Arubabookwoman's 75

Hello all. I'm thrilled to have discovered LT. I spent most of New Year's day exploring.

Like many others in the group, I read for quality not quantity. I've been keeping a log of what I read since 1977, and I read anywhere from 50 to 125 books a year, depending on the books I choose and other circumstances.

I'm most interested in discovering new books and new authors, (I'm throwing myself at your mercy re the growth of my TBR mountain) and exchanging views about books we have in common.

I plan to visit others and comment freely, and I hope someone will visit me.

I always start the new year with a mammoth book, and my first book for 2009 is Bleak House. Will post again when I've finished.

JANUARY BOOKS
1. Bleak House
2. One Thousand Splendid Suns
3. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
4. Life in the Cul-de-sac
5. Deaf Sentence
6. The Sorrow of War
7. Careless in Red
8. Poor People
9. Hester Lilly
10.The Slynx

FEBRUARY BOOKS
11. Boy A
12. Train to Pakistan
13. The Joys of Motherhood
14. Half a Yellow Sun
15. This Blinding Absence of Light
16. Family of Secrets
17. 2666

MARCH BOOKS
18. Poor Folk
19. Dark Star Safari
20. The Burning Book
21. The New York Trilogy
22. Hottentot Venus
23. Pale Fire
24. Blackwater
25. Headhunter
26. A Box of Matches
27. The Insulted and the Injured
28. The Living End
29. The Tartar Steppe
30. Man in the Dark
31. Timbuktu

APRIL BOOKS
32. Confessions of a Thug
33. The Marrow of Tradition
34. Sapphira and the Slave Girl
35. The Sleepwalkers

Hi Aruba! Welcome to the group and to LT!

Welcome to the group!

To me, one of the best things about LT is discovering both new books and new authors, so I do not think you will have any problem there!

I finally finished book # 1. I blame it on being on LT too much.

1. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853) 818 pp

I don't know how much insight I can add to what has already been written about Bleak House. Nabokov in his Lectures on Literature said, "All we have to do when reading Bleak House is relax and let our spines take over."

As one who has unsuccessfully attempted to read Bleak House several times untill finally succeeding this time, please stick with it if you are discouraged during the first couple of hundred pages. Dickens leisurely introduces enough characters to people several novels by any other writer, and hints at several important plot developments.

The latter part of the book is a page-turning murder mystery. Am I the only one who sees Inspector Bucket as the perfect model for Peter Falk's title character in the Colombo TV series?

The peripheral characters are so vividly portrayed I will not easily forget them. There isn't an author the equal of Dickens in naming his characters: Mr.
Guppy, Mrs Jellyby, Lady Dedlock, et. al.

The endless Jarndyce and Jarndyce Chancery case permeates the book. As a lawyer, I can attest that lawyers such as Mr. Tulkinghorn exist even today (fortunately as the exception rather than the rule.

5 stars

congratulations, aruba, on finishing BH! i like Charles Dickens but could never bring myself to even start this book --- not only is the size daunting, but the title is, well, bleak. i should really try harder...

I haven't read anything by Charles Dickens since...um, I don't know that I have read anything by him! This looks like a good place to start. Thanks, and congratulations for finishing it!

Congratulations on finishing that monster, and thanks for the encouragement! I have tried (and failed) to read Bleak House a couple of times, never getting very far into it. Now that I know that it *does* in fact get better, I'll try to give it a another go. :)

(edited to fix typo.)

A brave start to the year, congratulations! I love Charles Dickens but I'm not sure I'm ready for BH just yet :)

Love Dickens but I've never tried to read Bleak House. I've thought about it several times and usually just end up rereading David Copperfield or Great Expectations instead. But it's very inspiring that you've finished it. Maybe I can tackle it this summer!

Maybe we should start a Bleak House Reading Group thread for over the summer months?

I read and enjoyed Bleak House with the "Group Reads - Literature" gang last year. Having a support group is an excellent way to tackle these longer. more challenging, books.

>4 arubabookwoman: Columbo as Inspector Bucket...I hadn't thought of it, but now I can't get the picture out of my head. :-)

Stasia

Can we wait a couple of months for Bleak House Group Read, by then the other two group reads would be nicely settled, starting three epics on the same date for some reason doesn't sound too appealing :)

#12 Piyush: One of the reasons I suggested doing it over the summer months was because of the already long reads we are involved in, completely forgetting that your summer and my summer may not coincide, lol. I was thinking some time around June?

LOL, summer here lasts from Feb to May. We dont have autumn here so all seasons last for four months each.

#14: I am still thinking June, whatever season it is!

June it is then!
BTW, that is formally the start of rainy season, though we usually dont get more than a few showers in June.

Hmmm I almost picked up a copy of Bleak House when I was home over Christmas. Oooh -- bet it's on Project Gutenburg so maybe I can play too :)

Well thanks Aruba for encouraging us and sharing your thoughts -- I'll be back for more. -- Susan

I'd love to Bleak House over the summer--- if I'm on break I should be able to handle it, lol! And even if I end up taking summer classes things are always easier in the summer. :)

I mooched a copy of Bleak House on Bookmooch and it arrived smelling strongly of mothballs - yuck! I have it in a ziploc bag full of baking soda right now. It smells a little less strongly but I still can't read it. I'm trying to mooch another copy...

Sometimes you can kill book odors with ground coffee. I learned it from a special collections librarian years ago. I tried it once and it did work, though it took a while.

Try putting the book in a ziplock in the freezer for a few days.

Congrats on getting through Bleak House - I, too, am one of those who tried numerous times to get through it and failed - often. However I finally succeeded last year. I must confess that watching the marvelous Gillian Anderson version of Bleak House on PBS had a lot to do with it and though it spoiled the mystery of it it still gave me the oomph I needed to make me stick with the book. Don't know if I'll ever read it again, but at least I've done it once.

>22 Fourpawz2: I almost bought that for 10 euros in Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) -- guess I should have, huh?

edited to fix typos

Re Bleak House:

deebee1--Insofar as Dickens goes, Bleak House is not all that bleak. In fact, the Bleak House of the title is somewhat of a sanctuary for the main characters.

fourpawz2--I have to confess that's what I did too. It helped me know which characters were important during Dickens' leisurely exposition. Although Dickens' plots are exciting and well-paced, for me, it's how he says it that makes the book.

2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
(2007) 365 pp

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a mediocre novel. Although the story is moving and some of the characters are sympathetic, I never forgot I was only reading a novel. I was not enticed into a living, breathing world, inhabited with real people, while I was reading this book.

The author's attempts to inject recent Afghan history into the novel are clumsy. Although we get a feel for how the characters fare under the various governing regimes, it sometimes feels as though every so often the story comes to a complete halt for the author to list who's in power and who's out.

The characters and dialogue sometimes don't ring true. Can you imagine a brutal, authoritarian Afghan husband saying to his meek first wife about his plans to take a second wife: "I knew you wouldn't take this well. I don't really blame you. But this is for the best. You'll see. Think of it this way, Mariam. I'm giving you help around the house..." Then he says, "The way I see it, I deserve a medal."

I give the book 2 1/2 stars (below average but not unreadable)

>25 arubabookwoman: Actually I can. I have friends whose marriage runs like this. He doesn't have more than one wife, but he is self-congratulatory when delivering bad news, he finds some way that he's supposed to look good. In this fellow it's highly successful self-deception. He'd say that and, in the end, truly believe he should get a medal for thinking of this selfless way to alleviate his wife's housework load...

That said, I'll think I'll leave the book alone. Thanks for the good review.

Bleak House is a gem! And so is the 2005 BBC adaptation in which Gillian Anderson plays Lady Dedlock. But don't watch it until after you've read the book :)

Mothballs..? Ewww...

3. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is the first book by Nobel prize winner Oe, written when he was only 23. The plot is simple and the prose is spare. A group of reform school boys is evacuated to a remote mountain village in Japan during World War II. The villagers treat them as less than human, and abandon them when it appears that a plague has broken out.
The book has been compared with Lord of the Flies (it was written before Lord of the Flies). However, in Nip the Buds the boys are sympathetic characters who maintain their humanity after being cut off from civilization.
The relationship between the unnamed narrator and his brother, one of the themes of the book, is poignant and heartbreaking. The novel ends tragically when civilization is once again imposed on the boys.
Oe has stated that he wrote the book for Japanese readers of his own age, i.e. those who came of age during World War II. He said, "All I had to do was let my war experiences, not factual but mental, take their own course." (Note this means experiences as a civilian. There is no combat or bombing etc. in this book).
There is a sequel of sorts called The Trial of Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, which I intend to locate and read, provided it's been translated.
I highly recommend this book, and give it 4 1/2 stars.

#28: Sounds like another good one for me to look for, aruba. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

4. Life in the Cul-de-Sac by Senji Kuroi
(1984) 227 pp

Life in the Cul-de-Sac depicts the lives of 5 "typical" Japanese families living in a cul-de-sac in Tokyo in the mid-1980's: a recently married couple, a family with young children, a family with teenagers and a mother-in-law, a couple nearing retirement, whose children are grown, and an elderly couple.

The book is structured as a series of interconnected stories (in fact it first appeared in serial form). This structure is particularly appropriate since each family is isolated from the other families, and family members are isolated from each other, all to a greater or lesser degree. The characters speculate as to what is going on with the other families, and are often not aware of what is going on with their own family members. Some of their guesses are correct, some not, but there are huge gaps in what each character knows about the other characters. Only we, as the readers, have a clearer glimpse of the circumstances of life in the cul-de-sac as a whole.

As the translator notes, the novel depicts the "fragility of the nuclear family and a pervading sense of anxiety just below the surface of daily life,,," The characters are sympathetic, and their stories are interesting and deal with some of the major social issues prevailing in Japan at that time: rising unemployment, care of the elderly, the crumbling of parental authority, the changing roles of women, and the loss of community.

I highly recommend this book and give it 3 1/2 stars

Ooh, sounds good. I do love those omniscient-reader types of stories.

eta: stupid double posting. sorry!

nip the bud sounds like a very interesting read, thank you for the review.
LT is expanding my horizons, lol!

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (2008) 291 pp

"I'm afraid I could never trust someone who would make irremovable marks in a library book."

Thus states Desmond, a non-P.C. retired professor of linguistics, to Alex, a voluptuous grad student who wants him to supervise her doctoral thesis. When he first meets Alex, he heard her introduce herself as "Axe," a more accurate name for her character.

For, as he is aging, Desmond is going deaf, and the book humorously describes the mishaps caused by his many misinterpretations of what is said to him. His problems with Alex are but one aspect of his adversities. The novel also focuses on his relationship with his elderly father, also deaf (the conversations father and son carry on with each other are hilarious), who insists on living by himself despite advancing dementia. Desmond must also contend with his entirely reasonable wife, whose career is blossoming as his fades.

This all sounds somewhat grim, but if you've ever read anything by David Lodge you know that this is a laugh out loud book. Most of Desmond's problems are caused by his own vanities, and his aging Dad is a hoot. His wife is Mrs. Fawlty to Desmond's Basil Fawlty.

Nevertheless, the overall tone of Deaf Sentence is bittersweet. It is the most serious of the David Lodge books I've read. Desmond's despair over his encroaching deafness and his worries about his father are not understated or trivialized.

I recommend the book both for those interested in a fascinating description of the frustrations suffered by those who are losing their hearing, and for those who enjoy witty humor.

Adding Deaf Sentence and Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids to my ever-growing wishlist. Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks, Deborah; I've added Deaf Sentence to my wish list.

Hello, thought I'd take a look at your reading since you gave my thread a read and promptly put the two Japanese titles on my list to look out for. Glad you dropped in and now I have you starred. Can't keep up with everyone this year, as there are just too many new threads and posts. But glad to add another to my list.

>34 arubabookwoman:
Any writer who creates a character that's compared to Basil Fawlty is probably worth getting to know. I'm putting Deaf Sentence on my wishlist; are there any other books by David Lodge that you would recommend?

Thought I'd add another smell-chaser--laundry dryer sheets work really well for rooms, linen closets--and I've used them with books. There is some oil in the sheets so I put the book in a Ziploc and then put a sheet of wax paper between the bag and the book. The dryer sheets also work really well with cat "smell" that others claim to have when they visit. (Most of my visitors only claim they can smell cats once they've seen one of them--so maybe it's just the view thing in action.)

#38 Alynk--Sorry to be so long in replying. The two other David Lodge books I like the most are Therapy and Nice Work. Therapy about a successful man (hilariously) trying all different kinds of therapies to make his life better. Woody Allen without the angst. In Nice Work a British industrialist and a feminist literature professor must shadow each other as part of a project to bring town and gown together. Of course, the industrialist has never read anything, and the professor thinks workers are exploited. Again, very funny.

Haven't been near the computer for a few days because my husband had to go to Portland for business, and I went with him and spent the whole day at Powell's Books. It was heavenly, and I'm ashamed to say how many books I bought, even on LT. (Including several recent recommendations from 75er's)

I was reading Terrestrials by Paul West and have abandoned it after about 150 pages. The premise is interesting: 2 spy pilots bail out into sub-Saharan Africa after their plane malfunctions. One lands in the middle of a dry salt lake and is temporarily enslaved by salt miners who have no qualms about arbitrarily cutting off the head of someone for no apparent reason. The other dangles in his ejection capsule on a cliff ledge a few thousand feet above the salt lake. Their stories alternate, going on for pages in a stream of consciousness style. It became more and more difficult to read when they were rescued by "the other side" (Russians?), given truth serum, traded for other spies, debriefed etc. etc.
If anyone has read this book or anything else by Paul West, I'd be interested in what you think--should I suck in my gut and keep reading.

Since I bought so many books at Powell's I dropped Terrestrials and began Poor People by William T. Vollmann, which I am finding an excellent read. I should finish that in a day or two and post my thoughts. I've also finished The Sorrow of War and Careless in Red by Elizabeth George which I will post about soon.

6. The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh (1991) 233 pp

A former North Vietnamese soldier returns from the war, and finds himself unable to adjust. His days and nights are spent drinking, wandering the streets, and writing of his experiences. When he disappears, a mute woman whom he has befriended retrieves the manuscript, and the manuscript ends up in the hands of the narrator who describes the writings as follows:

"At first I tried to rearrange the manuscript pages into chronological order, to make the manuscript read like the sort of book I was familiar with. But it was useless. There was no chronological order at all. Any page seemed like the first, any page could have been the last. Even if the manuscript had been numbered, even if no pages had been burned or moth-eaten or withheld by the author, if by chance they were all there, this novel would still be a work created by turbulent, even manic inspiration.

"One became immersed in each sequence, each page. Sometimes the descriptions were compelling. The long-forgotten name of a once-familiar battlefield moved me. The close-up fighting, the small details of the soldiers' lives. The images of former colleagues appearing for just a moment, yet so clearly. The flow of the story continually changed. From beginning to end the novel consisted of blocks of images. A certain cluster of events, then disruptions, some even wiped off the page as if it had fallen into a hole in time. Many would say this was a disruption of the plot, a disconnection, a loss of perspective. They'd say this style proved the writer's inherent weakness: his spirit was willing but his flesh wasn't."

I found the above to be an accurate description of the style and format of the book. The manuscript describes, in a disjointed way, Kien's experiences from his youth, through his enlistment in the army at age 17, his war experiences, and the ten years following the war.

Kien quickly recognizes that war is hell, and that as a soldier he is merely fodder for the soldiers on the other side. Life is constant expectation of death. The surreal intervals between battles--time spent playing cards, smoking cannabis--are well-depicted, and Kien describes in vivid detail the deaths of each of his platoon members. (He is the only survivor).

The sorrow of war, for Kien, is the sorrow of having survived. After the end of hostilities Kien finishes his military service collecting the remains of MIA soldiers in the "Jungle of Screaming Souls." His is also a screaming soul.

Although, based on the author's own description the confusion and lack of continuity of the narrative is deliberate, I found it to detract from the book. Kien was away at war for 10 years, yet in reading the book, the war could have taken place in a matter of weeks or months. The deaths of his platoon members are appalling, but we know virtually nothing of them, other than their names. His doomed relationship with his childhood girlfriend overshadows his war experiences and his life after war, yet we do not learn of the tragic circumstances that caused the rift until nearly the end of the book.

Despite these faults, I recommend it. The book is described as being a novel of the Vietnam war from the viewpoint of a North Vietnamese soldier, and it includes the interesting perspective of a soldier fighting in a civil war against his own countrymen. The Sorrow of War is also a universal anti-war novel. I give it 3 1/2 stars.

The Sorrow of War is currently on Continent TBR for my Vietnam reading this year. Thank you so much for your in-depth review.

Arubabookwoman, you seem to be everywhere tonight!

>34 arubabookwoman:: Thanks! I'll definitely put Deaf Sentence on my tbr list! I might even give it to my sister, who's slightly deaf, which indeed causes stupid mishaps from time to time (she has no problems with boring guys trying to chat her up in a bar--she just turns her wrong ear). I never even read anything by David Lodge (or heard from him), but he sounds pretty hilarious.

>40 arubabookwoman: Thank you! I'm going to keep an eye out on the books you mentioned.

Thanks also for the review of The Sorrow Of War -- a copy is currently in transit to me, and I'm looking forward to it. Well, as much as you can look forward to reading a personal account of a war.

Slightly jealous that you made it to Powell's! Sounds like it's everything I imagine it to be. :)

I am rather a fan of David Lodge, although having listened to one of his books on tape, I realized the discomfort of satirical erotic humour did not sit well with me when spoken. Reading him was much more comfortable. I will seek out your recommend - thanks.

I tried to get through Terrestrials twice. I got to about the same place as you did, the plane crash and the walk through the desert. I also skipped ahead to the alien part trying to figure it out. I gave up. It put me off trying another one of his books but I might, might, pick another one up some day though I'm definitely not in a hurry to do so.

7. Careless in Red by Elizabeth George (2008) 623 pp

I've followed George's Inspector Lynley series from the beginning. In With No One As Witness a catastrophic event caused Lynley to resign from Scotland Yard. In Careless in Red, Lynley begins his recovery, rehabilitation, and possible return to detective work. His partner, Barbara Havers, a favorite character of mine also plays a part in this book.

The book itself is not one of George's better mysteries. The solution to the identity of the murderer was fairly readily apparent long before appropriate in a murder mystery. Some of the characters were unbelievable, and some of the characters had to have 180 degree character reversals to make the plot work. However, if you are following the series, it's important to read it to follow the development of Lynley's character.

If you haven't read any of the series, I highly recommend that you try it. You don't necessarily have to start with the first book in the series, but you should start fairly early in the series. If you like Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, George is similar, although somewhat more wordy.

2 1/2 stars

I am a fan of the Lyley series, but the past several books have not lived up to the earlier books in the series, IMHO. I hope they get back on track soon.

Hi arubabookwoman - I've just found your thread! I'm another David Lodge fan and picked up Thinks earlier tonight when I was deciding what to read next, so it was funny to see that you've just finished Deaf Sentence. I haven't read Therapy yet but enjoyed Nice Work, Changing Places and The British Museum is Falling Down.

And I'm very impressed that you've read Bleak House so quickly... I have several Dickens novels bought in fits of enthusiasm but they never quite make it into my hands!

Msg 47: 'If you like Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, George is similar, although somewhat more wordy.' I can't put those three in the same sentence. I really can't stand Rendell's writing. I've tried several of her books, keep thinking I *should* like them, but I just don't. I, on the other hand, adore PD James and read all the E George I can find.

Funny how things like that work :)

Hi Alcottacre--I agree with you that her later work doesn't live up to her earlier work, but I still keep reading. I especially didn't like the one in which Simon and Deborah were the primary solvers--they are my least favorite characters--too whiney.

In was stunned at the ending of With No One as Witness--couldn't believe it, and was haunted for days. Then I thought that the development could lead to some very interesting future works. Even though the mystery in Careless in Red was not that good, it was interesting to see where Lynley is heading.

Hello cmt--Glad you found my thread, and glad to find another David Lodge fan. Therapy was the first book of his I read, and it is my favorite. If you're looking for another Lodge to read, I'd recommend it over Deaf Sentence.

P.S. I've been following your thread.

Hi Suslyn--I don't think its strange that you love P.D. James and George, but not Rendell. Other than her Inspector Wexford novels, I don't know if you'd really call Rendell's books murder mysteries--more like physchological thrillers.

I also like Minette Walters, Val McDermid, Ian Ranking (and probably some others I'm forgetting). How about you?

#50--Susan I heartily agree...I've tried Ruth Rendell several times, and gave up. I love P.D.James and Eliz George --in fact I think her latest are getting better--more involved, and I don't like some of the happenings, but the writing is splendid.

I have What Came Before He Shot Her on the mountain. Does anyone have any opinions? I have liked George through all of her books, and agree with your response, aruba, to With No One as Witness. I guess that is why I am wondering about What Came Before He Shot Her.

If you liked previous E. George books, and are in love with her characters, you may be angry, disappointed, aghast, and probably surprised at what came Before He Shot Her I don't want to spoil it, but if you're a fan, I'd say read it. You're in a for a ride. I hated it after I finished it, perhaps because I'm a romantic but I got over it because I recognized that it's just fiction, and very well written. And with her subsequent Careless in Red she keeps the story moving forward.

Lisa--I read What Came Before He Shot Her and I liked it very much. I know a lot of people did not like it. That may or may not be because they wanted to see what developed with Lynley, and there is only the merest peripheral reference to the Lynley crew in What Came Before He Shot Her.

What Came Before He Shot Her is an eye-opening story of the life of a 14 year old and how he ended up a murderer at such a young age. I recommend it.

>57 arubabookwoman: I loved Ice House by Minette Walters and A Place of Execution by Val McDermid, the latter ranking among my 'best ever's (at least right now -- that list does change without warning!). Have yet to read Ian Ranking. Just checked my library. I have a mess of Ian's but no Ranking :) Guess I should pick it up if I see one?

I'm reading Grimes' The Five Bells and Bladebone right now and am pretty thoroughly drawn in at page 25.

Tutu and Aruba, thanks. I will read it, but probably won't rush it to the top of the pile. It does not sound as if it matters whether I read it before reading Careless in Red if by chance I get that book in the near future.

Susan, saw your reference to the Grimes on your thread, and now I have added it to the wishlist. I do like those Richard Jury stories.

Lisa...OOps, maybe I wasn't clear enough. I definitely think you should read what came before he shot her BEFORE Careless in Red. The latter is definitely written as a sequel, and while it could stand alone, if you'd never read ANY of the series, it definitely makes more sense if you read these two in order.

Lisa and Tutu--I disagree. I think What Came Before He Shot Her is a stand-alone book--I don't think you have to have read any Elizabeth George before reading it. You definitely have to read With No one As Witness first though. Tutu I'm interested in why you think it's important to read What Came Before first :D.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. I simply think it would be better to read What came before he shot her before reading Careless in Red.

8. Poor People by William T. Vollmann (2007), 297 pp

Vollmann, winner of the National Book Award for Europe Central, spent a number of years travelling the world and interviewing people who by most standards would be considered poor. He asked them the basic question: "Why are you poor?" In this series of essays Vollmann describes the people he met and they tell their stories in their own words. Vollmann stuggles with the questions of what makes some people poor, what are the characteristics of poverty, and how various societies view their poor.

This is not an academic treatise. It does not have a thesis, and does not arrive at any easy answers. It is, however, an engrossing read. More than 100 photographs of the people he interviewed, as well as other scenes of poverty, are included in the book, which makes these people all the more real. As Vollmann notes, too often we prefer to make our poor invisible.

Vollman sometimes goes off on personal tangents that some may find annoying, but I did not find them distracting.

I highly recommend this book.

3 1/2 stars.

Thanks for the recommendation of Poor People. I will read it in the near future.

I finished Hester Lilly by Elizabeth Taylor and The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya and will post about them later today or tomorrow. 10 books for January.

Adding Poor People to my TBR pile!

9. Hester Lilly by Elizabeth Taylor (1954) 216 pp

I picked up Hester Lilly thinking it was a novel. Id so admired Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. Instead it is a book of short stories, and in general I would prefer to read a 1000 page novel over a book of short stories. With a short story, I just begin to figure out what's going on, and it's over.

That said, despite my prejudice, Hester Lilly is an enjoyable read. In the title story, almost a novella, late middle-aged Muriel, fearing her marriage is collapsing, anticipates competition when her husband's young cousin comes to live with them. She is relieved when Hester arrives, dressed improvisationally in "the wedding of out-grown school uniform with the adult, gloomy wardrobe of her dead mother--look(ing) jaunty, defiant and absurd. Every garment was grown out of or not grown into." Muriel has, of course, underestimated the charms of Hester.

In one of the shortest stories, an unlikeable young man, seeking to ingratiate himself is unwittingly exposed by his mother as a fraud. In "Spry Old Character" Taylor revisits the loneliness of the elderly.

The stories are charming, witty, and poignant. I did not feel cheated or puzzled when each ended. I felt I had learned enough of the characters and their situations to be satisfied.

3 1/2 stars

I completely understand your feelings on the short story in general. Seems like Hester Lilly is a nice exception. Thanks.

10. The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya (2003) 297 pp

Tatyana Tolstaya, the grand-niece of Leo Tolstoy, has written an inventive novel of the dystopian future, 200 years after an event known as "the Blast." People live in primitive circumstances, surviving primarily on mice, and most have a "Consequence" from the Blast. Our hero, Benedikt, thinks he is Consequence-free, until one of the "Oldeners" tells him that humans did not have tails before the Blast. (The Oldeners are a limited number of people who were alive at the time of the Blast, and whose Consequence is that they do not age or die).

The town is ruled by the despot Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe, who issues inane decrees. The people fear his decrees, they fear the Saniturions, who come in the middle of the night to "disappear" people who have "the illness," and they fear the Slynx, a monster lurking somewhere outside the town where no one dares venture. The novel is the tale of Benedikt's life, beginning with his lowly origins.

The book's themes are similar to other dystopian novels (think 1984 or Animal Farm), and the apocalyptic setting satisfied my taste for "end of the world" novels.

It was also interesting to read a novel by a descendant of Tolstoy. There is definitely a Russian ambiance to the novel. References to Russian literature and poetry, particularly Pushkin, are also an important element.

Highly recommended.
3 1/2 stars

Since I enjoy 'end of the world ' type books, I will add The Slynx to Continent TBR. Thanks for the review and the recommendation.

whew! I'm slowly working my way through the threads and note that yours has 25 messages since I check in last...
I want to add all your wonderful recommendations to my tbr pile..But, I have to contain myself somehow.
For now, I've added The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh.
I've learned to trust your judgment. I finished In the Lake of the Woods and you were 100% spot on re. this one.

11. Boy A by Jonathan Trigell (2004) 248 pp

Boy A participated in the commission of a heinous crime at the age of 9. Fifteen years later, he is released from custody, given a new identity, Jack Burridge, and sets about to build a life for himself.

He gets a job, makes friends, and gets a girlfriend. He keeps reassuring himself that he is "normal," but the tabloids, knowing only that he has been released, but not his identity or location, scream that the public deserves to know where he is.

The book raises interesting issues about crimes committed by children and about the role the media plays in crime and punishment. It is a very quick read.

Recommended.
3 Stars

The Slynx sounds really good, and I'll have to add it to my list. Thanks for the insightful reviews!

12. Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh (1956) 263 pp

In 1947, with the end of the British Raj, the Indian sub-continent was split into two countries, Pakistan and India. By the summer of 1947, ten million people, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, were in flight. Almost one million were killed.

Train to Pakistan is a fictional account of a small town on the border of the newly declared country of Pakistan. Muslim, Hindu and Sikh have co-existed in the town in harmony for years. When the Partition occurred, and the massive transfers of people got underway, trains bringing Muslims to Pakistan from India, and trains bringing Sikhs and Hindus from Pakistan to India began to pass through the town's railway station.

One day a train arrives filled with mutilated bodies. Then, a train going the other way is similarly attacked and pulls into the station. Within a period of weeks, the Muslims in the town are forced from their homes, forced to leave all their belongings behind. The village Muslims too will be put on a train to Pakistan, and the remaining villagers are being recruited to commit violent acts against Muslims.

This was a disturbing book, narrated in a quiet, matter-of-fact way. The edition I read was an anniversary edition published in 2007, and included Margaret Bourke-White's Time-Life photographs of the mass exodus. Violence was rampant, and both sides killed,stabbed, tortured, clubbed and speared. Many people died of starvation or disease as they were forced to march from their old homes to a new country. The photographs are haunting and not for the weak of heart

Highly recommended
4 stars

Thanks, arubabookwoman; onto the wish list it goes!

Boy A and Train to Pakistan going in the Wishnotebook. I was moved and appalled by your review of Train to Pakistan, can't wait to read the whole book.

message 74, thanks for your excellent description of Train to Pakistan. If you are interested in learning more of the break up of India and Pakistan, you might want to read another great book called Freedom at Midnight. It is incredible and I highly recommend it.

I join the recommendation for Freedom at Midnight. It is not fiction, however. Larry Collins and his co-author Dominique LaPierre have written several excellent books about momentous times in modern history including Is Paris Burning about Paris in 1944.

Lisa
Did you read Is Paris Burning? And, if so, can you recommend it? Freedom at Midnight was so very well written and informative.

Whisper--I'm going to check out Freedom at Midnight. I've read other fiction books about the partition, but no nonfiction.

13. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (1979) 224 pp

This is the story of the life of a Igbo woman, Nnu Ego, from the 1930's to the 1950's. I loved her and I loved this book.

Nnu is the daughter of a wealthy Igbo chief living in the country, who is married off sight unseen to an Igbo man living in Lagos. When she meets him, she is appalled at his status as a laundry boy, seemingly content with his job washing a British woman's underthings.

Nnu quickly learns that marriage and family life in Lagos is not like marriage and family life in the village. "That type of family awareness which the illiterate farmer was able to show his wives, his household, his compound, had been lost in Lagos, for the job of the white man....Few men in Lagos would have time to sit and admire their wive's tatoos, let alone tell them tales of animals nestling in the forests, like the village husband, who might lure a favorite wife into the farm to make love to her with only the sky as their shelter, or bathe in the same stream with her, scrubbing one another's backs."

Nnu endures her husband's mistreatment of her, his failure to provide for her and her children, his taking of another wife, all the while believing in her value as the mother of children. She is determined, despite dire poverty and opposition from her husband, that her children be educated. To and extent, she succeeds, but their education moves the children a step further from the traditional values of Nnu's village, the values she grew up with.

In her old age, Nnu is left to wonder how, by the time her children grew up, the values of her country, her people and her tribe would have changed so drastically to the extent that a woman with as many children as she had, could face a lonely old age and maybe a miserable death all alone.

Highly recommended.
4 1/2 stars

WOW! What a fantastic review!

Great line up of books, great reviews, and a dangerous place to be if trying to contain/downsize TBR lists - I will definitely add the Emecheta book. Thanks...

Great line up of books, great reviews, and a dangerous place to be if trying to contain/downsize TBR lists - I will definitely add the Emecheta book. Thanks...

Really enjoying your book choices, Deborah! I've added Train to Pakistan to the tbr list. Thank you!

>74 arubabookwoman:: sounds like a great book. Just read a review recently of a couple of non-fiction books about Partition that both sounded good so I may try to package them up into a mini-theme. Onto the list.

#80: I read The Joys of Motherhood last year, looking for another of Emecheta's books at my local library and not finding it. I liked it as well, but perhaps not as much as you did. Have you read any of her other works?

I haven't read any of her other works, but I intend to. Actually the book of hers I had on my wish list was The Rape of Shavi, but I never came across it, and found The Joys of Motherhood first.

The Joys of Motherhood was written after the Biafra war, although Nnu's story ended 10 years before that war. I found it interesting that there is practically no discussion of tensions between Yoruba and Igbo in the book, although I suppose that is because Emecheta's focus in the book is on the personal rather than the political.

I did immediately pick up Half a Yellow Sun, hoping to get some insight into the Biafra War. I will write about Half a Yellow Sun soon.

enjoying reading your reviews arubalbookwoman!

87: I read Half a Yellow Sun last year. I will be interested in seeing your thoughts on it, abw.

>79 Whisper1: Whisper,

Sorry for the delay. I have not had much time for LT in the past week. I did read Is Paris Burning a long time ago. It was the first book of Collins and LaPierre that I read, and it lead me to read Freedom at Midnight. Unfortunately, I only remember that I thought it was well written and a gripping story of the liberation of Paris and cannot give you a review or even a synopsis. I guess I should reread it!

Thanks for taking time to respond to my question Lisa
I'll read Is Paris Burning in 2009.

Freedom at Midnight haunts me to this day. I read it after going to the movies to see Ghandi. Ben Kingsley was incredible in this role.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi_(film)

At the time, my husband joked that it cost $4.00 to see the movie and $400 for all the books I bought afterward.

14. Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006) 541 pp

I was a teenager during the Biafran War. I remember the photographs of the starving children, and wondering, "Why?"

This book does not answer that question, but it does immerse us in the lives of ordinary Biafrans living through this horror: the senseless slaughter of Igbo by Yoruba, the people forced from their homes in the middle of the night, as the war front closes in on them, the strafing and bombing directed at civilians, which never seem to let up, the lack of food and medicine, the process of death by starvation and preventable illness.

A significant chunk of the novel takes place prior to the war. In my view, much of this portion of the story reads like a dime store romance or a soap opera. I wish it was as truthful and well-written as the war sections.

Overall a worthwhile read.

3 stars

I've added Train to Pakistan and The Joys of Motherhood to my list, which just keeps growing! Thanks for the excellent reviews.

#92: I agree with your take on Half a Yellow Sun - to me it was more like a soap opera. I know there are a lot of people who enjoyed this book more than I did, but I would have much preferred to know more about the war than the soap opera shenanigans that comprise a good deal of the book. If I gave stars for books, I probably would have come in with 3 just as you did.

arubabookwoman: Hi, I came over here because you commented on my thread... Yikes, you've read all sorts of appealing books, dangerous territory...

Poor People goes on my wish list. Sigh. I need to find shorter books.

47+: I couldn't get through What Came Before He Shot Her, really hope it's not necessary before the latest, have read the rest of the series from the beginning. I do like Ruth Rendell, especially writing as Barbara Vine. Val McDermid was new to me.

67: Instead it is a book of short stories, and in general I would prefer to read a 1000 page novel over a book of short stories. With a short story, I just begin to figure out what's going on, and it's over.

I have the same reaction. I generally take awhile to get into a story, and then I want character development, not an end.

15. This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun (2001) 195 pp

This novel is based on real events, and is drawn from the testimony of a former inmate of Tazmamart prison in Morocco, where a group of young cadets is imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in which they unwittingly participated. Their cells are so small they cannot stand upright or stretch out full-length, and they are kept in constant darkness. They subsist on water and "starch," which they are given once a day. One by one, they begin to die, each in a unique and horrific manner (poisoned by thousands of roach eggs, stung by hundreds of scorpions, let your imagination do the rest).

Each cadet has a function in the loose society that is formed in the prison, and the narrator's function is that of storyteller: he relates the stories of books he has read and movies he has seen to keep the minds of the other prisoners occupied: "My friends, I would like your attention and absolute quiet, because I am going to take you to America in the 1950's." Thus begins a surreal narration of A Streetcar Named Desire. The other prisoners can hardly believe the scene of Marlon Brandon on his knees bellowing, "Stella! Stella!"

He can contemplate a single word, "coffee," for an entire day, ending in a "palace where a king or prince will not get out of bed until he has had two cups of a good brisk arabica imported from Costa Rica, roasted by Italians, and prepared by a Neapolitan chef."

Despite the grim inhumanity of the subject matter, the small details of the prisoners' endurance prevent the novel from being totally bleak. I highly recommend this book.

4 1/2 stars

>96 arubabookwoman:, That sounds like it will break my heart, but onto the pile it goes!

#96: Sounds like a very powerful book. On to the Continent it goes, abw.

This Blinding Absence of Light was one of my favorite books from ?2007. I'm glad you "enjoyed" it, too.

Cripes, abw - that does sound bleak!! I seem to be reading such dark books recently - but with your very convincing review, I will have to give it a try.

I have to agree with kiwidoc and allthesedarnbooks, this book sounds bleak and heart breaking,but, your review is so great that I think I have to read this one.

Onto the tbr pile This Blinding Absence of Light goes. Why am I never drawn to 'happy' books??

16. Family of Secrets The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces that Put It in The White House, and What Their Influence Means for America by Russ Baker (2009) 495 pp

In this book, Russ Baker, an investigative journalist, reexamines the history of the Bush family in the context of the seminal events of the last 50 years: The Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy assassinations, Watergate, the Bush family connections with the Saudis, oil and gas intrigues, cronyism, the Iraq war, and Katrina. Baker's investigation has uncovered a myriad of new facts and documents, many of which raise questions about the conclusions previously reached during official examinations of these events.

While Baker posits plausible alternative theories in light of some of the new facts he has unearthed, most of the questions he raises are unresolved. In his afterword, Baker states that his investigation is a work in progress and is still on-going.

However, Baker states, his investigation has given him a "new understanding" of how power works in America. His conclusions:

-Presidents have a lot less power and independence than he had assumed. Party affiliation is not a major factor in this regard.

-Initiating reforms or standing up to powerful interests can invite retribution of a kind he had not imagined. Presidents are subject not only to pressure, but also to entrapment, blackmail or worse.

-Constant recourse to the 'lone wolf' theory to explain assassinations and comparable national traumas is empirically challenged.

Baker recognizes that there will probably be efforts made to marginalize some of the facts and inferences he makes in this book. He states, "Time and again, there has been a rush to bury inquiries into the most perplexing events of our time, along with a determination to subject dissenting views to ridicule. And the media weren't just enabling these efforts; they were complicit in them--not least by labeling anyone who dared to subject conventional views to a fresh and quizzical eye as a 'conspiracy theorist'."

This is an important book to read if you are concerned about the current state of the United States of America.

3 1/2 stars

abw...

Thanks for this review. I'm anxious to read the book.

17. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (2008) pp
review to follow

Your comment on my thread prompted me to check yours out--I wish I'd found it earlier! Consider me a lurker from here on out.

>105 arubabookwoman:: looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

>17 suslyn: -- ooh, can't wait to see what you have to say about 2666. I'll be lurking...

2666 is on my TBR - but the size of it all has stopped me from picking it up. Look forward to your thoughts and plan to adjust TBR position on hearing your opinion!!

17. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (2008) 898 pp

This seems to be one of those books that no one is neutral about--people either love it or hate it. However, regardless of your ultimate reaction to the book, it is a remarkable read. I loved it, and I think that even if you are one of those who may ultimately end up hating it, the journey it takes you on, the rollercoaster ride, makes it well worth the time invested, even if you don't know or like where you ultimately arrive.

The novel consists of 5 books, and the introduction to the novel states that Bolano originally intended each as a stand-alone book to be published separately. I would not have been satisfied if I had to read each book separately, and wait a while for the next book to appear. I would have felt that each book in and of itself was in some way "unfinished." However, after I read the entire novel, I thought that it would have been possible, though not necessarily better, to present the books in a different order. That's one game I've been playing with myself since I finished the novel--what if it started with Book 4 instead of Book 1, etc. etc.

Book 1, The Part About the Critics, is about 4 European academics, friends and lovers, who specialize in an obscure and reclusive German novelist, Archemboldi. When they hear that Archemboldi has been sighted in Santa Teresa, Mexico, they go there to track him down.

In Book 2, The Part About Amalfitano, an Argentinian exile literature professor at Santa Teresa University ponders his life, and worries about the safety of his daughter, as the number of women missing or murdered in Santa Teresa increases.

In Book 3, The Part About Fate, an American reporter sent to Santa Teresa to report on a boxing match finds himself involved with the drug and criminal underside of Santa Teresa.

In Book 4, The Part About the Crimes, Bolano makes us feel the enormity of the deaths of more than 200 women in Santa Teresa. Some have described this chapter as gruesome. The litany of deaths is certainly appalling, but the description of the murders is more clinical than gruesome, which makes the deaths and the victims all the more real.

Book 5 is supposed to tie this all together, but suddenly you're in Prussia between the World Wars with a one-legged veteran of World War I and his one-eyed wife, and their young son, who is most at home underwater among the seaweed.

By the end of Book 5, the mysteries are somewhat cleared up, but there is still much to reflect on, and that's what a good book is for, isn't it.

4 1/2 stars.

18. Poor Folk by Dostoevsky 120 pp

This is Dostoevsky's first novel and I read it as part of a year-long attempt to read or reread all of Dostoevsky's novels. If I'm to succeed, I better get moving.

abw..
What a great review of 2666. This is already on my tbr pile, but your review prompts me to move it up the ladder.

19.Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (2003) 472 pp

In Dark Star Safari, Paul Theroux documents his trek by train, boat, car and foot from Cairo to Capetown. I read it as part of Reading Globally's Africa segment in February.

Theroux visits the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambibique and South Africa. Rather than a travelogue, the book is more a story of Theroux's personal journey, hitching rides on decrepit steamers on Lake Victoria, escaping the murderous "shifta" on the Bandit Road in northern Kenya, and other adventures, as he revisits his past (he spent many years in Africa as a young man), and muses on how much Africa has changed, usually for the worse in his opinion. He mourns that beautiful Thikka has become "a congested maze of improvised houses and streets thick with lurking kids and traffic and an odor of decrepitude."

Some of his colleagues from his time in Africa have risen to positions of power, including Apolo Nsibambi, prime minister of Uganda, and he is able to visit with them. Many of these former colleagues decry the fact that young, educated Africans often choose to leave Africa. I found the abandonment of Africa by its educated children to be a recurring theme in some of the African literature I read or read about on Reading Globally.

Theroux visited the Peace Corps school he helped establish as a young man, and found it a shambles, with broken windows, dirty floors, and empty library shelves. He is very critical of most aid efforts in Africa, comparing them to the efforts of Mrs. Jelleby in Bleak House. He comes across many foreign aid workers who seem clueless about their function in Africa and what, if anything, they are accomplishing, as they crisscross the countryside in their brand new, white SUVs. (He is particularly curmudgeonly about these aid workers because they are frequently reluctant to pick him up as a hitchhiker).

Theroux also describes an evening at a literary salon in Cairo with Naguib Mahouz, a side trip to Harar, Ethiopia, where Rimbaud forsook civilization and poetry and became a trader in arms and elephant tusks, and numerous other diversions.

At times, it was difficult to keep the countries and towns separate, since they share so many of the same problems and geographically they can be similar, as they morph into one another. The various tribal peoples, although living in physical proximity with each other, seem for the most part to remain suspicious of each other.

In sum, this was a fascinating read.

3 stars.

20. The Burning Book by Maggie Gee (1983) 298 pp

I did not like this book, but I am not sure whether that is because it is not the book I was expecting, or because it isn't a good book.

I picked it up believing it to be a book about life after a nuclear holocaust, or possibly about the devastating effects that Hiroshima and Nagasaki have had on late 20th century life. Why did I think that? Although I had never before read Maggie Gee, I had heard her described as a science fiction or speculative writer, and the back of the book said this was a work "of extraordinary imagination and power, a novel that addresses the theme of nuclear destruction in a way that is poignant and unforgettable but that finally offers hope...."

What did I get? A book about four generations of a disfunctional family (on both sides no less). I started skimming the book about half way through, and maybe I wasn't reading it closely enough to see if its focus ultimately changed, but I don't think so. So on the one hand I have a huge sense of "buyer's remorse" about this book.

SPOILER SPOILER The end bears the finest of connections to the nuclear theme--but by then I didn't care. END SPOILER.

On the other hand, maybe the book in and of itself is in fact not a worthy read. Citizen Kelly posted on another thread the 8 rules Kurt Vonnegut has posed for writing a good book. The Burning Book violates at least three of these rules:

1. It does not start as close to the end as possible. (It goes back 4 generations).

2. It does not give the reader as much information as possible as soon as possible. (Information is provided little by little by little by little--and ithen s repeated over and over over by generation after generation after generation.)

3. It does not give the reader at least one character to root for. (I didn't like anyone in the part I paid close attention to--maybe one or more of the characters became more likeable in the second half of the book).

I can't recommend the book. If you have the book on your shelf, and you like disfunctional family books, you might want to give it a try.

1 1/2 stars

ABW link pliz for citizenkelly's post on Vonnegut...? Sounds entertaining!

edit to make less cryptic

Flossie I am sorry--I can't remember where it was posted except that it was on Club Read 2009 within the last couple of days. I only wrote down who posted it. (And for what it's worth I don't know how to do links yet--I am extremely technology-challenged). Maybe someone who's reading this and read the Vonnegut post can jump in----please?

For what it's worth, here are his other rules, which I did at least copy down:

--Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he/she will not feel that time was wasted (come to think of it, The Burning Book violated this rule too).

--Every character should want something, even if it's only a glass of water.

--Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the plot.

--Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your characters are, make awful things happen to them.

--Write to please just one person.

OK, I'll have to go lurk on some Club Read threads for a bit! My eldest is 70 pages of sprawling-9YO-handwriting-on-A5 into his first novel and gobbling up "writing tips". I'm providing gentle encouragement :)

Re Dark Star Safari: I read Theroux's London Embassy last year and thought it was terrible, but it sounds like maybe he's better at non-fiction than fiction. I'll have to give him another shot, especially since I'm starting to develop an interest in African history and culture.

21. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (1980's) 308 pp

This book consists of three novellas written in the 1980's. Ostensibly, the novellas are noir mystery stories. However, the book is not for those who like their mysteries solved.

In City of Glass, Quinn, a writer who dropped out after the deaths of his wife and child and began writing detective novels under a pseudonym, receives several calls in the middle of the night seeking the services of "Paul Auster" private eye. When he is unable to convince the caller that he is not Paul Auster and is not a detective, he decides to take on the case. (Later in the story, Quinn visits the "real" Paul Auster to convince him to cash the checks he received for his services).

In Ghosts, Blue, a private eye, is hired to spy on Black from a rented room across the street from Black's apartment. The trouble is, Black seems to do nothing but sit at a table, look out the window and write in a notebook.

In The Locked Room, Fanshaw has disappeared and left instructions that his wife request the protagonist, his childhood friend, read his writings and decide whether they are worthy of publication. The works are published, the protagonist becomes involved with Fanshaw's wife, and lives a perfect life--until he decides that he must find Fanshaw and ask him why he decided to disappear.

In each of the novellas, the detective becomes obsessed with the case he is working on, to the extent his real life disappears. We are left wondering what is real and what is unreal. Character, events and objects recur among the novellas. Auster himself appears as a major character in one of the novellas. In the end, the narrator of one novella states:

"As for Auster, I am convinced that he behaved
badly throughout. If our friendship has ended,
he has only himself to blame. As for me, my
thoughts remain with Quinn. He will be with
me always."

The book was engaging and easy to read--the language flowed and the plots were suspenseful--but the book is not simple. I would not describe the book as "serious," but I can well imagine a graduate level literature course solely for the study of this book. It is a book I will continue to think about and, probably, one day reread.

4 Stars

I already had City of Glass on Continent TBR, not realizing it is the first book of a trilogy. I will give it a try and if I like it, see if I can track the others down. Thanks for the review, abw!

Well I did a simple Google search for the Vonnegut rules and this is what I found.

I love the "write to please just one person" rule :)

Thanks for posting that, GunderG (cannot bring myself to type GUG!!) I have just finished reading his latest and am intrigued ++ . Start as close to the end as possible??

>122 kiwidoc: how about Eliza, then? :)
Start as close to the end as possible... I guess he means don't include unnecessary details of people's pasts? Like if you write a crime novel for example, start straight with the finding of the body, don't start writing about the days before the murder just to "ease readers into the story". Does that make sense?

I think the author can choose to start the story anywhere, and Vonnegut is saying the novel should begin at the point that most enhances the story. In a novel where a major theme is the burden of the past on the present, as in Faulkner for example, the author would start much further back than in a book like The New York Trilogy, which began with the phone calls initiating the investigation. The focus and themes of that book relate to the investigation and Quinn's conceptions of reality as he pursues the investigation, and to have started the novel with a history of his youth, his marriage, the deaths of his wife and child, or the reasons he was susceptible to undertaking this adventure would have been a major detraction, I think. That's why I thought the "rule" was broken in The Burning Book--I didn't see any reason to include 4 generations.

btw girlunderglass--thanks for putting a link to the rules. I am hopeless computer wise.

Eliza and abw - thanks so much for the discussion on the 'rules'.

Maybe they should apply to other things too - like giving speeches, conversation, etc. I don't want to get analytical about why I like a book, but it would be interesting to apply them to some of our reads, as with your Auster thoughts, abw.

22. Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase-Riboud (2003) 320 pp

This is a fictionalized account of the life of Sarah Baartman, the so-called Hottentot Venus. Sarah was born into the Khoekhoe people of South Africa, who were misnamed by "Hottentot" due to the sounds of their language by the Boer and English settlers.

In the Khoekhoe culture, steatopygia, or collection of fat on the buttocks of females, is highly desireable. Various techniques are used to encourage the swelling of the buttocks from the curve of the spine--12 inches or more.

Sarah was brought to Europe at about the age of 20 and was exhibited as a freak of nature, or as a sub-species between human and ape, for about 5 years, between 1810 and 1815, when she died. After her death, she was dissected. Her brain and sexual organs were removed and put on display, along with her skeleton and a cast made of her body. These remained on display in France until the early 1970's. In 2002, her skeleton and body parts were returned to South Africa where she is now buried.

This book vividly recreates Sarah's life, and psyche. Her pain and heartbreak are real; her conflicted emotions are well-portrayed (Sarah resisted efforts to "rescue" her).

The only reason I am not rating the book higher is that I have problems with the author's style and manner of presentation of Sarah's story. For example, a large part of the story is told in the first person by Sarah. However, significant portions are narrated by one or the other of Sarah's "keepers." In those sections of the novel, the plot awkwardly requires the "keeper" to overhear conversations between Sarah and her confidante such as "If we try to get away now, where will we go and what will we do for money?"

Using the "keepers" as narrators also requires them to be uncharacteristically self-aware. For example, Dunlop, her original exploiter, describes himself as not recognizing "moral or physical limits," as being "blase," "cruel," "bored."

In my view, the novel would have been better if narrated solely from Sarah's point of view.

The writer also sometimes uses language that abruptly yanked me from my immersion in the historical period and in Sarah's life, as when her keeper says to Sarah, "You give me any more lip and I'll smash you one." There are many other examples of clumsy writing that kept me from living totally in Sarah's world.

Because the subject matter is so important, and for the most part Sarah's character rings true, I can still recommend this book.

3 stars

Your review of Hottentot Venus is very well done. Thank you!

It's been a while since I posted a review, and I have a slew, so here goes:

23. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1962) 224pp

This book is written as if it were a poem by a famous poet, with foreword and footnotes by the delusional and egocentric Dr. Kinbote, whose footnotes consume the poem and become the story.

I read this book 40 years ago in college, and it was the first book I had encountered in which the author played games with his reader. It was even better reading this time around, with so much more reading experience. I loved it even more, and Pale Fire remains one of the funniest books I have ever read. This is a book you could reread every few years and find something new each time.

24. Blackwater by Joyce Carole Oates (1992) 154 pp

The summer of 1969--man walks on the moon, Hurricane Camille hits the Gulf Coast, and---Chappaquiddick. Those events have always been connected in my mind.

Blackwater recreates Mary Jo Kopechne's (here Kelly Kelleher) final minutes after the Senator abandons her to drown in the submerged car. This short book is repetitive and horrifying as it contrasts the idealistic and naive Kelly's carefree final day with her desparate final minutes. How long will she persist in to her hero-worship of the Senator, and her belief that he is coming to save her? My one complaint--Kelly and the Senator were not new characters--I simply saw Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.

3 stars

25. Headhunter by Timothy Findley (1993) 510 pp

It's hard to describe this book. It is very entertaining, yet explores somber and difficult themes. I've been turning it over in my mind since I finished it.

The setting is near future Toronto, beseiged by an epidemic of sturnusemia. Since the disease is believed to be caused by birds, patrols roam the streets of the city exterminating birds.

The action begins when a former librarian and current schizophrenic believes that she has released the evil Kurz from p. 92 of The Heart of Darkness. She determines she must find Marlow to help her return Kurz to his proper place before he wreaks havoc on the unsuspecting city. Marlow arrives in the form of a new neighbor, a staff psychiatrist at an institute headed by a Dr. Kurz.

All kinds of characters are introduced. Who is evil, who is good? Who is sane, who is insane? Is the epidemic real or invented?

Highly recommended.

4 stars

26. A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker (2003) 178 pp

A middle-aged man with a wife, two kids, and pet duck Greta, decides to wake up a few hours earlier each morning, light a fire, and think about his life. Basically, this book is about nothing, and about everything, as he follows his meditations whither they take him. Here for example his thoughts on train horns:

I would like to visit the factory that makes
train horns, and ask them how they are able to
arrive at that chord of eternal mournfulness.
Is it deliberately sad? Are the horns saying,
Be careful, stay away from this train or it will
run you over, and then people will grieve, and
their grief will be the inconsolable wail of this
horn through the night?

This is a quiet, gentle and whimsical book.

3.5 stars

27. The Insulted and the Injured by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A struggling writer, Vanye, is the savior of Natasha, a young woman, whose reputation has been ruined, and her parents, whose fortunes have been destroyed, by the evil prince, whose naive and thoughtless son seduced Natasha. Vanye also saves young Nellie, who had been destined for a life in a house of ill-repute, following the death of her mother, whose life had also been ruined. It all works out well in the end, at least for Dostoevsky.

This is the first book I ever read online. I read it as part of the year-long Dostoevsky read. Next Dostoevsky is House of the Dead.

4 stars

28. The Living End by Stanley Elkin (1977) 144 pp

This is the bizarre and irreverent story of what happens after death to the saintly Ellerbee, who, shot in a hold-up at his liquor store, is neverthless sent to hell by God for keeping his stores open on Sundays. In Hell, he begins to pal around with Ladlehaus, the accomplice of his murderer.

Other characters are Quiz, a pedophilic janitor,who is smote dead by God Himself when he interrupted God's enjoyment of a children's musical recital. Fortunately for Quiz, he complains so much about the unfairness of being smitten dead for such a minor offense, that Jesus is able to persuade God to forgive and let Quiz into Heaven.

In the meantime, Joseph is not convinced that Jesus is the true Messiah, and Mary may be pregnant again.

While the book is imaginative and parts are fun to read, it seemed to have no real purpose or point, and did not become a cohesive whole.

2.5 stars

Out of all these, Pale Fire sounds like something I would enjoy most! Thanks for the reviews!

Well, I know you will be glad to know I am only adding 3 of your recent reads to the Continent (#23, 25, and 27), lol.

#128...What a great review! I've added this book to my tbr pile.

#129..I read this book last year and confirmed my dislike for the selfishness of Ted Kennedy. Bottom line, he killed someone and got away with it.

#130 and 133...added theses books as well...Thanks for the wonderful descriptions.

Your thread is a definite danger if I am ever to whittle down my tbr pile. Seriously, I always enjoy visiting here. You read such incredibly interesting books!

29. The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati (1945) 198 pp

This book by Italian author Buzzati, written during the fascist regime, is on the list of 1001 books to be read before you die and has been compared to Kafka. That comparison may have been made because the plot involves some Kafkaesque bureacratic snafus. However, the book is not bleak, despairing or absurdist. I'm not a fan of Kafka, and I enjoyed The Tartar Steppe.

A young soldier is sent to a remote fort overlooking a vast, empty steppe. Life is monotonous; the soldiers, in fact, look forward to, and sometimes imagine, invaders appearing on the horizon. Although the soldier at first intended to seek reassignment to a more central location as soon as possible, years pass, and he finds he lacks the will to leave--his life in town, the people he knew, no longer exist for him.

This is a puzzling book, but by no means boring or dense. I loved the descriptions of the lonely steppe and the quiet and solitude.

Recommended 3 stars

Lurking here and enjoying your book summaries, abw. Thanks.

I have to read The Insulted and the Injured for my Dostoevsky foray. I have never read an e-book and think I will hate it somehow, yet it is intriguing. Did you download it from a free site or buy it?

I really enjoyed the Baker book too, and I think Tim Findley is quite an underrated author.

Kiwi--I put the site under favorites on my computer, and went to the site to read it. I posted the address for the site I read The Insulted and the Injured on your profile. It was free, and as you will see there's a nice selection of books to choose from.

I tried to post the address for a site with links to 25 sites that have free books online, and for some reason the complete address wouldn't enter. I'm going to try to put the address here:

www.educhoices.org/articles/Online_Libraries_-_25_Places_To_Read_Free_Books_Online.html

If this doesn't work, and you really want the address maybe I could email it.

Well, looks like it doesn't work here either. :(

Last 2 books for March:

30. Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (2008) 180 pp

This is Paul Auster's latest novel. In it, a retired critic with insomnia lies awake at night and tells himself stories. The story he tells is of a world in which several states seceded from the USA after the Supreme Court named Bush president in 2000. The Twin Towers are still there, there is no Iraq War, but there is a civil war between the states that seceded, and those that remained in the union. As in the other novels by Auster I have read, he plays games with the reader: The critic inventing the story, inserts himself into the story, as Auster often does, and says: "The story is about a man who must kill the person who created him, and why pretend that I am not that person? By putting myself into the story, the story becomes real. Or else I become unreal, yet one more figment of my imagination."

3.5 stars

31. Timbuktu by Paul Auster (1999) 181 pp

The main character in this book is Mr. Bones, an extremely intelligent dog. The book is narrated from the point of view of Mr. Bones, and the first part describes his life with Willie Christmas, a homeless man, whose college roomate was "a guy named Anster, Omster, something like that--who had gone on to write a number of so-so books...."

I'm not usually a fan of books that anthropomorphize animals, but I certainly make an exception for Timbuktu and Mr. Bones. He is sensitive and endearing, and this is a touching and at times heart-breaking book. Highly recommended.

3.5 stars

Timbuktu sounds great. It is now added to my tbr pile.
Thanks for the great review.

Thanks for the link, abw.

I was quite disappointed with Man in the Dark, but having said that, I cannot remember why. I read it last year and my memory doesn't extend back past about 10 books!! I am a fan of his earlier work and do like his writing style, though.

kiwi--It's quite short, and The New York Trilogy is a much better book. I liked Man in the Dark because of the alternate history aspect, although that plot aspect was resolved abruptly, and somewhat unsatisfactorily.

Slight spoiler post* abw, I was really getting into the alternate history of Man in the Dark and blammo- it just ended. I do think Auster was playing one of his metafiction tricks. Let me hook the reader and then kill the story in one sentence. That'll teach them to get comfortable in my novel. Or something like that.

I decided to categorize my reading habits for the first quarter, something I've never done before, and was surprised at some of the results. I read:

Fiction 28
Nonfiction 3

Written in:

2000's 15
1950-1999 12
1900-1950 1
1800's 3

Country:

USA 12
England 6
Russia 3
Japan 2
Nigeria 2
Vietnam 1
India 1
Morocco 1
Chile 1
Canada 1
Italy 1

I knew that I read little nonfiction, and one nonfiction book per month is good for me, but I might try to read more nonfiction next quarter.

I was very surprised at how few books written before 1950 I read, and would like to read more "older" books this quarter.

I thought the balance of books from the USA, Canada and England, to books from the rest of the world was reasonably diverse, and I hope to continue reading "globally."

For April, my reading will concentrate on the theme of slavery for Reading Globally. I have accumulated these books: Property, The Known World, Cloudsplitter, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Miss Ravenel's Conversion From Secession to Loyalty, The Marrow of Tradition and maybe a reread of Beloved. I don't know how many of these I will read, but they all look interesting to me. I would also like to read another Dostoevsky in April.

32. Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor (1839) 557 pp

Philip Meadows Taylor was a British police commissioner in India in the 1830's. At that time, there existed a cult of ritual murderers and robbers called Thugs. Its practitioners were both Hindu and Muslim, and they worshiped Kali (Goddess of Strife and Destruction), or as they called her, Bhowanee.

Thugs travelled in bands and preyed on fellow travelers. They often inveigled their way into the confidence of fellow travellers with offers of mutual support and protection on the road. Or they simply ambushed travellers as the opportunity arose.

Each thug in a band had a specific duty. The sotha was the conman who was supposed to gain the confidence of potential victims. The bhuttote was the strangler, and the lugha was the gravedigger. The bodies were disposed of in carefully chosen and concealed mass common graves called bhils.

This novel is ostensibly the confession of Ameer Ali, a master thug, who is narrating his confession to a British police commissioner. In it, he describes periods of maurauding and murder followed by years of quiet family life living on the booty obtained through his Thug activities.

In his autobiography, Taylor says, "Day after day I recorded tales of murder, which though horribly monotonous, possessed an intense interest." In the novel, Ali confesses to personally murdering more that 700 victims. The stories of the victims, the tactics and ruses used, the interplay among the Thugs, the fear of discovery--all of these elements make for fascinating reading.

Throughout the confession, the police commissioner is largely silent. Taylor does have him say at one point, "That man, the perpetrator of so many hundred murders, thinks on the past with satisfaction and pleasure; nay, he takes pride in recalling the events of his life, almost every one of which is a murder, and glories in describing the minutest particulars of his victims and the share he had in their destruction with scarcely a symptom of remorse..." And it is true, that the Thugs had a curious code of ethics as to who, when and where it was acceptable to murder a victim.

Taylor has written several other novels based on Indian History. One, Seeta, which deals with the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8, is the only novel by a 19th century British author that is at all sympathetic to the mutineers. Confessions of a Thug has been described as the first "true crime" novel. Since it is narrated in the first person by a Thug, some of the incidents seem exaggerated and self-aggrandizing, but on the whole this is an excellent book.

3.5 stars

On to the Continent it goes!

I've looked up the books you plan to read for the slavery-theme and they sound very interesting. Can you put a link here to that thread?

Liza--You are either going to roll your eyes in amazement, laugh in disbelief or both, but I don't know how to do links.

I will be posting everything about the slavery books I read here, but if you'd like to follow the slavery thread, where I'm sure there will be many other books discussed and interesting discussions, this is the way this dinosaur would do it:

Go to the Reading Globally group. (I would go to my profile page, and link from my groups). I don't track my reading on an individual thread there. There is one thread called April--Slavery, and it should be pretty near the top, since it's the current topic.

Sorry to be so ignorant.

I have read Sapphira and the Slave Girl and The Marrow of Tradition which were both very interesting. I will be posting on those soon.

Re Confessions of a Thug: Do you have any other recommendations for novels set in colonial India? I'm currently making my way through The Raj Quartet, which I think you've mentioned on your or someone else's thread, and I have The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Kanthapura, A Passage to India, The Siege of Krishnapur, and Kim.

wunderkind--some novels set in colonial India:

One Last Look by Susanna Moore
Heat and Dust by Ruth Jhabvala
Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie (starts with Partition)
Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh (about Partition)
White Mughals by William Dalymple (nonfiction)
Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa (Partition)

Other books about India I liked, some of which deal with aftermath of colonialism:

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
English August by Upanmanyu Chatterjee
Staying On by Paul Scott

Rumer Goden wrote several novels dealing with these issues set in India.

I haven't read much, but want to read more of these revered Indian authors:

Rabindranath Tagore

R.K. Narayan

I'll probably think of more at some point. :)

Don't forget Jhumpa Lahiri - born in Britian of Indian heritage who writes of first generation Indian-Americans and immigrants as they try to reconcile their family traditions and a new culture. Unaccustomed Earth is her most recent. Interpreter of Maladies also excellent - both short stories.
They both make an interesting generational change after stories of the Raj.

I think Interpreter of Maladies is one of the best collections of short stories by a single author.

arubawoman, have you talked about Property yet?

Orangeena and Bonnie--It looks like I will have to read Unaccustomed Earth and Interpreter of Maladies. I purposely avoided those because I am not a big fan of short stories and don't usually read them without a specific and enthusiastic recommendation. I have read The Namesake by her, which I liked very much.

Bonnie-- I am still reading Property, which I like very much too. The problem is that I am reading a long library book, The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch, which came highly recommended, and which I feel I must finish. However, what happens, is that I read between 1 and 10 pages at a time and fall asleep. I know if I return it to the library unfinished I will not go back to it. (That's why I generally like to own the books I read, but I'm trying to use the library more in these times). Anyway, at some point it will come due, and I will either have finished it or have to return it.

I did read two other books for the Slavery month at Reading Globally (see below), but haven't posted there yet. It looks like people are reticent about posting this month.

33. Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather (1940) 295 pp

Sapphira, the wife of a mill owner, has brought to the marriage several slaves. When Sapphira unjustly suspects that her husband may improperly favor Nancy, a young slave girl, she begins a campaign to ruin Nancy. Her efforts include forcing the attentions of her husband's immoral nephew on Nancy, resulting in several instances in which Nancy barely escapes rape. Sapphira's daughter's aid to Nancy brings about an irreparable rift between mother and daughter.

Cather writes clearly and poignantly of the hopeless predicament of slaves, even those whose owners are supposedly kind and generous. Believing herself a righteous and good woman, Sapphira unthinkingly and almost playfully seeks to destroy Nancy's life, such as it is. Her husband is fully aware of what his wife is doing, and believes himself to be a progressive anti-slaver, yet he does nothing to contervene his wife's actions.

This book is one of Cather's lesser known works. I heard about it on LT, and I recommend it.

3 1/2 stars

Thanks for all the recommendations!

34. The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt (1901) 346 pp

In his introduction to this book, Eric J. Sundquist states that there is "no better anatomy of the racial politics of the nation in the aftermath of Reconstruction and its descent into harsh segregation." The novel is based on the events of the Wilmington race riots (more accurately termed race massacres) of 1898. Some of Chesnutt's relatives lived through these events, and he wrote this novel shortly after visiting them and the city of Wilmington.

Chesnutt uses the family as a means to delineate the racial issues of the time. Olivia, a white woman is aware that she has a half-sister who is the daughter of her father and a former slave. However, she has refused to recognize the existence of her sister, and is humiliated by how closely they resemble each other. When she learns that her father was married to her sister's mother, she is further disturbed. "To have lived with her without marriage was a social misdemeanor, at which society in the old days winked, or at most had frowned. To have married her was to have committed the unpardonable social sin."

The Wilmington riots were triggered by an editorial in a Black newspaper condemning lynchings of Black men speciously charged with sexual assaults on white women. The editorial further noted the double standard of white men's sexual assaults on Black women.

As a historical footnote, the author of the editorial that triggered the actual riots was Alexander Manley, who was the Black grandson of the white former governor of North Carolina. Chesnutt himself is the child of a mother and father who were each born to a Black woman and a white man.

Chesnutt is best known for his collection of stories called The Conjure Woman, which consists of stories of the slave culture. He has also written a number of stories about mixed race people, some of which are collected in The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line.

Of Chesnutt's work, Sunquist also states in the introduction. "{N}o writer between Stowe and Faulkner {has} so completely made the family a means of delineating America's racial crisis, during slavery and afterward."

I recommend this book to anyone interested in this subject. It is also a good novel, with interesting characters and well-timed plot development.

3 1/2 stars

Charles Chesnutt was an interesting man in his own right. I have not read any of his books, though, so I will have to look for them. Thanks for the recommendation!

I have that Broch book haunting me on the shelves also, ABW. It is one of those 'important to have read' books. I find if I carry those books around with me, and have a spare 10 minutes here and there, I can get a surprising amount read.

Lots of TBRs are being collected from your thread, too....

Put your book no. 34 on the wishlist. Read about Chestnutt for the first time last year when reading The Promise of the New South and meant to acquaint myself with him. Thanks for the reminder.

edited to correct spelling

Nice review, arubabookwoman. I have the Library of America edition of Chesnutt's Stories, Novels and Essays, which includes The Marrow of Tradition. I'll probably read this novel during the summer.

Message 152
I highly recommend Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins. This excellent book chronicles the break up of India and Pakistan.

I greatly enjoyed A Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, which is set in mid-19th century India at the time of the Opium War between the UK and China. Prior to reading this book I didn't realize that opium was transported by the British from India to China, to open up the Chinese market to British imports.

Just popping in to say that I have been enjoying your thread for awhile, especially your discussion about Indian history and culture.

>164 kidzdoc: Sea of poppies, another book I've wanted to read for a long time... the problem is that my list of "books I've wanted to read for a long time" never seems to get shorter!

#166...true...VERY true!

But, I am adding A Sea of Poppies to the mountain of books to be read.

35. The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch (1888, 1903, 1918) 648 pp

The Sleepwalkers is one of the great books, part of the Western canon. I felt obligated to read it, and I did. At least my eyes passed over the words, at least until the last 50 pages. I stopped then, because I'm sure that if I continued to try to read it I would still be trying in June. Despite my efforts, I was neither enriched, enlightened, or even diverted by this book.

The book consists of 3 short novels. In the first, a soldier must choose between a gypsy woman and the well-bred girl from the estate adjacent to his family's estate. A simple plot. Yet paragraphs go on for what seem eternities, and I often got lost on the journey from beginning to end. The only likeable character is the gypsy girl, because of her independence and outspokeness, and this section came alive for me only when she was onstage. Of course, you can guess what decision the soldier makes.

The second involves the business machinations of Esch, a former bookkeeper turned impressario, and the labor organizer he wants to save from prison. Esch must repel the romantic advances of the spinsterly sister of a coworker and decide how far to carry his relationship with the widowed owner of the cafe he frequents. The labor organizer is jailed during most of the novel, and Esch plots to kill Bernhard, the business moghul he believes has caused the imprisonment. The connection with the first novel--the gypsy girl makes a brief appearance (blink and you miss it) as one of the "girl wresters" in one of Esch's productions, and Bernhard was the friend of the soldier in the first novel. The second novel is longer and even denser than the first, with many philosophical digressions I was unable to absorb.

The third consists of several alternating story strands. In one, an army deserter arrives in the town where Esch is now a happily married newspaper publisher, and begins to weasel his way into town society. In another, a soldier in a military hospital must come to terms with the amputation of his arm, as he slips into alcoholism. There is also a soldier who awakes from a coma unable to communicate. In another, the aloof and depressed wife of a officer faces his return from the front. In another, an Orthodox Jew, who is married to a fat woman and has many children, becomes obsessed with a Salvation Army girl. All of this is interspersed with chapters musing on various issues titled "Disintegration of Values." The writing style becomes more and more difficult, breaking into poetry, devolving into drama, then drama in verse, and becoming hallucinatory at times.

This book requires a great deal more effort than I put into it, though I've spent the last two and a half weeks with it (and foregone many more pleasurable books), and perhaps a great deal more brain power than I have. I am not going to rate it or recommend for or against it, but leave it to you to decide whether you want to attempt it and whether you feel the rewards may be worth the effort.

I've got Sea of Poppies on my TBR list too.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. It's nice to know someone is reading!

abw..
I like your statement "This book requires a great deal more effort than I put into it". There are some books that are like that....

One of the things I like about our group is that we have a history and trust the judgment of each other. Thus, I think we save each other time and energy in reading books that are not all that great. And, conversely, our tbr piles expand by those that are recommended.

#168: I was just in the same position. It took me a little over a week to slog through Sons and Lovers and felt it did nothing for me other than miss out on the other books I could have read.

What's next, arubabookwoman? Any "lightness and fun" in your tbr pile?

#168: I think will give that one a pass. Thanks for the review, Deborah! I hope your next read is better for you.

"34. The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt (1901) 346 pp"

For some reason that review by you really got to me and made me rethink how and why I read. I don't organize anything I read or really even have a reading plan. I just love to read, have a lot of books and use the library constantly. I grab off the shelf whatever I think looks good and that I might might be in the mood for and go for it.
I just joined the 999 challenge (really late, I know), but I think I will use it to organize my reading habits and attempt to become a more well-rounded and discerning reader.
Thanx for the good review and the eye opener.
N/B

36. The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes (2007) 738 pp

During Stalin's reign of terror, 25 million people were either shot by execution squads, or were gulag prisoners, were kulaks sent to special settlements, or were slave laborers. These "repressed" constituted about 1/8 of the total population, and the figure does not include those who died of famine or war-related causes. In addition to the "repressed", there were further tens of millions, the relatives, whose lives were damaged with profound social consequences which are still felt today.

This amazing book concerns itself only minimally with statistics. Based on thousands of interviews, documents, letters, diaries and photographs, it is a book of people and their stories. We are immersed in the personal lives of several multi-generational families, from the earliest years of the 20th century to date. We also hear, in their own words, the stories of dozens of others and their experiences during Stalin's reign.

During this time period, no one was safe from condemnation, and no one knew who to trust. Said one man, "After long acquaintance with his role, a man grows into it so closely that he can no longer differentiate his true self from the self he simulates, so that even the most intimate of individuals speak to each other in Party Slogans."

Many people were convicted for crimes such as simply being "the daughter of an enemy of the people." Appealing a conviction was futile--as one former prisoner said, "There is nothing more to be said about my case. There is no case, only a soap bubble in the shape of an elephant. I cannot refute what is not, was not, and could never have been."

Wives of the convicted were sent to Akmolinsk Labor Camp for the Wives of Traitors to the Motherland. This camp was opened in 1938, and by 1941 had 10,000 inmates. It was considered a relatively "good" camp, but rations were given in accordance with meeting work quotas, and failure to meet a work quota for 10 consecutive days meant transfer to the "death barracks."

I was particularly moved by the plight of the children during the Stalinist regime. Most labor camps that had female prisoners also had children's homes. The children's compound in Akmolinsk had 400 infants under the age of 4 in 1941, almost all conceived in the camp. One mother who endured the death of her 18 month old daughter in the compound described the treatment of the children thusly:

"I saw the nurses getting the children up in the mornings. They would force them out of their cold beds with shoves and kicks...Pushing the children with their fists and swearing at them roughly, they took off their night clothes and washed them in ice-cold water. The babies didn't even dare to cry. They made little sniffing noises like old men and let out low hoots. This awful hooting noise would come from the cots for days at a time. Children already old enough to be sitting up or crawling would lie on their backs, their knees pressed to their stomachs, making these strange noises, like the muffled cooing of pigeons."

Describing one nurse responsible for feeding 17 infants, she said:

"The nurse brought a steaming bowl of porridge from the kitchen, and portioned it out into the separate dishes. She grabbed the nearest baby, forced its arms back, tied them in place with a towel, and began cramming spoonful after spoonful of hot porridge down its throat, not leaving it enough time to swallow, exactly as if she were feeding a turkey chick."

The parents of older children often coached their children on ways and means to avoid being sent to an orphanage in the event that they, the parents, were arrested. These older children could try to fend for themselves with help from friends or teachers. Younger children were not so lucky, and even the older children were often turned over to the orphanges, since it was also a crime to harbor the child of an enemy of the people, and relatives and friends were reluctant to help them.

Very little communication was allowed between exiled parent and child. When and if released, the parent was often unable to locate the children they lost when they were seized. Those who found each other were often strangers, and found it difficult to establish familial relationships again. Not only were parents broken, but children were irreparably scarred.

The effects of Stalin's reign of terror are with the Soviet people today:

"It is not only Stalin that you cannot forgive, but you yourself. It is not that you did something bad--maybe you did nothing wrong, at least on the face of it--but that you became accustomed to evil."

This book is one of my best reads of the year. I could not put it down. Many of the stories sound unbelievable, yet are confirmed time and again by others. In his afterword, Figes states that upon beginning this project, he feared that older people might be reluctant to share their experiences for fear that harsh authoritarian practices might return. He found that in the early 90's when there was an outpouring of memoirs about Stalinist repressions, people shared the facts of the repression--the details of their arrest and imprisonment. His goal was to illuminate the damage to their inner lives, "the painful memories of personal betrayal and lost relationships that had shaped their history." In this he succeeded admirably.

Highly recommended 4 1/2 stars

Hi Bonnie--Yes I will be going for lightness in May--after I finish Property--probably tonight. Next books I plan to read are Pnin by Nabokov and Naoko by Keigo Higashino. Also will try to read some Katherine Mansfield stories for Monthly Author reads, and a couple of Polish books (I have Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz and Lucifer Unemployed by Aleksander Wat) for Reading Globally.

Nannybebette--Thank you for the compliment, and thanks for stopping by.

ABW..
What a wonderfully written and power review. I simply must try to read this book as soon as I can find it.

I'm on a first name basis with most of the library folk at my local library. I'm sure they can hunt it down for me.

Russian history is so fascinating.

>175 arubabookwoman: What an extraordinary review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia. I am certainly adding this book to the wishNotebook. Thank you for the well-thought, beautifully written review.

Loved your review! This is not my usual kind of book, but I've put it on the list.

#175: Great review, Deborah! It is already on Continent TBR or I would add it again on the strength of your review.

#175 What a wonderful and timely review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia. I just finished the novel Child 44, and it really sparked my interest in Stalinist Russia, but I was unsure what to read to learn more. I'll be adding The Whisperers to the TBR pile and giving it priority. Thanks!

I'm crying just from reading your review of The Whisperers so I probably won't be reading it just now. Seems since I had my son 3 years ago my ability to handle these kinds of books is gone. This inability happened much to my chagrin as I believe that if people have had to live through horrors of this magnitude we should bear witness to it.

Excellent, excellent review. Thank you very much.

Most excellent review on a book that must have been very difficult not only to review but to read. Human nature, on the whole, has not been too kind to it's own. This one is going on my list as well.
Well done.
N/B

Book #36 was obviously a powerful read - what a fantastic review. My husband derides me for my near-pathological inability to remember chronology, but this is one history book that I'll definitely be putting on the list. Thanks.

Whisper, profiler, fourpawz, alcottacres, lorrie, nancywhite, nannybebette and flossie--thanks for stopping by, and for your kind words about the review. I hope that you get a chance to read this sooner rather than later (if you so choose).

I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn in the 1970's, and I was trying to figure out why I don't remember them affecting me to the extent The Whisperers did. It may have been because I didn't have children then, but I also think it has to do with the fact that The Whisperers is not just a book that describes the atrocities of the arrests and imprisonments, but it also explores the damage caused to the psyches of the Russian people, both those who were betrayed and those who betrayed them. I'm going to take a second look at Ivan Denisovich and Gulag when I get a chance.

37. Property by Valerie Martin (2003) 193 pp

For personal reasons, Property was a very difficult book for me to read. My mother's family has deep roots in Louisiana, and her direct ancestors were slave-owning plantation owners in West Feliciana Parish near St. Francisville, where this novel is set. One of Martin's source reference books was the diary of Bennet Barrow, who was my great, great, great +/- grandfather, in which he describes his brutal mistreatment of the slaves on his plantation. The diary and Property were bone-chilling reads for me. Of the three slavery books I read, I think Property best conveyed the obscenity of slavery.

4 Stars

your review of The Whisperers (I'm so late that the bandwagon is rusty now) is really great - the only thing is I've just finished a 800something page book and I'll go for something smaller next. I'm definitely putting it on my wishlist for later, though!

>186 arubabookwoman:. Another great review, aruba. Property does sound like a difficult book. I think you owe yourself a nice, happy, fluffy read.

OK, I feel a little crazy here, because I thought I already responded to your Whisperers... review? Definitely going to read it!

Property had a similar effect on me as well, primarily because of the author's choice of narrator. It's a much more concentrated/focused story than some of the others we read, but it just goes to show that it's not always the quantity of despicable acts that most affects a reader.

Ed. for spelling.

ABW, you are reading some very powerful books!

If you haven't read it, you might be interested in The Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race by Richard Rhodes.
I believe Stasia read this last year around the same time I did.
The author focuses a lot on Russian history. The sad tale of Chernobyl is accurately noted in the context of a culture of secrecy. As I remember, Richard Rhodes mentioned Gorbachev's proposing Glasnost and yet still emeshed in a system that tried to hide the horrors of Chernobyl.

Sadly, Gorbachev's family was a victim of Stalin's purges.

#185: I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich fairly recently, Deborah, so I in lieu of your comments, I am going to be even more interested in my reaction to The Whisperers. I am hoping to get to it very soon!

Thanks to all above for visiting.

Whisper, I'm going to search down the Richard Rhodes book. I read Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich several years ago, and have wanted to read more about Chernobyl.

38. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (2004) 140 pp

This short but entertaining book collects a years worth of Nick Hornby's monthly columns from the magazine "Believer." (I assume some sort of literary magazine). Each month, he wrote about the books he bought, the books he read, or some other subject that caught his fancy.

For example, in pondering the merits of Dickens, he writes:

"Where would David Copperfield be if Dickens had gone to writing classes? Probably about seventy minor characters short is where. (Did you know that Dickens is estimated to have invented thirteen thousand characters? Thirteen thousand! The population of a small town!" He discusses Dickens's minor characters, and several other reasons why we should treasure Dickens.

Here he describes "the Spree," the young men and women who run the magazine:

"The Spree all live together in Believer Towers, high up in the hills somewhere; they spend their days reading Montaigne's essays aloud to each other (and laughing ostentatiously at the funny bits), shooting at people who own TV sets, and mourning the deaths of every single writer since the Gwain-Poet, in chronological order."

When "the Spree" invite their regular columnists out for a night on the town, Hornby expects an evening of riotous fun.

"Wrong. The Spree's idea of a good time was to book tickets to a literary event--a reading given by all the nominees for the National Book Critic's Circle Awards--and sit there for two and a half hours. Actually that's not quite true; they didn't sit there. Such is their unquenchable passion for the written word that they were too excited to sit. They stood, and they wept, and they hugged each other, and occasionally they even danced....Needless to say, drink, drugs, food and sex played no part in the festivities. But who needs any of that when you've got literature."

Hornby writes humorously of literature high and low and various and sundry other matters. I really enjoyed this book.

4 stars.

#192: I already have that one on the Continent or I would add it again!

Deborah, if you read the Rhodes book, be aware that the entire book is not about Chernobyl. There is a whole lot of other stuff in there.

39. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (2007) 120 pp

Another short "book about books." This one is a fantasy of what would happen if the Queen became a true biliophile. This was a sweet book, somewhat humorous, and a pleasant read. If I had to choose between The Uncommon Reader and The Polysyllabic Spree, The Polysyllabic Spree wins hands down. Fortunately, they're both short, so you don't have to choose!

3 stars

I enjoy The Uncommon Reader very much. I thought it was a charming book, and like you say - it is short!

Ah both your last two books are sitting comfortably in my TBR pile...perhaps too comfortably, if truth be told. Maybe I should give them a little nudge to wake them from their slumber and make them move up a tad ;)

I like the look of The Polysyllabic Spree, its gone onto the wishlist.

I wonder how you'll like Housekeeping vs. Dirt? It's my favorite so far, but maybe the first one of these three that a person reads becomes their favorite? I would highly recommend Housekeeping vs. Dirt though if you feel inclined to read another one Hornby's commentaries on the books he's read.

>198 bonniebooks:: I also liked Housekeeping vs. the Dirt slightly better and definitely recommend it. The third volume, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, isn't as good, since he talks more about his life and less about books.

--bonnie and wunderkind--I've ordered Housekeeping vs. Dirt from the library--thanks for the recommendation

Hello to luna, girl, and alcott!

40. The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters (2007) 370 pp

I'm a fan of a group of female British crime writers, including Minette Walters, and generally try to keep up with their latest mysteries. In this book, the protagonist is an Iraq war veteran, who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). At times he experiences irrational rages, and he is suspiciously present or nearby when several vicious murders occur. As the police investigation focuses on him, he, with help from some very unique individuals, attempts to prove his innocence.

Several plot developments require the suspension of belief, and I don't think that this book is as good as Walters' usual. I don't regret reading it, though, because it was a nice diversion.

2 1/2 stars

41. My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru (2007) 277 pp

Michael Frame, age 50, unbeknownst to his wife and daughter, has been living a falsehood for more than twenty years. During the 1960's and 70's, he was Chris Carver, a member of the British revolutionary underground. His group carried out a series of bombings.

As the book opens, he is contacted by a figure from his past, and is threatened with exposure, unless he takes certain actions he knows are harmful and untrue. He chooses to flee.

As he runs, he recalls his life as a terrorist. The bulk of the book consists of his recollections as he tries to reconcile the consequences of his terrorist acts with leading a moral life.

I felt that the book dragged somewhat in that it described in great detail his early, innocuous protest actions, such as Vietnam war protest marchs and squatting to help the homeless. That portion of the book describing the radicalization of the group, as the group thrashed out its ideological arguments ad nauseum and the various terrorists moved in and out of various squats, was also repetitious. I was more engaged with the story of his living "underground" for so many years, and his reaction after being threatened with exposure. I felt that these aspects of the story were short-changed.

The only other book I've read by Kunzru is Transmission, which was quite engaging and humorous. My Revolutions is dead serious, and I did not like it as much as Transmission.

2 1/2 stars

Hello abw;
I just wanted to pop over and say hello. Hope things are going well for you and yours.
It looks like you are moving right along with your reading challenge. Good on you.
You have a good evening and I will catch you later.
belva

#201 - Every now and again, a small pile of books will appear in the staff room at work, with a "Free Books" sign tacked to the wall above them. This is one of those rare times in my reading where I will take a chance on something I might never have otherwise tried. Last year, My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru, was in one of those piles, and I took the chance. I was happy I did. I'd rate it a conservative 3 1/2.

You've been reading some good books recently, I've been enjoying catching up with them (it's been a while since my last visit, sorry). I also recently read and loved The Polysyllabic Spree, and can't wait to get my hands on the other books in this series. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago are also on my reading list, as is The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia and the fictional Child 44.

Goodness knows when I'll get to them - they're in the queue! Right now I'm starting on Good Girls, Good Food, Good Fun: The Story of USO Hostesses during World War II by Meghan K. Winchell, which looks to be a good read. We'll see...

arubabookwoman, I have benefited from following your 2009 reading list. I confess that I am often tired when I get home, and all I want is to relax and too frequently rely on pure entertainment fiction. But I am being pushed to consider moving outside my comfort zone and to consciously broaden the scope of authors and stories that come into my hands. Thank you for your excellent reviews. I am not inspired to pursue every book on your list, but definitely some.

#201/203: I am going to try My Revolutions because it sounds interesting. Since you gave it 2 1/2 stars, Deborah, and Peter gave it a conservative 3 1/2, maybe I will come in somewhere in the middle around 3.

I just read Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids and remembered that I'd seen it on your thread. Rereading your post about it was quite informative--it was interesting to read Oe's statements about the book, and I had no idea it was his first novel, which makes it all the more impressive. Have you found the sequel yet?

Thank you for visiting, nannybebette and petermc. I enjoy our conversations, and am glad you stopped by.

Justcris--thanks you for your kind words, and I glad you stopped by too.

Alcottacre, I think you should go ahead and try My Revolutions. You read so quickly and so much that it won't significantly detract from better books. And my 2 1/2 rating doesn't mean it's a bad book--just that I had some problems with it.

Wunderkind--I haven't found the sequel yet, but I haven't made a serious search yet either. I am beginning to suspect it hasn't been translated. I did recently find and buy a book of 4 short novels by Oe called Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness. One of the short novels is described in the blurb as being the story of "the strange relationship between a Japanese boy and a captured black American flyer in a Japanese mountain village durine the War," and it sounds like it might have some relationship to Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids.

Because this is taking so long to load, I am starting a new thread. I hope a few readers follow me to the new thread. The new thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/65318