystan and Isolde and the beginning of their relationship during a time of change and tumult. As the story opens, Isolde, the young High Queen of Britain, is mourning the loss of her husband King Constantine. Since the time of Arthur, the kingdoms of Britain have faced constant pressure from the Saxons and with their High King dead the kingdoms need to quickly reunite in order to present a strong front against a possible Saxon invasion. After several days without a High King, Lord Marche finally takes the throne, but Isolde suspects him of murdering Con.

With Lord Marche's rise to the throne, Isolde's position in court becomes questionable, especially after advances come from the new king to be his wife and she is repeatedly facing accusations of sorcery and witchcraft from others in the court. Isolde flees the palace for her safety, and she runs into a small band of outlaws, among them Trystan, who she entrusts with her knowledge of her husband's murder and Marche's traitorous actions. I suck at summaries--this makes the book sound very soap-operay but I didn't find it to be so. Moving on to the part I'm good at--telling you what I liked.

Isolde is a strong character, even in her moments of weakness. Her grandmother Morgan (also Arthur's half sister) has passed her the ability of Sight but more importantly the knowledge of medicines and herbs. Even when her Sight fails her and she is left without being able to see her distant past or future, she relies on her quick-wittedness for survival. Her ability to mix salves and heal wounds not only helps save the lives of others but also her own. The question of whether Isolde is a witch surfaces throughout the book, and even though she does not necessarily have powers, so understands how to use the fears of others as an advantage.

Many of the other characters, though, were sort of a blur to me. Elliott does provide a glossary of names at the beginning of the book, but I forgot who many of them were and had to flip back through the story to see when they had appeared before. This is probably my biggest complaint about the book, and even then it is a minor complaint as the major characters are all well-developed. I enjoyed watching the characters interact with one another, especially as Trystan and Isolde's friendship and trust developed throughout the novel. The further I got into the story the harder it was to put the book down, and even though the plot might have been a tad predictable it was still very engaging.

I would recommend this book to those who like Historical Fiction, Arthurian retellings, or just plan adventurous love stories. The writing, character development, and plot all came together very nicely and evenly in this book, which was refreshing after reading several books that were out of balance in these three things. Elliott's writing is beautiful and if I hadn't been so absorbed in the story I would have a nice quote to provide for you. Twilight of Avalon is the first in a trilogy, so there are several loose ends left in the novel but the ending was satisfying enough to hold me over for a few more months. I didn't get quite enough of Trystan and Isolde in this book (romance speaking), so I look forward to that in the next edition. Hopefully.

For a balance of opinions:

Things Mean A Lot

S. Krishna

The Burton Review

Medieval Bookworm

(Let me know if I missed yours)

Many thanks to Anna Elliott for allowing me to experience her retelling of this legendary love story.

Middlemarch - George Eliot

Title: Middlemarch
Author: George Eliot
Published: 1871 Pages: 838
Genre: Classic/Literature
Rating: 4/5

What to say about a book that I've been working on for a month? Well, for starters--as my mom would say--Wahoo Waterloo! Actually, this book has nothing to do with Waterloo. :) A little personal history of this book: I was assigned to read this book for a sophomore level college course (not sure the course topic other than British Lit--we also read Tom Jones, Pride and Prejudice, and Hard Times). I read about half the book and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. That was probably 8 years ago! I've been intimidated and scared by this book, but I've done it. I've finished. My review will be rambly long, but I'll try to break it up so you can skip around if you choose.

Summary
Middlemarch is an intimate look at the lives of certain citizens of the town of...well...Middlemarch. Eliot does not focus solely on the rich nor the poor but a mixture of the two and everything in between. The characters are servants of religion, doctors, philanthropists, farmers, artists, intellectuals, wives, husbands, sisters, parents, children. I guess it could be said that there are two main characters, Dorothea Causabon and Tertius Lydgate, and although these characters are not love interests as many main female and male characters are expected to be, they are dear friends who help each other grow throughout their trials and triumphs. You know I hate summaries--basically this is a nineteenth century soap opera. As Virginia Woolf said, "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

What I liked
That I finished it? Ha! One of the things that I really appreciate about this book is that Eliot created a small world with complicated characters that I was interested in for 840 pages. Sure there were times that I got bored and wanted to skim through (I didn't!), but I began to care deeply for the characters and what happened to them throughout the novel. I also found Eliot's writing insightful and sincere. I kept a pencil with me at all times and shamelessly marked up my copy of this book. I was always finding something to think about just a little bit more, and as the narrator notes: "I at least have so much to do in unravelling certain human lots, and seeing how they were woven and interwoven, that all the light I can command must be concentrated on this particular web, and not dispersed over that tempting range of relevancies called the universe" (141).

What I struggled with
This paragraph could be quite long if I let it. This was not an easy book for me to read. When starting the book I decided I would read 35 pages a day, which is an incredibly modest amount, but I was rarely ever able to read 35 pages in one sitting. Middlemarch is hands down one of the most tedious and difficult classics I've read. I had to do a lot of re-reading and I had to make sure my mind was in the right mode. If you undertake a reading of this book, give yourself time. Be patient. I think those who have finished can attest that it will be worth the work, but it will be work (unless you are a superhero reader). There were certain plotlines that were absolutely lost on me--mostly the politics and the working relationships. Luckily the more important plotlines (important to me, that is) were easy to follow.

The Characters
Middlemarch has great characters. I think Dickens' characters are still my favorite, but what I really liked about the characters of this book is that they are so deeply flawed. Dorothea has crazy notions at the beginning of the book and falls into a loveless marriage with a "dried bookworm towards fifty" (23). Everyone told her she was crazy, but did she listen? Of course not and she becomes miserable. Lydgate, in my opinion, also marries someone who is not suited for him, and they come into money problems and his medical practice suffers, but he is too prideful to comfort in his wife. But with a ginormous novel, the characters grow and develop. They work through their conflicts (mostly) and become better people. I loved Dorothea--she is a strong and independent woman and I can't help but wonder how much of Eliot is Dorothea (when I think of Eliot I think of an incredibly progressive woman--but my knowledge is limited). Something that could fall in the "Struggles" category is how many characters there are. So many! And with names like Featherstone and Farebrother I got incredibly confused. And the political guys? Forget it! Mostly they were like a bunch of sqwaking hens to me.

Miscellaneous
I'm starting to lose steam! The narrator is omniscient, but every once in a while an "I" will get thrown in (for example the quote above). This really annoyed me as I wasn't sure who this narrator was supposed to be. Mostly the narrator was unobtrusive, though. There are about a million themes running through this book--inheritance and birthrights, money, education, land ownership, medicine, marriage and love (Eliot lived unmarried with George Henry Lewes), politics--and probably the most fascinating to me was the role of a woman. The female characters in this book are so varied in personality and ideals and I loved seeing the different interactions with their male counterparts.

In the end?
I'm glad to have read it. It will go back on the shelf--but this time on the "read" shelf. And boy does that feel good. Will I read it again? I'd love to. Probably not for years, but I know that I achieved a very basic reading of this incredibly complex and rich novel and need to really dig deeper with the next reading. I now wish that I had finished it for class--I'm sure I would have learned a lot. Do I recommend it? Eh... If this were half the size, I'd say yes! If you devour classics, definitely add this one to your list. But as I said before, make sure to keep your patience in check. I'm guessing in the end, though, you'll appreciate this classic as well.

What is your Middlemarch? You know, kind of like the White Whale of reading...?

Date Finished: May 21, 2009 #26

The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison - Pete Earley

Title: The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison
Author: Pete Earley
Date Finished: March 6, 2009 #10
Published: 1992 Pages: 441
Rating: 4/5

I borrowed this from one of my coworkers. Not to be alarmed, but she's a little obsessed with prison books. :) After several months of coercion, I finally gave in and took this one to Hawaii with me. Couldn't wait for the Non-Fiction Five coming in May!

In the late 1980s, Pete Earley was granted permission from the warden of Leavenworth, in Kansas, to extensively interview the prison's staff and inmates for an unprecedented look into one of the more dangerous maximum-security prisons in the nation. Earley focuses on six inmates as well as a couple of guards and the warden over a two-year period of time. He writes about the crimes the inmates have committed, what life is like for them in prison, and how the guards handle the pressure of maintaining peace within the prison walls.

This book is hardcore. I'm not a rubbernecker (HUGE pet-peeve), but this book was like looking at a horrible accident. You just can't look away. I was fascinated the entire way through--learning the stories and what makes some of these criminals tick. One of my roommates in college was a criminology major, so I've heard plenty of stories of crimes pre-arrest, but to learn about what goes on IN the prison was fascinating. There is a fair amount of violence and language in the book, but I didn't feel it was excessive, especially given the topics.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that Earley separated each chapter out by character with a thread of the Cuban prisoner situation running throughout the novel. But, only a partial part of the inmate's/guard's story was told in each chapter, so by the time I got back around to the person, I had forgotten the details. By the end, I could tell you a long list of things that happened, but I couldn't tell you who committed what crime, what happened while that person was in prison, or what happened to them once the book was over (with the exception of a sociopath who spent most of the two years in solitary confinement). I'm not sure if there would have been a better way to present the material, and it could have been because I was on vacation and only reading a little bit here and there, but in the end everyone's story was a little interchangeable.

Do I recommend it? Like I said--it's hard to look away. Isn't everyone just a little bit interested in the criminal mind and how it works? Even just a tinsy bit?

Also reviewed by: Kari and Laura (incidentally also both coworkers, although not the one mentioned above--this book has definitely made the rounds!) Also, Stephanie reviewed this one.

Short Story September #2 and 3: Ellison and Cheever

Since I can't participate in this fall's read-a-thon (insert infinite sadness face here), I'm having my own personal read-a-thon today (hop over to Dewey's site to read the details she recently announced). I was thinking that we would get thrashed by Ike today, but it looks like he's gone to the east of us and all we've gotten is drizzle. Of course it started AS SOON AS I opened my front door to go running this morning. Poo!! So, like Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch of the West), I've been hiding indoors as if the water would melt me. I finished Snow Country and will have my review up later, but I also finished a couple of (or coupla) short stories.


"A COUPLA INDIANS" by RALPH WALDO ELLISON
from Points of View: An Anthology of Short Stories (13 pgs)

Two boys have just finished several boy scout tests in order to earn a few badges are are making their way home. Along the way they encounter a carnival and after that pass by Aunt Mackie's house--a woman who causes infinite fear within the boys: "I was afraid. For though I had seen the old woman about town all my life, she remained to me like the moon, mysterious in her own familiarity; and in the sound of her name there was terror."

The first part of the story is mostly banter between the nameless narrator and his friend Buster, who appears to be much tougher than the narrator. Buster speaks about how in addition to being a boy scout he also wants to be an Indian scout, which is apparently much more fearsome and exciting to Buster than being a boy scout. The two boys discuss the band instruments as they pass the carnival and their dialogue contains a lot of sexual innuendos despite the fact that they are only eleven.

The meat of the story, however, comes when the boys are passing Aunt Mackie's house and the narrator sees a beautiful naked young woman in the window. He is entranced by her and can't take his eyes off of her body and the way that she is dancing alone. The first section was difficult for me to get into, but once the boy sees the woman, the tone changes and while I don't really want to give any quotes from the section (I know I don't have young readers--but still), the way that the boy becomes mesmerized by the female body changes the focus of the story from the fun and play of young boys to the desires of a boy on the brink of manhood. On another note--I highly recommend The Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison (his only novel, but sections of it frequent short story anthologies--especially Battle Royale).

"THE DEATH OF JUSTINA" by JOHN CHEEVER

from The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (12 pgs)

I told Nymeth after reading her post about Cheever's stories that I would pick something up by him--that was kind of a while ago. Out of the two I read today, I think I liked this one better. I really like irony, dark humor, and social commentary and this contained all of that and more. While I don't think it is my favorite story ever, I did get a few little chuckles out of it.

The narrator (Moses) of "The Death of Justina" is your basic suburban Joe Schmo. He's said he's going to give up drinking and smoking, but when no one cares that he did he begins to steal away cigarettes and drinks martinis in the closet. When his boss asks him to write a TV advertisement of a youth elixir, he gives him a rambling garbled mess of blah. And to top it all off, when his wife's cousin, Justina, passes away on their living room couch, he finds out that because of some weird zoning rule she can't legally die or be buried where they live. Oh wait--to TOP it all off, there's really nothing he can do about the ordinance because all of the town council members are out of town.

While there was a little bit of rambliness to the story that I didn't love, it has definitely given me a taste for his work and I'll be looking for more of it. I recently got The Wapshot Scandal at a booksale, so maybe I'll start there instead of going for more short stories (since I do better with actually reading novels rather than short stories). Has anyone read it? Thoughts?

Thanks again to CB for hosting the September Short Story Challenge!

What are YOU reading this weekend? Are you staying indoors like me with a book or are you out eating up the last bits of summer?

His Excellency: George Washington - Joseph J. Ellis: A Review

Title: His Excellency: George Washington
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Pages: 275
Date Finished: August 31, 2007
Rating: 2.5/5

I am so glad to be finished with this book! As you can tell by the title, this book is a biography of George Washington. I read it for the Non-Fiction Five challenge and was a little worried about not being able to finish it (not only by the end of the challenge, but EVER).

His Excellency: George Washington spans the career and personal life of Washinton as a figure in the French-Indian War to his position as Commander in Chief during the Revolutionary War to his presidency. While the information and the life of Washington are fascinating, the writing style of Ellis was difficult to swallow. There were many times when I did not understand what was going on or would have to re-read paragraphs twice. This was especially true when Ellis was discussing the wars; when he moved on to the presidency, the writing was a little more straightforward. Why was it so difficult? Not only did Ellis use a highly elated vocabulary, but his sentences were so complex that it was hard to discern what he was really trying to say. Sometimes his writing was circular--not really leading to anything at all. Bottom line: not accessible to the masses. Result: I only got/understood a fraction of the information.

Recommendation: As I said before, Washington was a very complex and fascinating individual. He is certainly not the man I pictured him being (he did not want to be president, he was quiet, relatively uneducated, disliked conflict, etc etc). But, it did take a tremendous amount of time and will-power to slog through this one. I felt like I was back in grad school, and if not for the challenge I probably would not have finished it. Again, so glad to be done!! :)

Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquirel: A Review

Title: Like Water for Chocolate

Author: Laura Esquirel

Pages: 264

Date Finished: August 22, 2007

Rating: 3/5

This is my first selection for Something About Me Challenge. I have wanted to read it for a few years now and picked it up cheap a few months ago at the local bookfair. Perfect! I love when things work out that way.

But, this book didn't do it for me. It was good and I mostly enjoyed reading it, but the book was a little too superficial. What I mean by that is that the character development was very weak, and after reading the book I didn't have any strong passions about what happened to the characters. I liked the way the book ended, but there just wasn't enough narrative depth. Perhaps there is more symbolic and analytical depth to the book, but if I'm not in a grad course I don't necessarily dig or delve into books the way I probably should (i.e. background research, textual research, analytical research, blah blah blah).

The story is of Tita, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena who has to give up her lover, Pedro, due to a family tradition that the youngest daughter must stay home with the mother and take care of her until she dies. Once Mama Elena makes her proclamation that Pedro cannot marry Tita, he chooses to marry Rosaura, the oldest sister to still remain close to Tita.

What I liked most about this book is its focus on food (which I am addicted to) and the passions it creates within people. There was a little touch of magical realism, which I also really enjoyed. The food that Tita created often reflected her moods and emotions causing people to become violently ill when she was sad or euphoric when Tita was exhibiting the same emotions. For me this is where the depth of the novel comes from, but unfortunately the only place.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides: A Review

Title: Middlesex
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Pages: 529
Date Finished: July 18, 2007
Rating: 4.25/5

So, I'm thinking that maybe I read this book at the wrong time. It had every reason to be fabulous in my book, and I would certainly rank it in the top 5 for this year, but I think that if I had sat down with this book a few weeks ago (when I had copious reading time), I would have ranked it a little higher--but I must be true.

The story is about Calliope/Cal who announces at the beginning of the book that she was born twice, first as a girl and second as a boy. Thus ensues the saga of the Stephanides family over three generations beginning with Desdemona and Lefty in Greece all the way to Calliope's transformation at the age of 14. Cal is a wonderful storyteller--amusing, engaging, endearing, he really wants his story to be told. Thus comes the problem I had with the book--its too freaking long! Again, I'm probably saying this because of my reading time (or lack thereof due to househunting and various travels across Texas--which are not about to end unfortunately).

With that said, this is a great book and I think that it has a little of something in it for everyone. I'm not sure yet if I would recommend it to my mom (for some reason that's how I usually base my recommendations) mainly because of the sexual nature of the novel. I think, though, that it's hard not to take an interest in this matter. Some of the questions that arise are incredibly interesting--and will continue to be hot topics I'm sure. Whether or not gender is inherited or learned, what place to transgendered or transsexual individuals have within society, and on and on. I appreciated the perspective that Eugenides provided, and I will be looking to read more of his work in the future.

Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich

Title: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Pages: 221
Date Finished: June 27, 2007
Rating: 3.75/5

I really don't want this review to turn into a rant about politics or economics or really my personal beliefs, so I'm going to try and be brief (and to the point--*try* being the operative word). I think its difficult, though, to read this book and not have some sort of emotion invoked--whether because you agree with what Ehrenreich writes or because you disagree.

The basic premise of this book is whether or not low-wage employees are getting by with what they earn. The simple answer is "No." In order to test her theories or ideas, Ehrenreich goes "under cover" in three different cities with a list of rules about what she can spend, what types of jobs she can take, and where she can live. She spends about a month in each city, and has about six jobs throughout the book: Maid (x2), Wal-Mart "associate," Waitress (x2), and Nursing Home Aide (I feel like I'm leaving something out).

I found Ehrenreich's narrative easy to read, partially because of her humor (although sometimes potentially offensive) but also because she really gets down to the nitty gritty about her experiences. What I found interesting, though, is that until the last chapter ("Evaluation"), all of the pertinent statistics and facts are hidden away in the footnotes. I am generally a lazy reader and sometimes glaze over footnotes (or sometimes don't read them at all if they are endnotes). I am guessing she chose to do this as to not break up her narrative, but I think a lot of what she is REALLY getting at could be lost to readers (lazy ones at least). In many ways, though, what she writes in the main narrative is scary enough--the living conditions, the managers, the physical effects, the working conditions, etc., etc. In one particular poignant moment, Ehrenreich shows how difficult it is to actually receive aid or help (in terms of housing, food, medical, etc) as she is passed from one agency to the next (all basically dead-ends). I think the book could have used a little more of this than anecdotes from her jobs (although informative and entertaining).

Recommendation: While this book was relatively enlightening for a young, middle-class, white, educated reader (yes...me--although I have had my share of "roughing it" as a Sonic car-hop, telemarketer, and retail scrub to pay my way through school), I felt let down at the end when she didn't give any calls for action. So people aren't getting paid enough--what do we do about it? Raise the wages? Well, what repercussions will that have? Will the cost of living increase causing a circular effect? I'm not an economist, so I really don't know, but I wanted to find this out. Bottom line--perhaps everyone should read this book, but I'm not sure what difference it would make.

*picture from www.greens.org.vt.edu/livingwage/ndcover.jpg