Author: a literary explorer

Warlight – Michael Ondaatje

/ a literary explorer

v23F6alCTKOERlxve3dTawI was particularly excited to read the latest Ondaatje – I have been having a bit of a contemporary literature slump my hope was that this would smash that to smithereens.

Nathaniel and Rachel are two siblings  left in the care of a family friend nicknamed The Moth.  We follow them as they adjust to a parentless existence and maturation post WWII in London.  The book is deliberately atmospheric and unsettling but not quite to the level of a good thriller.  The reader never quite knows the true motivations of the characters both present and absent – who really was their mother and where is she?  who really is The Moth to them? What does The Darter really do? How do Nathaniel and Rachel fit into the larger scheme?

What I found interesting is that Ondaatje does a good job of presenting the positive and negative view of an action or skill – wartime it’s heroic, post or pre wartime it could be classed as seedy or criminal. No one in the novel is resoundingly good or evil.

While I liked the book I would not include it in  the same class as The English Patient.

 

My Name is Lucy Barton-Elizabeth Strout

/ a literary explorer

If you can-read this novella in one sitting-it is that enjoyable. Lucy Barton a NYC writer reminisces about her life before and after a lengthy hospitalization for a mysterious illness. Her hospital averse 1st husband, William, flies her mother out to spend time with her-from this point Lucy tells the story of her childhood poverty and abuse as well as the challenges of her adult life.

“We love imperfectly” and also we are loved imperfectly was one of the strongest elements for me in Lucy’s narrative. Of all her siblings Lucy goes to college, marries, has children and becomes a writer-when felled by her illness her mother visits and proceeds to recount stories of all the flawed relationships of the people in their home town. To say that her relationship with her mother is complicated is an understatement and yet her mother who has never left their small town makes the journey to NYC and although not an affectionate individual she gives the best advice to Lucy about her future-she will be OK, she will face trials, but she will be OK.

Strout covers a lot of ground examining what we leave behind when we leave, how entwined we are with the people in our life-often without realizing the depth of the ties, how we remember and how we forgive. There are some of the best lines I have read in a long time “ no use wasting time by suffering twice” when you are worried about something face it and “I think about what first husbands know”. For those new to Strout Lucy Barton is as strong a character as her beloved Pulitzer prize winning Olive Kitteridge.

The North China Lover-Marguerite Duras

/ a literary explorer

A couple of years ago I read Marguerite Duras’ The War an unbelievably vivid account of France during WWII-her passage on her husband’s return from Buchenwald is one that I will never forget. For those not familiar with her work Duras was a prolific French post WWII writer famous for her screenplay Hiroshima, Mon Amour (she won an academy award)and her loosely autobiographical work The Lover (winner of the Prix Goncourt).  I read The Lover in my twenties being enchanted and scandalized at once so I was intrigued to read what is considered either the second installment or companion piece to that work.

The North China Lover is about an adolescent’s girl love affair with a wealthy Chinese business man in Indochina (not yet Vietnam).  While covering in essence the same story as The Lover-this account is a grittier version-probably more closely aligned to the events of the actual affair.  There is an immediate sexual attraction which grows into a tempestuous, tender and doomed love.  Duras in her preface said the book could have been called Love in the Street-I would agree.

The Chinese and The Girl are not named in the piece which creates a surprising intimacy with the characters . They are from very different backgrounds and cultures-The Girls’ family has become impoverished due to her father’s death and mother’s bad investment/swindle.  Her older brother is a beast and her younger brother has been so traumatized by the older brother he is somewhat impaired.  The Girl is sent to a girl’s boarding school and really starts the coming of age novel.

Duras continually reminds us of the desperation of both the age, economic circumstances,cultural prejudices and political times. There is a young student that prostitutes herself so that she can save money to have a house and find security. The love story itself has passion, tenderness and loathing.  At one point the girl is concerned that the Chinese will kill her to get over his feelings for her.  The Chinese is betrothed to another Chinese woman of similar wealth.  As would be expected the two lovers part.

While the story is compelling and the writing superb what really sets the book apart is Duras inclusion of cinematic direction in the novel.  She assists the reader in framing their view and adds an additional visual layer to the book.

 

 

The Buried Giant-Kazuo Ishiguro

/ a literary explorer

I am not generally a “Fantasy Fiction Fan” but I am a huge Ishiguro fan-scenes from Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day have stayed with me years after their initial reading so I decided to add The Buried Giant to the read column.  Ishiguro is the type of writer that with each endeavor never travels the same road and I love that about his work.

The Buried Giant is a tale of a seemingly straight forward quest-although the exact time frame is somewhat ambiguous-post King Arthur?  There are Britons and Saxons, ogres and dragons, knights and travelers, good and evil. Beatrice and Axl are an elderly Briton couple who decide to leave their village to visit their son.  The world they live in is shrouded in mist (literally)  and they can’t remember their past-did something terrible happen? Should they remember?

Along the way they meet Wistan a Saxon knight on a secret quest-he saves a young Saxon boy ,Edwin, from an ogre.  Edwin is ostracized from his community because he has been bitten by the Ogre(? ).  Wistan asks Axl and Beatrice to help him find a new village for Edwin fearing that his family will murder him a result of their fear and prejudice concerning the boy’s bite.  While traveling all four meet Sir Gawain from Arthurian legend and continue on as a group-we learn about Wistan’s real quest and a bit of his past, the source of the mist, Beatrice and Axl’s trouble, and Gawain’s real role post Arthur.  We encounter Knights and Monks, mythical dogs and dragons as obstacles are placed and overcome.

As in any good quest nothing is exactly what it seems and Ishiguro poses interesting questions along the way-at what price peace? Can hurts be overcome in a relationship?  Is knowledge of the past really all that important?  Can prejudice be overcome?  I am still pondering the exact meaning of the ending and probably will be for some time.

The Last Love Song-Tracy Daugherty

/ a literary explorer

A biography of Joan Didion is not a simple chronicle-Didion is complex, contradictory, caustic and compassionate-just to stay at the beginning of the alphabet. For those that know and love Didion’s work-her perceptive and at times contrary positions on major events and her mastery of prose are a well known commodity. If you have found Didion recently then love and loss in A Year Of Magical Thinking or Blue Nights is your Didion barometer.

I have been a longtime fan of Joan Didion and was excited to tackle a literary biography. The Last Love Song is the life of Didion-her Sacramento childhood, magazine work in NYC, marriage to John Gregory Dunne, Hollywood and screenwriting, adoption of a her daughter Quintana, sister-in-law to Dominick Dunne, relocation to NYC and suffering back to back losses of Dunne and Quintana. Like Didion does in her own work, Daugherty is unflinching in her portrayal of her subject including where fact and fiction blur. I must admit there were several times I did not either agree or understand Didion’s motivations and/or reactions in her marriage or with her family-they rang true but were messy.

As with any discussion of Didion you get a tremendous historical narrative. Daugherty takes you from the Manson murders to Abu Grhaib-I had forgotten about Jerry Brown’s failed presidential bid. Nor had I ever really considered that Didion and Sylvia Plath were fairly close contemporaries-both having worked at Mademoiselle and staying at the Barbizon Hotel in NY. I had and interesting moment of thinking if Plath had lived would they have in fact commented on each other’s works?

After reading The Last Love Song I appreciated Didion even more as a real commentator of our times and Daugherty’s handling of Didion’s life and work-she does not try and explain her subject-she presents her life and her works and lets the reader decide. I imagine that is what Didion herself would do.

Did You Ever Have A Family-Bill Clegg

/ a literary explorer

Long listed for the National Book award this is a story of life and paralyzing loss. From the onset you know that a devastating tragedy has occurred in a small Connecticut town-a family has died in a house fire. As the narrative unfolds you learn that it was the morning of a young couple’s wedding, the young couple, the bride’s father, and her mother’s boyfriend all perish with the mother outside witness to the devastation. June the survivor leaves Connecticut and starts driving out west ending up at motel on the coast.

Varying viewpoints illuminate the dynamics of the town, the histories of the victims and of the surviving family members. June the matriarch is a divorced art dealer living with Luke a much younger local man whose life was derailed by a trip to jail. Because of his record Luke is the immediate scapegoat in the disaster. Interestingly the town bulldozes the remnants of the house immediately after the fire-there is no investigation beyond the cursory questions-a fact that is revisited later in the story.

The characters are interesting and richly told-you feel the loss of Lolly and her fiancé they had such promise. You empathize with the June’s missed opportunities and feel for Silas a local boy and his secret. Even Adam the philandering ex although a fairly minor character is not vilified. Clegg moves the reader from one history to another without disrupting the flow and in a little says a lot.

I expected this book to be a worthwhile burden-it was not at all a burden. Did You Ever Have A Family is a thought provoking must read, there is warmth and hope amongst the loss and recognition of our human flaws as part of living. Where I expected to slog through I couldn’t put it down and felt one of those great reader rewards when you know you have been touched deeply by something you have read.

The Taming of the Queen-Philippa Gregory

/ a literary explorer

I was reluctant to read another P. Gregory book-some I have loved The Other Boleyn Girl, The Other Queen, the White Queen definitely in the love column-some not so much The White Princess, the Red Queen and the Constant Princess to name a few so I was taken by surprise at how much I loved The Taming of the Queen. Gregory adds depth to the often overlooked Catherine Parr. For those of you Tudorphiles you know that she was the last of the 6 wives and survived coming back from the brink under Henry’s despotic reign.

As a young widow she marries Henry although desperately in love with Thomas Seymour. Catherine is honorable- at the beginning she tries to love and admire the King which is not an easy task.  Physically Henry is repulsive with a festering noxious wound and has already killed two wives through neglect, two through beheading. Although warned about his mercurial nature she feels that he truly loves her and appreciates his initial concern for her happiness. Catherine overlooks several slights-the jewels from all of the previous queens are delivered and then the page comes in requesting the sainted Jane Seymour’s pearls back reminding Catherine that she will never take the place of the dead queen. You know that this was not a mistake but Henry clearly defining Catherine’s place in both his heart and her importance in the court.

Gregory does a great job of making Catherine a vibrant historical figure-you see her as a loving intelligent woman attempting to keep her head above the proverbial quicksand. She makes every effort to provide the three Tudor children with a family life and at times is praised or humiliated depending on Henry’s mood. Interestingly Catherine was an ardent religious reformer which at times given Henry’s adeptness at pitting each side against one another was an added peril. Even though her survival is a matter of historical record I found myself anxiously devouring the book to make sure that this intelligent woman survived.

Girl waits with Gun-Amy Stewart

/ a literary explorer

I love books that are an unexpected pleasure and Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (known for her non-fiction work the Drunken Botantist) was that and more. The book is a fictionalized account of Constance Kopp (our Girl waiting with a Gun) and her two sisters Norma and Fleurette. In 1914 in Paterson NJ the three sisters are riding in their buggy and are run over by an automobile driven by Henry Kaufman. Kaufman the owner of a local silk mill refuses to take responsibility for the damages.

The sisters are not your average femme fatales-Constance is large and imposing, Norma is obsessed with her pigeons and reading lurid crime pieces in the newspapers and Fleurette is on the cusp of being an adult, a talented seamstress and budding performer. Constance confronts Kaufman after two requests for payment go unanswered-embarrassed in front of his ne’er do well friends Kaufman starts his campaign of harassment and intimidation sending threatening letters several through “brick mail”, driving by the girls’ farmhouse, shooting at the house and stating that Fleurette will be abducted and sold.

Instead of fleeing the girls contact the local sheriff, learn to shoot and actively work with the honest constabulary (not a simple task) to bring Kaufman to justice which took almost a year. This in and of itself is an interesting narrative but Stewart also includes storylines such as a young mill worker who had a child with Kaufman, the transportation of children out of Paterson into the city during the silk strike,the movement to change living conditions in prisons and the limited options for women in the early part of the 20th century.

If I had not read that this was a fictionalized account of a true story I would not have believed it and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was cheering the Kopp sisters at every turn-appreciating their individuality and benefiting from their courage.

The Blue Guitar-John Banville

/ a literary explorer

I have a conflicted relationship with John Banville I am never sure that I enjoy his work and yet I read his books as soon as they are published. The Blue Guitar leaves me in the same quandary-there are parts and moments that stick with me and yet I have a flat feeling about this novel. Oliver Orme is a painter and a thief (really more of a kleptomaniac) married to Gloria, he is definitely in the midst of a midlife crisis and has an affair with Polly who is married to Marcus-all of this sounded very familiar and to me was a well worn narrative territory.

It is one of those stories that nothing really every seems to work out for the characters -the affair ends with Oliver bolting, we learn some truths about Gloria and her feelings and external relationships, Polly changes course and Marcus meets his end. I did enjoy Oliver’s response when he realized something had been stolen from him-the shock and realization that he was not the only thief. All in all the characters were just not likable perhaps contributing to my Banville ennui and lackluster response to this book.

A Year of Wonders-Geraldine Brooks

/ a literary explorer

I am admittedly a huge Geraldine Brooks fan-March and People of the Book being two of my all time favorites and yet I had delayed reading A Year of Wonders most probably because at one point I heard it described as a novel of the plague. Loosely based on the real town of Eyam that made the unprecedented decision to quarantine themselves in the 1600’s hoping to prevent further spread of the disease-it is fascinating to see the twists and turns that Brooks effortlessly forces us through.

Central to the story is Anna Frith a widowed housemaid working for the Rector Michael Mompellion, a young and charismatic preacher and his wife Elinor, a high born beauty. At the suggestion of the rector Anna takes in a lodger, a tailor, who inadvertently through a bolt of cloth brings disease to their village. As the plague starts to decimate the population the rector urges the town to quarantine in an attempt to prevent spreading the contagion to neighboring villages-once the inhabitants agree to this enforced detention you experience the new daily rhythm of death and what it means to be trapped.

As with any tale of hardship Brooks gives you the broad spectrum of human responses-there are heroes and villains, fear and accusations, growth and death. She adds complexity to her characters and through that you question morality and faith-nothing and no one is ever exactly what they seem. Interesting to me was Anna’s story-she grows from a servant to a healer and when you expect one ending there is a dramatic shift and Anna’s tale ends in an entirely new place.

I left A Year of Wonders evaluating my moral compass given such an extreme event and applying the lessons learned to my daily life.