Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton

Title: Ethan Frome
Author: Edith Wharton
Published: 1911 Pages: 181
Genre: Literary Fiction/Classic
Rating: 4.25/5

Set in the early twentieth century in a remote and wintry part of Massachusetts, Ethan Frome is a tragic and heartbreaking story of love and betrayal. At the beginning of Ethan Frome, the unnamed narrator encounters Frome and other townspeople who know Frome and the narrator pieces together the events described in the book. Frome, a quiet man, lives with his sickly wife, Zeena, who is several years his senior. Zeena's cousin, Mattie, also lives with them and she is young and beautiful. Ethan takes quite a liking to Mattie and while Zeena leaves town to seek treatment for her ailment a quiet affair between Ethan and Mattie ensues.

Even though I hosted the Classics Challenge, I have been terrible at reading classics lately. This is the first I've read in months and reading it made me want to toss everything else aside and seek refuge in classics for the rest of the year. Wharton's writing is spellbinding. The story is a simple one and even the writing is fairly simple, but the heartache is palatable in the book. Ethan is such a complicated character torn by his emotions for Mattie and his duty to Zeena. Even though this is such a short book, Wharton's descriptions are so impactful. The sexual tension between Mattie and Ethan is on the one hand subtle and hardly existent, but the richness with which Wharton describes Ethan and Mattie's encounters tore at my heart:

"The sudden heat of his tone made her colour mount again, not with a rush, but gradually, delicately, like the reflection of a thought stealing slowly across her heart. She sat silent, her hands clasped on her work, and it seemed to him that a warm current flowed toward him along the strip of stuff that still lay unrolled between them. Cautiously he slid his hand palm-downward along the table till his finger-times touched the end of the stuff. A faint vibration of her lashes seemed to show that she was aware of his gesture; and that it had sent a counter-current back to her; and she let her hands lie motionless on the other end of the strip" (95).

The above comes from a fairly long passage and I wish I could include it all, but I don't want to give too much of the event away. But even as almost nothing happens in this passage there is still an electricity that can be felt through Wharton's description. Love it. The only other book I've read by Wharton is The Age of Innocence and I don't remember it having quite the same passion (all I remember really is that the ending ticked me off).

If you're looking for a short and engaging classic, I would recommend Ethan Frome. I read this within a few hours, and because I read it for the readathon I'm sure I missed much of the depth, but it is one that I would love to go back to one day. And it certainly makes me eager to read more of Ms. Wharton's works. Any classic that has me wanting more is definitely a good one in my book!

One more thing but since this contains spoilers, don't read on if you haven't read the book. When I closed the covers for Ethan Frome I was struck by how messy the book ended. It seems nowadays that everything needs to be wrapped up in a neat little bow, but I loved how tragically unhappy this book is. Doesn't that sound strange! It almost killed me when Ethan and Mattie drove for that tree in order to be together, but for all three of them to end up in the same household together is almost unbearable. I'm not really sure what to make of any of this--I guess just an observation--but it isn't often that such powerful endings are found in modern literature? Of course they're there, but maybe just not as often? Ramble over.

What was a classic you've read that had you reaching for more?

Hope everyone's having a good week so far!



**Edith Wharton is actually going to be on tour in January via the Classics Circuit! Be sure to check out the fun!

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Title: Rebecca
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Published: 1938 Pages: 386
Genre: Literary Fiction/Classic
Rating: 4.5/5

Can you believe that a year ago I'd never heard of Rebecca OR Daphne du Maurier? The book began to creep up on the blogosphere and to be honest I thought it was a cheesy romance novel. It wasn't until my friend Laura read the book that I became really interested, and I quickly added it to my shelf collections. I was so thrilled when Amanda from The Zen Leaf asked me if I'd be interested in doing a buddy review with her this month.

Summary:
Rebeccabegins when the young narrator (we'll call her Narry) meets a wealthy widow, Maxim de Winter, and an unlikely friendship and courtship ensues. After a few weeks of spending much time together, Narry accepts Maxim's proposal of marriage and they have a quiet ceremony before moving to Manderley. At Manderley, Narry soon realizes that Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who has drowned in a tragic boating accident, continues to haunt the house and the lives of those left behind. Rebecca doesn't haunt in the traditional sense of the word (no ghosts or anything like that), but the magnificence of her character continually overshadows the meek and innocent Narry. Throughout the novel, Narry is in constant battle with Rebecca's legacy and must fight in order to maintain her rightful place as mistress of the great Manderley.

Buddy Review:
Amanda and I conversed back and forth about our thoughts on Rebecca. We split our conversation in half, so you can read the first half over at The Zen Leaf (I recommend going now and coming back as our conversation will make more sense that way). We tried to avoid spoilers wherever possible--you can tell below where I start to get a little cryptic and squeamish in trying not to give anything away! I'll start with the last sentence of my part of the conversation just for transition's sake.

Trish: What did you think about the characters in the book? Any that you'll be remembering for a time to come?

Amanda: I agree that Mrs. Danvers is probably one of the most creepy characters I've ever read! Two scenes with her in specific really made me shudder in horror. I think you're right, all the characters were fantastically drawn, but I think Mrs. Danvers and even Rebecca, despite being dead, were the best. It begs to be compared to modern horror books, which don't seem to realize that creepy can be achieved without a lot of blood and guts. du Maurier left so much to the imagination, and used so many psychological tricks on her characters to make them nightmarish, though realistically so. It was just perfect.

Okay - so I have to ask, because I've harped on this in recent reviews - what did you think about the crime aspect of the novel? I don't want to reveal spoilers, so all I'm going to say is that a crime takes place at one point, and the characters are trying to escape justice, and they feel the crime was justified. Do you believe it was justified, and that they were justified trying to escape punishment? I have to admit, even though normally I would automatically answer NO, I really empathized with these characters and wanted them to go free.

Trish: Well, let me put it this way--when I read your paragraph I immediately thought "crime? what crime?!" Does that basically answer your question. Yes, of course a crime was committed and it was a horrible crime. Can it really be justified? I think you start stepping into some pretty soggy ethical ground when you begin debating whether or not the crime should be committed. Look at us dodging these spoilers--if I hadn't already read the book I'd want to now!

You've asked a really great question, Amanda, and I don't think I have the answer. The moral side of me wants to think that there could have been other actions taken before the crime was committed to have prevented the whole mess that occurs in the second half of the book. In the end, though, I just don't think it would have been quite the same if the characters had all been carted off in handcuffs at the end of the book. Throughout the book Maxim exclaims that Rebecca has won--as if the two were in constant battle during their lives together. In the end, do you think Rebecca did in fact win or have the others gained the upperhand?

Amanda: I think in the end, neither really gains the upperhand. In one way, sure, they got away with the crime - but do they ever really go free? They've lost so much, they have such heavy hearts, and with that abrupt end (Agh!!!), you never really know if they recover. The little hints at the beginning of the book say almost nothing. I suppose, in conclusion, I really thought this book was masterfully pieced together. It's ethically grey, it's romantic and tragic both, and there is no clear conclusion. Not to mention the incredible atmosphere we talked about above. I can't wait to read more by du Maurier! How about you? Any final thoughts?

Trish: I think you sum the book and your feelings up really well. I was a little concerned going into the book that there would be a lot of heavy imagery and that the story would be a little dull (those first two chapters were a beating!), but in a word this book was exciting. At any given point du Maurier only allows you to have just one little piece of the puzzle so that things slowly begin to come together, but she withholds a lot from the narrative in order for readers to make up their own minds with what happens. And like you said, this book really is a psychological thriller. I love that there are still questions left at the end--Rebecca really is a haunting book. I'll definitely be reading more du Maurier in the future and am glad to have discovered her.

Don't forget to check out the "beginning" of our conversation over at Amanda's. And if you've never been over there--shame on you. You'll love both her and her blog. :)

Have you read Rebecca? What did you find creepiest about this book? Do you think psychological thrillers are more frightening than the blood and gore type of thrillers or do those scare the wits out of you, too?

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

Title: Fingersmith
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 2002 Pages: 582
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 4.25/5

Fingersmith begins with a poor orphan, Susan Trinder, who has been taken under the wing of a band of thieves after her mother was hung for murder when she was an infant. When Susan is around seventeen years of age, her adoptive mother Mrs. Sucksby agrees to let her partake in plot to deceive an unsuspecting and rather innocent woman out of her inheritance. Gentleman, the head of the plot will woo and marry Maud Lilly, who is also orphaned and lives a sheltered life with her uncle, and then commit her into an asylum while Susan and Gentleman make off with a small fortune.

I finished this book over a week ago and have since been trying to formulate my thoughts in a coherent fashion. While I really liked this book a lot I keep wanting to focus on some of my more negative feelings. I think those feelings come, though, from knowing too much about the book before going into it. Everyone has raved about this book--calling it the best plot ever devised and twists and turns that will cause your head to spin. Yes, both of those things carry weight, but knowing that going into the book caused me to anticipate too much and so for the final third of the book I felt a little let down. This is why I don't read plot summaries--the less I know about a book going into my reading, the better the outcome for me.

All that said, let's get on to the good bits. I loved the atmosphere Waters created in this book. It is foggy and gritty and seedy and every bit the Victorian London Dickens would have written. There are pickpockets and colorful characters. Mrs. Sucksby is quite the lady (rolls eyes) and Gentleman--well, don't let the name fool you. My favorite characters, though, are Susan and Maud. In many ways the two are perfect companion characters, each highlighting the characteristics of the other in their many differences. The book switches between the two girls' perspectives and so the reader gets a clear look into the motives and emotions of each. I love perspective and point of view and Waters did an amazing job creating a distinct voice for Susan and Maud.

And then there is the writing. For me Waters' writing snuck up on me--in many ways it is simple and nothing to shout about, but the way that she turns a phrase is quite beautiful. She writes with passion and breathes life into her characters. I don't need a lot of dialogue in the books that I read, mostly because I feel like dialogue is often forced, but Waters hits the language of the characters dead on. Their conversations are realistic and she uses this as well as the characters' inner thoughts to show what is going on--she lets her characters develop the book rather than laying it all out by herself. Does this make sense? Some authors just tell you, but Waters shows. It makes sense to me. :P

But an example--taken from the second half of the book narrated by Maud:

"I think she must see it [desire]. Now he has named it, I think it must colour me--I think it must mark me crimson, like paint marks the hot red points, the lips and gashes and bare whipped limbs, of my uncle's portraits. I am afraid, that night, to undress before her. I am afraid to lie at her side. I am afraid to sleep. I am afraid I will dream of her. I am afraid that in dreaming, I will turn and touch her..." (293).

I love the parallelisms in her writing, but more than that the passion. And let me tell you this book is passionate! Nymeth gave this book the Most Beautiful Sex Scene Award and I'm going to have to agree with her completely. Oh my goodness. Prudes don't fear--there is nothing terribly graphic about this book nor the sex scenes. There is a bit of language, but it's sparse and not overly offensive. And more than anything, this book is the epitome of a page turner. Even at 582 pages long this book is a fairly quick read and a rollercoaster of a ride.

One more bit that made me chuckle then be grateful of times changed:

"Fancies, Mrs. Rivers. If you might only hear yourself! Terrible plots? Laughing villains? Stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad? The stuff of lurid fiction! We have a name for your disease. We call it a hyper-aesthetic one. You have been encouraged to over-indulge yourself in literature; and have inflamed your organs of fancy." "Inflamed?" [Maud] said. "Over-indulge? Literature?" "You have read too many books" (447).

Ok, I guess that ended up much better than I thought it would. I do really recommend this book. Besides--everyone else is reading it, why shouldn't you? Even a week and a half after finishing I'm still mulling over the events and characters of this book!

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Title: Catch-22
Author: Joseph Heller
Published: 1961 Pages: 463
Genre: Literature
Rating: 4.5/5

When I finished City of Thieves, I thought it would be fun for Scott to pick out my next book for me. YES this made me incredibly nervous, especially since I was afraid he'd pick a long book just to spite me. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised that he picked Catch-22, and despite every excuse I could think up to read it, I buckled down and had my go. It wasn't an easy go, and I really don't know how to write about this book, so I'm going to use the same type of format as I did for my Middlemarch review. It'll be a long post, but the headers will hopefully help you skim. :)

Summary
Can we just skip this part? Please?? Fine. Catch-22 is about a group of pilots stationed in Italy during World War II. At the beginning of the novel, the men are close to flying all of their assigned missions, but the colonels keep raising the number of missions they must fly until it seems they will never be able to come back home alive. Much of the book is about the main character, Yossarian, and his struggle to cope with the constantly rising number of missions he must fly.

There is a wide cast of colorful characters (more on that later), and while the book is very much about the war, there isn't actually a whole lot about the war in the story. Instead Catch-22 is about the soldiers' experiences and thoughts, their day to day routines, the games they play (mental games), and when words begin to fail me--just plain shenanigans. The book is almost more a collection of anecdotes than a straightforward story with a simple plot. I suppose the best way to describe Catch-22 is to provide Heller's own definition:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. 'That's some catch, that Catch-22,' he observed" (47).

What I liked
This book is a perfect example of why I love reading so much--it challenged me, made me think, made me cry, made me laugh, made me grab my pencil to underline passages, makes me want to start re-reading it again right now. I'll be very honest--I didn't get everything in this book and it would take at least another reading for me to fully appreciate it. But while the book was a bit of work, it didn't feel like work. The writing is surprisingly easy to digest, even though the logic is often circular as seen in the quote above, and sometimes felt like listening to a child who keeps asking "why" to every retort (or in other words, a little obnoxious).

But just when I would get the hang of the sarcasm and senselessness of the story, Heller would throw in a beautiful passage that would just make my heart want to break. A perfect example of this is in the last quarter of the book when Yossarian is roaming the streets of Rome after a pilot had been killed in flight--Chapter 39, The Eternal City. The writing in this chapter is incredibly absorbing and emotional and just plain superb. But then at the end of the chapter, one of the soldiers kills a woman and just when Yossarian thinks the police are coming to arrest the other man, they arrest him for being in Rome without a pass and you want to scream, "You've got to be kidding me!" Really, though, I can't adequately explain why I love this book. I feel like I use the word "rich" a lot in my reviews, but when the shoe fits...

What I struggled with
For the entire first quarter of the book I had no idea what was going on. The story obviously wasn't linear but I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Each chapter focuses on a certain character, but I couldn't keep them straight, couldn't figure out the timeline of events, didn't know if the book was supposed to be funny or just absurd. Going into the book I knew it was a war book, but I kind of thought it was set during Vietnam (impossible given the publication date), but I don't remember any explanation of where the characters were or what they were doing. While by the end of the book I still didn't have a strong grasp on the timeline or just exactly what had happened when and to who, I decided it wasn't the point of the book for me to know and understand all of this. Afterall, war doesn't make sense. The logic isn't always perfect and more times than not it's faulty or subjective. And to me, the way this book is written shows that very well.

The Characters
Oh my gosh. Too many characters. Like I said, each chapter focuses on a different character, and while I got to know some of them, the rest kind of blurred together for me. Milo is one of my favorites--he is the mess officer and sets up different trade routes all throughout Europe and at times has a direct affect on the market as well as certain battles during the war. The Chaplain was another of my favorites, and I think Heller used his character well to show the internal struggles of the war and also how one deals with the insensitivity all around him. Major Major Major just makes me laugh. And then Colonel Korn and Colonel Scheisskopf. And then of course the heart and soul of the story, Yossarian. I want to tell you more, I want to tell you all of the stories, but the delight in this book is experiencing it all for yourself.

Miscellaneous
I guess I don't have much to add here. This review is long enough. But let me throw out a question. Were you assigned to read this? For what class and why do you think this was assigned reading? This is the type of book that I would have loved to read for class and be able to dissect all the little parts. It's the type of book that we could come up with several different answers to the question of what this book is about.

In the end?
So glad I didn't let myself talk myself out of reading this one. It's been sitting on the shelf for years and probably would have stayed there for years longer if Scott hadn't picked it out. I was just saying a few months ago how I didn't have a strong desire to read this book. I know several people who have given up on it halfway through, and I can understand why. But in the end, I was incredibly satisfied. No, I didn't get it all, which is why the demoted rating, but sometimes we don't need to get it all. Please don't let my "I didn't get it" statements intimidate you and discourage you from reading this book. It is highly readable, but I think it takes a little bit of patience not to shoo away that pestering child when there isn't always an answer for the question "why."

Officially my longest review. Does that alone tell you how I felt? :)




**For a balance of opinions (let me know if I missed yours):
Bibliofreak (JT Oldfield)
Books 'N Border Collies (Lezlie)
The Hidden Side of the Leaf (Dewey)
It's All About Me (Joanna)

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

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka

Title: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Author: Marina Lewycka
Date Finished: March 14, 2009 #12
Published: 2005 Pages: 294
Rating: 4.5/5

I had heard good things about this book from Bethany and Corinne, but I didn't expect to fall in love with the characters and story like I did. Isn't that always a pleasant surprise? Plus, I just realized today that this is on the 1001 Books list! I'm on a roll so far this year!

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six" (1). Thus begins A Short History of Tractors. As Nadia, the narrator, and her older sister, Vera, begin to investigate their father's new romance, they realize that Valentina, the Ukrainian tramp, is probably seeking marriage in order to obtain a UK visa. But their father is hell bent on marrying his little Ukrainian strumpet--the one with the marvelous chest. The story is a battle between logical reality and very illogical romance as the daughters watch their father's situation go from bad to worse.

While the premise sounds amusing, A Short History is full of deceptively heavy themes. Lewycka tells an endearing story of two daughters trying to take care of their father, but the daughters themselves don't get along. Nadia begins to discover that while she is a "Peacetime Baby," her sister suffered much in labor camps as a "War Baby" after her parents fled Soviet controlled Ukraine and before they found refuge in the UK. Nadia and Vera have polar opposite views of immigration, social reform, feminine rights, marriage and divorce, education, post-colonialism, really anything where one can take a definite side. Nadia seeks to discover her heritage while Vera does everything in her power to keep the family history in the past.

Even while this slim novel surprisingly contains so much meat, it is Lewycka's writing style that endeared me to the book. While the writing is in many ways simple and fluid, Lewycka also plays a great deal with the language, especially as Nadia's father and Valentina are not native speakers of English. Nadia herself has such a personable voice that beckons the reader to take her side, to like her and trust her despite her continued impatience with her father and her continued disdain for Valentina. In a sense the writing is very intimate, like listening to a best friend's narrative about her childish father.

I don't think I'm doing this book justice. In a few words this book is funny and heartbreaking, endearing and thought-provoking. I'd definitely recommend A Short History, and while it didn't take too terribly long to read, I'll be remembering the characters for a time. This book is my first for the 2009 Orbis Terranum Challenge (Ukraine--although Lewycka was actually born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany).

**Also reviewed by Bethany ~ Corinne ~ Tricia ~ Hedgie ~ Trixie--if you've reviewed it too, let me know and I'll include your link!


ORBIS TERRANUM CHALLENGE 2009
*The Inheritance of Loss - India
*Cry The Beloved Country - South Africa
*Doctor Zhivago - Russia
*Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Ukraine
*Suite Francaise - France
*Graceland - Nigeria
*The Horseman's Graves - Canada
*Septembers of Shiraz - Iran
*Possession - UK

Watchmen - Alan Moore and a Baby Quilt!

Title: Watchmen
Author: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Date Finished: Feb 27, 2009 #9
Published: 1985 Pages: 416
Rating: 4.5/5

Wow. What to say, what to say. I went into this reading with a little bit of excitement and a whole lot of fear. The only graphic novel that I've read is Persepolis, and this, to me, seems far more intense. Just flipping through the pages left me greatly overwhelmed. But what can you do--just take it one page at a time.

I became curious about this book when I first saw the movie preview. I have to admit that I hadn't heard of it before then. But now that graphic novels are all abuzz I started to see it listed more and more. Someone actually suggested it for the "future" classics list last year--I still hadn't heard of it then.

What is Watchmen? Watchmen begins with a murder and then an exile. It appears that someone is targeting heroes (most of whom retired when the US banned vigilantes) and killing them one by one. A few of the old Watchmen group get together at first to save themselves, but it may not just be themselves who are in danger. You know I hate summarizing...and really, the less you know, the better. :)

Several things surprised me about this book. First, I am astounded at the complexity that the author and artist achieved. The book contains twelve volumes, and at the end of each volume is a little snippet of secondary information. Sometimes journal entries, sometimes bits from a retired hero's book, sometimes interviews. But even though those few pages at the end of each volume added needed background information, the actual picture text part is where the depth comes from. The book is multilayered, switches points of view, is at the same time poetic and frightening. Really--compelling.

The most difficult thing I had to overcome while reading the book was my impatience. I couldn't decide if I should read the text first and then look at the pictures or visa versa--it was very difficult for me to take in both at the same time. This sometimes created a choppiness that I didn't really like (because I was impatient for more!), but on the other hand, it was hard not to get caught up in everything single little thing that was going on. One of the things that I loved about the illustrations was how a picture would focus on something small, then the next frame would zoom out, and finally it would zoom enough to get the entire shot. Words are failing me while writing this review...but there is just so much!

The other thing that really surprised me was how interested I was in the content. I don't read action books. I don't like conspiracy. I don't like end of the world type stuff. I don't like unrealistic, science fictiony, hero swoops in to save the day, etc etc. Really--if that dang movie preview hadn't been so fantastic, and if I hadn't seen this book around the blogosphere, I probably would never have given it a second glance. But once I started reading, I was hooked. This was not fast reading for me. Each volume took me about an hour to read (28 pages plus 5 of non-picture text). But, I loved everything about this book except for the story within the story, which I found most of the time distracting and way over my head. :)

Is it for you? I don't know. It is absolutely, completely, utterly different from anything I have ever experienced before. I don't know that it has universal appeal, and there is a little bit of s*x and a lot of gruesome violence. But none of that "Pow!" "Bam!" "Holy Jeepers, Batman!" stuff one might expect from a comic book. Am I even allowed to call it that? Pick it up and read the first volume. You'll get a pretty good idea if you'll like it or not. I know that I'll read it again one day and gain an entirely different perspective.

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In other news...

Last night we welcomed to the world my niece, Emma Cathryn. She's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Both she and my sister are doing great. Below is the quilt that I made for Baby Emma. It took me about a month, but I'm thrilled at how it turned out. I hope Emma will love it one day as well. I machine sewed and hand tied the quilt. It is about 3.5x3.5 feet. The checked pattern is actually little butterflies (I think you can click on picture to enlarge).


And now...off to Hawaii (Oahu) for a week! Aloha Aloha. :)

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Author: Zora Neale Hurston
Date Finished: Feb 21, 2009 #8
Published: 1937 Pages: 184
Rating: 4.25/5

Well, I am happy to announce that my reader is now at zero. YAY!! And the classics challenge sign up is posted. And I'll finish my quilt in the next few days (maybe even today!!). I'm feeling much more settled and caught up. But, I'm going to Hawaii on Saturday...so I'm guessing it will be back to normal when I return (normal=chaos).

I can't believe I haven't read Their Eyes Were Watching God until now. I've read a handful of Hurston's short stories, and I've even seen the movie Oprah produced several years ago, but I never made time for the book. It's only 184 pages long, but the story contains so much depth.

Their Eyes Were Watching God begins when forty-year-old Janie returns to her hometown ragged and worn, wearing overalls and her hair swinging down her back. The town is all a flutter at her return, speculating that her last husband, Tea Cake, has left her and run with her money. Janie sits down with her best friend Pheoby and tells her the true story of what has happened. Her story includes three marriages, a lot of heartache and a lot of love. World's shortest summary, but because of the progressive nature of the story it is difficult to give more without spoilers.

The story is set during the Reconstruction era in the deep south. The characters are African American, so the themes of slavery and oppression and African American folklore are very prominent in the book. I loved the richness of this book and the language that Hurston uses to describe the feelings and emotions of the characters. On the other hand, she also writes in the vernacular of the people. At first this was difficult for me to read and it felt like I was trying to read a different language, but I finally got into the rhythm of the speech and the vernacular provided an extra layer of richness to the text.

Since I don't really want to go more into the actual story, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite lines (both to get a taste of the vernacular and Hurston's descriptions).

Granny speaking to Janie about going out with men:
"Ah don't want yo' feathers always crumpled by folks throwin' up things in yo' face. And Ah can't die easy thinkin' maybe de menfolks white or black is makin' a spit cup outa out: Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah'm a cracked plate" (19).

Janie on her first marriage:
"She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to the falling seeds and said, "Ah hope you fall on soft ground," because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up...She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman" (24).

Janie on Tea Cake:
"She couldn't make him look just like any other man to her. He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom - a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God" (101).

Last line--maybe **spoiler**:
The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see" (184).

Hope everyone's having a happy Sunday!

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

Title: The Woman in White
Author: Wilkie Collins
Date Finished: Feb 8, 2009 #6
Published: 1859 Page: 498
Rating: 5/5 (not perfect, but I'm tired of holding out for perfection!)

I want to know who started the rumor that classics are awful, and dry, and boring, and dull, and dumb. Sure, I confess that I feel some belong in that category (ahem…James), but I loved The Woman in White. I will admit that it took me a little while to get into the nineteenth century language, but once I found the rhythm (and the patience to read slowly), I was swept away by the writing and the story.

The Woman in White is a collection of narratives which are strung together in order to solve a series of mysteries. The narration begins with Mr. Hartright, who is commissioned to teach two young ladies, Marion and Laura, painting. On his way to their home in Limmeridge, Hartright meets a strange, distressed woman who is dressed all in white. He helps her momentarily, and after they part, he finds that she has escaped from an insane aslyum. The rest of the novel works to explore who the woman in white is and how she relates to several other characters and events. The plot is extremely intricate and is unraveled as different narrators give their accounts of the events--thus making it difficult to neatly summarize, but making it a compelling read.

It's difficult for me to express why exactly I enjoyed this book so much. Part of the reason is because I really enjoyed getting little pieces of the puzzle from the experiences of the different narrators. This provided a richness to the story that couldn't have been achieved with an omniscient narrator, especially as I had to learn which characters I could trust to tell the whole story and to find the holes in the stories I wasn't entirely sure I could trust. Also, though, all of the different narrators gave such varied perspectives into the other characters. I got to see the everyone's eccentricities through multiple lenses. And the characters! I won't even go there because it would make this review super long, but great characters.

In addition to the narration style, I simply really enjoyed Collins' writing style. I think I might still prefer Dickens' dry wit and social commentary, but I was constantly dogearing pages and marking passages in this book. Reading this book made me miss grad school tremendously, and I was even tempted to dig out my old notes on a 19th Century Sensationalism course I took (we discussed The Moonstone) and see if I could find some old literary criticism articles I might have kept. This is the type of book that is enjoyable on its own, but I also know that there is so much hidden beneath the plot that could be picked apart. Mostly what I found interesting was the treatment of women in the novel--especially comments made on the correct roles of females and the differences in thoughts and actions that men and women have.

I could babble on and on, but I won't. There were a few lulls for me, especially with the main narration by Mr. Hartright (who I found a little dull), but overall I had a difficult time putting this one down. There are so many twists and turns that just when I thought have it all figured out, I realized that I was no where close to knowing the answers. So, if you're looking for a great mystery to read while curled up by the fire, this is your book. It is one of those pesky classics, and it is really long, but despite all of that I had such a great time with this one that it made me want to dig out some of those other classics on the shelf.

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author: Haruki Murakami
Date Finished: Jan 22, 2009 #3
Published: 2005 Pages: 467
Rating: 4.5/5

When I first decided to read Kafka on the Shore for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge, I didn't know anything about Murakami or the book itself. All I knew was that I had seen it around a lot and that I was intimidated by it. Funny how those prejudices form for no apparent reason. Even though I had a few fears or concerns about how the reading was going to go for the book, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this book is to read. Understanding it might be a different thing all together, but I was swept away by the writing.

In Kafka on the Shore, Murakami weaves together the story of Kafka and Nakata. Kafka is a young boy of fifteen who suddenly runs away from home and finds refuge and new friends at a library. He is fighting to prevent his father's prophesy from coming true--a Oedipal prophesy that Kafka will kill his father and sleep with his mother and sister who abandoned him when he was four. Nataka, an elderly gentleman who lost many of his intellectual capacity during a WWII incident, has the ability to speak with cats and works to find lost cats. One lost cat in particular leads him on a whirlwind scavenger hunt for something, but even Nakata doesn't know what that something is. Each chapter alternates between Kafka's and Nakata's story, and it isn't clear until well into the story how the two are connected with one another. But unbeknownst to each other, they are both searching for the answers and meaning to the same secret--a secret that will free them both.

What a book! There is so much packed into these 467 pages that I'm sitting here in front of the computer screen drawing a blank one what to write about. Where to start? It is safe to say that all my expectations of this book were fully met and every intimidation I was feeling was a waste of time. True, it took me about two weeks to complete this one (stopping for a shorter read in the middle), but Kafka is at once a poetically written book but it is also incredibly accessible:

"Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me. What I've done up till now, what I'm going to do--they know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under the shining night sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heart's pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and I've never given them more than a passing thought before. Not just stars--how many other things haven't I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about? I suddenly feel helpless, completely powerless. And I know I'll never outrun that awful feeling" (Kafka narrating, 135).

Murakami gives us so much to think about in this book, and after finishing I still felt like there were so many pieces of the puzzle that needed to be fit together. But despite the philosophy and theory and deep thinking, this book is also a thriller. I found myself holding my breath at some passages, not knowing what was going to happen, having to keep turning the pages to discover the outcome of the latest conflict. Another element I wasn't expecting in the least, was the magical element. I just found out that this book won the World Fantasy Award a few years back, and I had no idea that I would be encountering magical rocks, strange "concepts" that disguise themselves as pop culture icons, a man who can talk to cats and cats that talk back, fish that rain from the sky--and really that's just the beginning.

So again, Wow, what a book! I would recommend this book, especially if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary and something that will make you think [a lot]. There is some sexual content in the book--and Kafka is fifteen so his hormones are raging, but I didn't find it overwhelming or tastelessly done. All in all, this is a book that will stick with me a for a while as I continue to mull everything over to try and fit those pieces together. And I'll definitely be pursuing more Murakami in the future. Maybe Wind-Up Bird Chronicles?

Others who've also read it (let me know if I missed yours!):
Tanabata; Gautami; C.B. James; Charley; Bellezza; Nymeth; Terri B.

The book concludes my 1% Well-Read Challenge and Japanese Literature Challenge. I hope to eventually do a 2008 Challenge wrap-up posts and cheat to include these. It's just one book, right?? :)

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov and Classics Challenge Completed!

Title: Lolita
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Date Finished: Dec 23, 2008 #71
Published: 1955 Pages: 309
Rating: 4/5

What to say about a book that so many people have talked about or have predisposed notions about? I went into this book with partial trepidation and partial anticipation and ended up being both amazed and revolted--first by the writing and second by the subject matter. Pretty much just as I expected.

Lolita is the story of Humbert Humbert, as told from his perspective, and his passionate love affair with the twelve-year-old Lolita. Humbert, always trying to recreate a childhood relationship, is obsessed with nymphets, and when he first meets Lolita, he falls immediately in love with her. The first sentences has been repeated and repeated, but I'll repeat it again here: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tape, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta." There are so many derogatory things that can be said about Humbert--and it is true that he is a pedophile, rapist, conniving and manipulative man, but there is also something so sad and heartbreaking about his delusions.

This is the type of book that I wish I had read in grad school so that I would have secondary sources and discussion in order to grasp a better understanding of all the intricacies. There is so much social commentary that Nabokov presents to his reader that I can only graze the surface. Not only is the relationship between Humbert and Lolita perverted (both because of the monster that Humbert is and because of the way that Lolita reacts to him), but society itself is heavily criticized. The hotels Humbert and Lolita stay at, the activities and schools that Lolita is involved in, the people they know, the towns they visit--everything is grotesque. Even though Nabokov's words and descriptions are beautiful, I had the feeling that nothing he discusssed was beautiful.

Since I've been reading this book for two weeks on and off, Laura asked me a few times how I was liking the book and I never knew quite how to answer. It wasn't easy reading, partly because of the richness in language, but also because at times I was reading the types of descriptions that would turn my stomach. I often wondered how this book would have been received if a less crafty author had written this story. Would it be discarded as pornography? (hopefully this post doesn't send my keyword searches to the gutter!). But the writing. The writing is the type of writing that keeps me in search of the next book that I can drown in. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I note that every single word is so carefully thought out and well placed. Although it is heavy, it is some of the most delicious writing I have encountered (this whole experience is a big paradox...beautiful/delicious writing about such a dark and horrid subject).

This book is bigger than I am. There are so many things to talk about, and I can't do this book justice. I can see this book as being the type where you can look past the subject matter and get to the meat or not be able to get past the subject. Or get tied up in all of the erudite language and get lost or bored or become entranced with the writing. I don't believe this book is for everyone, and I'm not even sure it was for me, but I do know that is one that I could see myself revisiting years down the road or even seeking out other works of Nabokov. I think this is just one of those anomalies.

They read it too:
Melody; Bellezza; Nymeth; Book Chronicle; Rhinoa; Chris; Ramya
(If I missed yours--as my google reader went crazy when I typed in "Lolita" let me know. But please be patient if I don't get it linked right away as I'll be away from the computer for a few days).

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On to another and lighter topic--this was my last pick for the Classics Challenge, so I am finished!! Yay!!

Lolita
Emma (favorite)
My Antonia
Death of a Salesman
The Swiss Family Robinson (least favorite)
Bonus: Neverwhere

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FINALLY: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! I've been absent, I know. And I have over 300 posts in my reader...most of which will be marked "read." :(

I'm leaving town for the rest of the week to spend the holidays with my husband's family, and I won't have access to a computer. I know things will slow down again after the new year, and I can't wait!!! Best wishes to you all!

Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzkis (And some finished challenges)

Title: Zorba the Greek
Author: Nikos Kazantzkis
Date Finished: Nov 26, 2008 #67
Published: 1946 Pages: 311
Rating: 2.5/5

First of all, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope everyone is well and stuffed to the brim with delicious food.

Zorba the Greek is another one of those books that has been lurking on the shelf for years and years. I'll be glad to move it to the "read" bookshelf!

Zorba the Greek is about a man on his way to Crete to start a lignite mine. Along his way, he encounters a curious and aging man, Zorba, whom he befriends and hires as his foreman. Zorba and the narrator couldn't be more different from one another. The narrator is a scholarly bookworm who buries his nose in such works as Dante's Divine Comedy and is writing a book about Buddah (or maybe that is just the title?). Zorba, on the other hand, is full of life and zest and chastises the narrator for writing and reading about life but not living it. The two characters, in their adventures, learn a lot from one another, and in the end the narrator decides he will continue nosing around in books but will do so with vigor and purpose.

Bottom line? I felt like I was reading the surface of the book the entire time. The language (although this is translated, so not sure how to "review" that) is at times gorgeous, but I never really understood what was going on in the book and what the purpose was. Eeeks! Zorba, while an endearing character difficult not to like, spouts off so much philosophical crud that I was often lost and confused. I guess I just didn't get it. And I had a tough time finding anything about the book online-even the wikipedia entry is short and incomplete. I could definitely use another reading of this book, but not next year--and probably not the year after that either.

A taste of the reading:
"The aim of man and matter is to create joy, according to Zorba--others would say "to create spirit," but that comes to the same thing on another plane. But why? With what objects? And when the body dissolves, does anything at all remain of what we have called the soul? Or does nothing remain, and does our unquenchable desire for immortality spring, not from the fact that we are immortal, but from the fact that during the short span of our life we are in the service of something immortal?" (272).

My head hurts. :P But, finishing this book allows me to cross of two challenges! Yippee!!! Below are my lists. I usually provide links, but I'm really really hungry (because I dropped my hot lunch on the floor today at work), and I don't think anyone actually links from here, so...that's that.

ORBIS TERRANUM CHALLENGE COMPLETE - 9 books, 9 countries--Thanks Bethany!!
Zorba the Greek - Greece
*Half of a Yellow Sun - Nigeria
Swiss Family Robinson - Switzerland
**The God of Small Things - India
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Ireland
Anne Frank Remembered - Netherlands
*The Robber Bride - Canada
A Long Way Gone - Sierra Leone
The Translator - Darfur (Sudan)

Wraping it up for Bethany:
1.) What did you like about the challenge? I loved getting to "visit" so many different countries and "experience" so many different cultures.
2.) What would you like to see change for next year? I like Corinne's idea about having a "database" where we can search for reviews by country for new ideas.
3.) About the rules, or the non-existent rules...did you like that? Yup!! I like rules. :P
4.) Are you going to join us next year? Definitely!
5.) Pretty please give me any suggestions for changes, the betterment of the challenge, or just anything that you would like to see changed for next year. See above about database. Also, an easy link for the Mister Linky would be great, too. Until I finally bookmarked it, I had to do a lot of searching to find it.
6.) Would you like the challenge to be more involved? What if we read books together sometimes? Would that interest you? I like the idea of group books, but unfortunately my schedule doesn't always allow for it. Boo!
7.) would you be interested in helping somehow next year? How would you like to help? I'd love to help with anything! Just let me know. :)

TBR CHALLENGE COMPLETE - sitting on my shelf for an embarrassing amount of time (Thanks MizB)
Zorba the Greek
Emma
Mother of Pearl
A Map of the World
A Rumor of War
The Left Hand of Darkness
*The Robber Bride
*Tender at the Bone
Angela's Ashes
*Snow Crash
All the King's Men

* denotes favorites although most of them were great reads! So hard to define a favorite anyway when they are all soooooo different!

Emma - Jane Austen

Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Date Finished: November 19, 2008 #66
Published: 1816 Pages: 386
Rating: 4.25/5

So, I've kind of noticed that my 4.25 rating is kind of a go-to rating when I really like a book but it just doesn't have that edge (which I can't define). If you do ratings, do you have a difficult time rating books--stacking them all up against one another, rating for the writing as well as entertainment? It's sticky for me and I've thought about just doing away with the ratings, but on the other hand I like having them. Maybe I just need to sit down and define what my ratings mean? Maybe this is a conversation for another post.

Emma. That's what I'm talking about, right? :) Emma is the story of a young woman who has no desire to get married herself, but she loves to play matchmaker to her friends and acquaintances, especially after a particularly successful "match" between her close friend Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston. When her matchmaking endeavors fail between her friend Harriet and Mr. Elton, and she receives criticism from the respected Mr. Knightley, and she becomes tangled up with the strange and elusive Frank Churchill, Emma reevaluates the way that she interacts with others and what she must do to amend the messes and offenses she has created. (Um, really difficult to shortly summarize an Austen novel!)

I really enjoyed Emma. I was kind of dreading it and have put it off for years. Actually, I started it right before grad school, but never picked it back up after the school workload forced me to put it down. Once I did pick it back up, I vowed to take it slowly, and I'm glad I did because this book was really a treat. Austen isn't one of my favorites--I much prefer the darker Bronte sisters (yes, you know I love Wuthering Heights). I was so familiar with the Pride and Prejudice story line, that when I read the book last winter I wasn't very enthralled. I liked it, but it didn't give me the urge to read anything else right away. Now after finishing Emma, I'm excited to visit some of the others that I haven't read. Yes, I'm still intimidated by the language and the fact that it takes me twice as long to read as a regular novel, but overall I did find the reading very easy to swallow (and follow).

I think part of the reason why I liked Emma a little more than I expected was because on some levels I could relate to Emma, the character. There are thing to like about her, but she also definitely has her faults, whereas Elizabeth Bennett is seemingly perfect (other than her pride...and prejudice). Emma sometimes loses sight of what is really important and she is a little bit of a meddler, but I think she has good intentions. She cares about the happiness of people around her, she just doesn't always know how to effectively instill happiness in others--and more importantly that it isn't necessarily her job to make other people happy by "fixing" their lives.

My only complaint, really, with the book is how neatly everything wraps up in the end. Of course I knew what the outcome was going to be (especially having seen the movie Clueless several times in my teenaged years), but to suddenly realize who it is you want to spend the rest of your life with--"duh, I should have known all along!"? I don't think life is really that clean. And certainly the events leading up to Emma's discovery are not necessarily "clean" but really, Jane--can't you write containing the dark sordid details? Why does everything have to fit so well? And what the heck happens to these characters after they are happily married? I guess that's what the modern day sequels are for. :P

I searched and searched for other reviews of Emma--this is what I came up with. Of course, let me know if I've missed yours.
Amanda, Literary Feline, Book Chronicle

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Date Finished: Sept 18, 2008 #54
Pages: 541
Rating: 4.25/5

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time--ever since Adichie was announced as the winner of the Orange Prize last year--so I jumped on the opportunity it read it with an online discussion group this month. For some reason I had it in my head that this was going to be a tough book to get through and I was going to need some motivation, but despite the week it took, I felt like I drank this book down quickly.

Half of a Yellow Sun is an incredibly emotionally moving story of the Nigerian-Biafran War during the 1960s. Oh how I am learning this year! I feel a little sheepish saying I had never heard of Biafra before reading this book and actually looked it up to see if this was a fictional war for the purposes of this story (eeks...don't tell anyone!!!). The book is steeped in post-colonial theory that I can't even begin to cover in this post, but basically the book deals with the after-effects of the Africa carving table and the country lines being drawn willy-nilly mostly by the Europeans (am I being unfair??). When the Igbo people began being targeted and massacred by the Northern Nigerians, they seceded to create their own country, Biafra, which existed for three years.

The book focuses on five main characters and how they and the people around them cope with terrors the war brings. The characters are all so different and Adichie develops them fully and beautifully. Olanna, who is elegant and desired, comes from a rich, educated, upperclass family. She and her lover, Odenigbo, have taken in Ugwu, a local village boy, first as a servent but later almost as their own. Olanna's twin sister, Kainene, makes a colorful contrast to Olanna's coolness with her sharp tongue and attitude. The final member of the cast of characters is Kainene's lover Richard, a British expatriate, who feels as Biafran as anyone else but struggles to prove himself to others because of his whiteness.

Each chapter shows a different side of the story as we see the effects of the war through Olanna, Richard, and Ugwu. Although they are not narrating their own stories, each perspective adds to the richness of the book. I have to be honest, though, that I had the toughest time with Richard's portions of the book. Because Olanna and Ugwu reside in the same house, at times it felt like Richard's story was something completely tangential and separate from the rest of the book. Also, the female characters in this book are so incredibly strong that Richard always seemed like a weak person--not really one who I always admired.

Overall I really liked this book. However, I think I set the bar pretty high with The God of Small Things and I really wanted this one to compare. Unfortunately it didn't for me--but in many ways I think I am being overly critical of the book. I didn't understand why Adichie jumps from the early 60s to the late 60s to the early to the late. I think one jump might have been effective, but by the time I finished the book I had forgotten much of the second portion except some of the foreshadowing effects that were used there. Also, some of the transitions in the book were a little off for me. For example, she would mention someone's death and immediately move on as if it didn't happen. It never really sat well with me and seemed too casual for the subject matter. Finally, I hated the ending. *Sigh* I was really caught up in "how the heck is this thing going to end!" and when it did finish, I couldn't believe that was it. Fell completely flat. BUT, other than those minor minor things, I really liked the book and recommend it wholeheartedly. :)

Don't believe me??...just check out what these guys thought:
Natasha; Gautami; Dewey; Literary Feline; Eva; Raidergirl3; Caribousmom; Jill; Marg
(my Google reader isn't liking me today and I had to dig for a few of these--so let me know I missed yours)

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

Title: In Cold Blood
Author: Truman Capote
Date Finished: August 17, 2008 # 47
Pages: 343
Rating: 4.25/5

It was difficult for me to read this book without my impressions on the movie Capote coloring my reaction. I was so fascinated by the movie and Capote's obsession with the crime and the killers that I had hoped some of that would leak into his writing, but I saw only one or two places where it could be argued Capote might have written himself into the book. Neither here nor there as this book was just as intriguing as the movie--only in a different way.

In Cold Blood is an in depth look at the horrific slaying of the Clutters, a prosperous and well-loved family, in the small Kansas town of Holcomb in November 1959. Four members of the family, the mother and father and their two teenage children, were tied up and shot with a shotgun after what appeared to be a failed robbery (as Mr. Clutter did not keep any money at the house). The family was found the next day by close friends.

Most of the novel moves back and forth between the two killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, as they travel around the nation after the killing and the slow-moving investigation for a crime that seemed to have no motive and absolutely no evidence. I am guessing that when Truman Capote visited Smith and Hickock several times over their years in prison he was able to get very detailed accounts of their lives because most of the book contains narratives from the killers themselves--how they planned the robbery/murder, what they did after the crime was committed, and how they saw the crime in relation to their own belief systems and who they were.

I don't read a lot of crime fiction or even true crime books, but this book was absolutely captivating--once I got into the meat of the story I couldn't put the book down. First and foremost In Cold Blood is a heartbreaking account of how a family with so much promise was senselessly and brutally murdered for what basically amounted to forty bucks. Second, in the book we get an intimate glimpse at the lives of the killers and their motives. In the end, though, I still don't see any justification for what they did--why or how someone could commit such a heinous crime.

From what I understand, Capote revolutionized the concept of the nonfiction novel. I was talking to my college roommate, who received her masters in criminal justice and who read this book a few years ago, and she mentioned that the book was interesting but only really contained the cold hard facts. I guess that is where I see differently--while the book did contain the grisly facts of what happened, it was also written as a literary work. Capote takes special care in his writing to bring the characters alive but to also create a fitting ambiance for the story. While a lot of the book is contained in quotes from interviews and other documents, Capote's writing aptly captures the setting and attitudes surrounding the story. While this book isn't going to be for everyone (and no--it isn't too gory, considering), I think that the writing and what Capote is seeking to do with this work can be appreciated by many.

Did you read it? What did you think? Here are some other reviews:
Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot
Raidergirl3 from An Adventure in Reading

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

Title: The God of Small Things
Author: Arundhati Roy
Date Finished: August 8, 2008 #45
Pages: 321
Rating: 4.5/5

Let's start off being honest. It took me a good 80 pages (the first two chapters) to get into this book. I can certainly see why people are turned off from this book and my potential enjoyment of the book was incredibly questionable. But after that first 80 pages (yes, a quarter of the book!) I fell in love with the writing, the characters, and couldn't put this book down. For me, this is the type of book that comes along a few times a year and keeps me reading in search of the next one. (Yes, I am incredibly stingy with those 5/5 ratings!).

The God of Small Things is the story of how everything can change within the course of a day. Whole lives can be uprooted, fates can be changed, innocence and childhood can be lost, and death can find anyone. The story, oscillating between past and present, centers around twins (separate egg twins), Estha and Rahel, and the events that lead up to and follow the death of their English visiting cousin, Sophie Mol. Roy focuses on how so many intricate but separate details slowly come to fit together and how the ripple of all of these small things combined can still be felt years after.

Because part of the pleasure for me was slowly piecing together the timeline of the book and how everything fit together, I don't really want to give any more plot details than that. Roy gives the basic facts of the story in the beginning chapter, but the frequent jumps between past and present and the movement between so many character descriptions make it difficult to grasp anything solid in the book until later (hence my initial frustration). I'm not sure if after the second chapter I simply got used to the writing style and was able to discern whether I was reading about Estha and Rahel as children or adults or if the writing became more fluent, but I soon found myself absorbed in the story, devouring every word and being consumed by Roy's language.

I simply can't do this book justice with my thoughts--they are too many and I could write about this book forever. Some of my favorite aspects were Roy's descriptions--sometimes funny and more often heartbreaking. Her descriptions are often repetitive, taking ideas and playing with them throughout the novel, and because of that I felt I really knew and understood Estha and Rahel in all of their misunderstood childhood innocence. This repetition also helped me to remember events that were previously mentioned but soon forgotten because of the lack of development at the time. She describes everything in such detail that I could almost feel what the characters were feeling or see what the characters were seeing. And even though only little snippets of the plot were allowed at a time (teasers, really), I found myself wanting more, needing to know what happens despite the fact that I already [mostly] knew at the beginning the outcome of the novel.

In addition the the rich writing style, there was so much food for thought in this book. Roy combines a number of difficult themes that are crucial to the outcome of the story. Most important, for me, was the "Love Laws"--who deserves to be loved and how much and why. Set mostly in India during the late 1960s, untouchability was still prevalent for so many (I don't really know the history of the caste system and from what I understand this has been outlawed now??), and one of the key characters, Velutha is an untouchable. Estha and Rahel love him despite this, mostly not understanding what makes him so different, but the treatment of this special character was at times incredibly difficult for me to read. Other important themes seem to center around Western and Eastern ideals and the incongruities that exist between them. Sophie Mol's half whiteness and the ability for the grownups to immediately love her because she is white (a lot of these incongruities are seen through the children's eyes), Christianity versus Hinduism (and even Western Catholicism versus Eastern Orthodox), democracy versus communism, etc. Plot aside the book had me thinking about so many different ideals and why certain things are the way that they are.

This is a difficult book and has gotten mixed reviews from others, but this book captured my heart and will stick with me for a long time. I was incredibly affected by the book--something that hasn't happened for me since the beginning of the year (particularly with Atonement and The Book Thief) and I am glad that I finally experienced its magic. I hope to re-read this book again one day and could easily do so this weekend and discover so much that I missed. If you haven't read this book and plan to--stick through the first couple of chapters and don't forget to savor every word.

They also read it:
Joy - Thoughts of Joy
Nymeth - Things mean A Lot
Rhinoa's Ramblings
Wendy - Caribousmom
Raidergirl3 - An Adventure in Reading
Fyrefly - Fyrefly's Book Blog
(this book comes up so many times because of the 1001 list, so forgive me if I've missed you and let me know in your comments--but please leave more than just your link for some reason I find it really annoying when all I get is a link with no other commentary--eeks!)