Honky

Since my area of interest leans toward multi-cultural, people find all sorts of books for me.  My mom picked up Honky by Dalton Conley at a garage sale and I’m happy she did.

Honky is a compilation of Mr. Conley’s early memories living in New York public housing as the only white kid. His earliest memory is from when he was about three years old.  He wanted a sibling so badly he ran up to a little black girl and insisted on taking her back home with him, to be his sister. Having a white boy try to “kidnap” her daughter didn’t go over well with the girl’s mother.

How Mr. Conley’s family ended up in public housing is important to point out.  His parents were artists and their parents offered to help them in order to get them into an upper scale neighborhood.  They weren’t interested in taking the help and thought it would be good for the family to live in this public housing community as the only white family amongst mostly black and hispanic people. They could never have guessed how it would affect their son.

While her son attends the the tough, local elementary school, Mr. Conley’s mother realizes that this public school isn’t the best option for her son and “works the system” in order to get him into a better school.  Having always been the only “white” kid in school, Dalton had several keen observations upon entering his new “whiter” school.  He was confused by Orzan, the Turkish boy, who was outspoken about his differences and was still comfortable with himself:

Orzan, by contrast, seemed to carry the make of foreignness with him through the halls of P.S. 41.  It wasn’t about race, for he appeared as white as anyone else. It might have been about ethnicity, since his name certainly set him off form the rest of us. But the major division between Ozan and everyone else was of his own making: his political opinions, almost as a rule, diverged from those of the rest of class.

In contrast to Orzan, Dalton had defined himself as a minority white kid and was surprised when he wasn’t the minority any longer:

Suddenly, being white was no longer the marker that set me off from everybody else, that defined who I was. Being a honky may have made me twitch back at the Mini School, but it also gave me a certain freedom to act however I wanted, since people’s reactions never reflected anything about me in particular but could always be brushed off as a racial thing.

When young Mr. Conley and his new upper middle class friend accidentally start a fire in that friend’s apartment, he is stunned that nothing happens to them. The father doesn’t beat his son and the authorities don’t press the issue.  He knows this would not have been the case in his ‘hood.  He realizes soon enough that the inequalities of being poor just isn’t a money issue:

Not only does the government deprive low-income families of the opportunity to take care of their own kids and their own mistakes, it actively goes after them in the form of drug raids, weapons sweeps and other such policy initiatives.  I learned this a few years later, when one of my neighbors was busted in a drug raid. Because he had recently turned eighteen, he was tried as an adult …and given twenty five years of hard time…..I remember Marc as the kid who used to pump me up with confidence, telling me that because I batted left handed I had a chance to be like the greatest homerun sluggers of all time.

I feel sorry for little Mr. Conley, everything in his life is about race and fitting in.  He admits that later in life, he became a bit OCD and to this day has to do things in pairs. Reading Honky  reminded me of I’m Down by Mishna Wolff.  Ms. Wolff talked a lot about race and fitting in, but her issue really was her absent parents and her need for love from them.  Mr. Conley’s early life is similar.  He never understood why his sister never had problems fitting in regardless of race. Obviously, she didn’t use race as her stumbling block.   Mr. Conley needed his parents to help him sort this out, but similar to Ms. Wolff, they were busy with their own lives and trying to survive as artists.

I understand that many kids have a desire to “fit in” and will do what they can to do feel accepted, but I’ve always believed that you need to be yourself – be a good person and the friend situation will work itself out.  Fortunately, for my mixed-race daughter, she seems to already understand this at eight years old.  She ‘gets’ that she will have friends based on similar interests and personalities, not race. Fitting in and friendship do not have to be about race unless you make it that way.  Unfortunately for Mr. Conley, his parents couldn’t help him with this.

The House I Loved

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is one of my all time favorite books.  I was thrilled to find the audio version of Ms. De Rosnay’s other book The House I
Loved, on the library shelf.  I needn’t have been so excited.

This story takes place in Paris in the mid-19th century.  For anyone who has been to Paris, you know that there are hundreds of little streets but also “les grands  boulevards:” Blvd. Ste. Germaine, Blvd. Haussman, Blvd St. Michel, Avenue de  l’Opera, to name a few.   Commissioned by Napolean III, Baron Haussman redesigned the city and these grands boulevards were very  controversial.  Obviously, the city plan is not controversial today and I never gave much thought as to what existed prior to this master plan.  I was hopeful  Ms. De Rosnay’s novel would provide some insight.

Rose Bazelet is one woman who is greatly affected by the redesign of the city.  Her house sits onthe small rue de Childebert and will soon be destroyed to make way for Blvd. Ste. Germaine. Rose narrates the story by describing her daily activities and  her love of the house to her long dead husband.  All of Rose’s neighbors had sold their properties and moved on, literally.  The book cover promises a woman who will stand up and fight for what she believes in.  As far as I can tell she left her house once to visit the city officials, lost her uneventful fight, returned home and never left again.

Rose reminisces about her life, their marriage and their children to her dead husband and tries to convince someone (the reader?) how much the house means to her.  I wasn’t convinced and I didn’t care about the house. As much as Sarah’s Key led me on an emotional roller coaster, The House I Loved left me yawning.  I only continued listening because it takes place in my favorite city, and there was supposed to be a “dark secret revealed.”  I already figured out the secret before it was revealed and it wasn’t original or spectacular. Bummer.

I was determined, however, to obtain something positive from this story. Since I didn’t know much about the layout of pre-Haussman Paris, I did a little research on the street name where Rose lived and found it to be a real street from long ago. Rue Childebert is listed on a French website that talks about the old streets of Paris.  So although The House I Loved wasn’t anywhere near a favorite, I’m glad it gave me incentive to reserach a little more Parisian history.

A Moveable Feast

To be honest, I never had much interest in Ernest Hemingway until I read The Paris Wife after Jim’s review posted on BGB. While reading about Hemingway’s life in Paris from his wife Hadley’s point of view (even the fiction version), I made a mental note to put A Moveable Feast on the short list.  Appropriately, I bought the book at Shakespeare and Company while I was in Paris and started it as soon as I returned home.

I chose the perfect time to explore Hemingway’s writings.  Fortunately for those of us late to this famous author, in 2009, Sean Hemingway took his grandfather’s notes and rewote several of Hemingway’s books based on his actual writings.   At the beginning of A Moveable Feast, Sean outlines the differences between the two editions. Since I never read the first one, I wouldn’t have known any differently, but knowing that this version is straight from the source and not edited by one of his wives makes me happy that I waited.

To learn more about Sean’s work, check out the NPR interview with him about his changes to Farewell to Arms.

Hemingway spent several years in Paris when he began his writing career in the 1920′s.  The 1920′s in Paris was a wild time. American artists were escaping prohibition in America and were able to live cheaply in Paris while dedicating all of their time to their profession.  The smallest detail of the everyday is exciting in this case. ( I always wonder if my Paris memoires would be this interesting, but probably not, I’m not Ernest Hemingway).

After you came out of the Luxembourg you could walk down the narrow rue Ferou to the Place St.-Sulpice and there were still no restaurants, only the quiet square with its benches and trees.  There was a fountain with lions and pigeons walked on the pavement and perched on the statues of the bishops.

Hello! I was just in that exact place!  That is the church square where I can trace my ancestry back to 1490. Hemingway was there too! Ok. I became just a little excited while reading this book.

Like most memoirs, each chapter can represent its own memory, completely separate from any other.  There isn’t a particular timeline that I could follow, but some subjects were deserving of several chapters. His good friend and poet, Ezra Pound, was one such subject.  F. Scott Fitzgerald is another example. Hemingway seems to have had a love-hate relationship with him.  He appreciated Fitzgerald’s writing talent but focused a lot of his own writing time on Fitzgerald’s drinking problem, erratic behavior and crazy wife Zelda .   He put a lot of thought into describing Scott’s looks the first time he met him,

 Scott was a man then who looked like a boy with a face between handsome and pretty. He had very fair wavy hair, a high forehead, excited eyes and a delicate long-lipped Irish mouth, that on a girl, would have been the mouth for a beauty. His chin was well built and he had good ears and a handsome, almost beautiful, unmarked nose.  This should not have added up to a pretty face, but that came from the coloring, the very fair hair and the mouth. The mouth worried you until you knew him and then it worried you more.

Hemingway also often describes what conditions were best for him to work. His trips to the track and the different people who he would randomly see in cafes were also parts of his life he described.  All of them quite fascinating.

Having lived in Paris myself, there is nothing further form the truth than Hemingway’s famous quote:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man [or woman!], then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.

When I return to Paris next time, and there is always a next time, I am going to explore Hemingway’s old haunts for myself.

Ayn Rand and the World She Made

People have very strong opinions about Ayn Rand. Personally, I never gave her much thought until the audio copy of her biography Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller ended up in my mailbox. (Thanks, Uncle Dave)

Extensive research went into this 20 hour (16 disc) audio book, and I listened to every minute. I now have my own opinion of Ayn Rand, and I will try to keep it to myself.

Ms. Heller starts at the beginning. Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum into a financially successful Russian Jewish family.  Her family had a rough time during the Russian Revolution, but from my perspective they managed to find ways to make it work. Rand wouldn’t agree with me.  From an early age, Rand couldn’t understand why she should be denied anything she wanted. Most children eventually grow out of this, accepting the reality that life doesn’t work that way.  Rand never did.  Her entire life was spent working for what she wanted, and in her case, ultimately achieving it.

She moved to America from Russia with the aspirations of becoming a famous writer.  Immediately after changing her name, she began her career as a screen writer in Hollywood.  The way in which she managed to land on Cecil B. DeMille’s radar would be called a ‘stalker’ today, but of course, she would never admit to this. Rand worked in the film studio’s wardrobe department and eventually wrote for silent films and then talking films.  Not all of her films were produced, but she wrote and was compensated for screenplays nonetheless.  From Hollywood to New York, back to Hollywood and New York, Rand never stopped writing (or creating drama) and we all know that it paid off.

Ms. Heller follows Rand’s life in detail, using interviews and journals as references.  I especially enjoyed listening when Ms. Heller pointed out discrepancies between what Rand had said in interviews and the truth which was uncovered later.  Rand liked to say that no one ever helped her get to where she was. In fact, that was false, as many of her acquaintances pointed out – she had plenty of help, which Ms. Heller outlines.  That’s not to discredit her hard work and determination.  She had ambition, there is no doubt.

Ms. Heller also reviews the plots of the books The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in detail, pointing out events and people in the novels which corresponded to Rand’s real life.  This part of the biography is very important for any Rand worshipers.  When her stories and her life are linked together, the mystery and “brilliance” of Rand fade away, in my opinion.  Like most writers, she wrote what she knew and her writing reflected her life’s experiences.  Great philosopher? Or just reacting to those who had wronged her?

By disc seven, I was listening to a soap opera – a wonderful distraction from rush hour traffic.  At one point in her life,  Rand decided she wanted to take a lover.  She presented the reasons for this affair to her husband and to the wife of her soon to be lover – neither denied her.  The story becomes even more bizarre during the next 14 years as Rand becomes a marriage counselor and the couples become closer than ever.  Tune in to find out the rest of the story!

The Fountainhead brought much fame to Rand and by the time Atlas Shrugged was finally published (a story in itself) she and her “Objectivism” philosophy had obtained a cult following.  This lends more drama to her soap opera life.  The rise and fall of her followers, by Rand’s hand, each have their own individual story and Ms. Heller gives us the insights to those as well.

In the end, Rand achieved what she always wanted.  It is not surprising, however, that she was not a happy person.  She had plenty of followers but not many real friends.  So the question I ask is: “Genius?  Or spoiled brat?”  Each reader can decide for themselves, but either way Ayn Rand’s life was definitely fascinating and entertaining.

Bookstores we love: More in Paris

I was a student at the Sorbonne in Paris in the 1980′s – back when we only had books made out of paper.  Surely you remember?  I was really hoping that in this age of “electronic everything”, I would still find the book stores along the Boulevard St. Michel with their rolling carts of books lining the sidewalk.  I wasn’t disappointed.

For the first time, I noticed all of the “Livres Anciens” (rare books) stores around the city.  Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for my family, I was only able to peer into the windows at these rare antiques.  Every store was closed as we passed, so I was only able to take a couple photos.  Next time.

Bars on the window of a book store?!

And just because it’s cool - check out the life size chess board in a park in Geneva, Switzerland! (Lucky for me, there was a similar sized checkers game nearby too.)

(See my post on Shakespeare and Co, too.)

Bookstores We Love

While on special assignment for BGB in Paris, guess where I picked up a copy of A Movable Feast?  I only thought it was appropriate having just finished A Paris Wife.

Remain In Light

When I finished Conquering Venus by local author and friend of BGB, Collin Kelly, (see my review here) I remember thinking I couldn’t wait for the second novel in this trilogy. But a couple years have passed and I asked myself  “Do I really have time for the second book, Remain In Light, when frankly, how could it be better than the first one?”  Two weeks before leaving on my own Parisian journey, I figured what the heck.  I settled right in and immediately felt comfortable and thrilled to be back with my friends Martin, Diane and Irene.

Remain In Light opens three years after the end of Conquering Venus with Martin living in Paris with Irene on rue Rampon.  I was happy to see that the former agoraphobic Irene, is now able to leave her apartment and join the world. YAY!  And is Martin over David? Well, not quite.  But Diane is restless in America and returns to Paris to join them.  Before leaving however, she is confronted by David’s psycho parents and learns that David is back in Paris – another reason for her to cross the ocean – to protect Martin.

Once Diane lands on rue Rampon, she settles into her hotel and lands a job with Martin’s unsatisfying neighbor/beau.  Irene’s hope for continuing the normal routine of the past three years has vanished as strange events begin to occur.  While in London for Princess Diana’s funeral, Irene’s apartment is robbed, she spots a private detective spying on her from the Bel Aire Hotel, and her own private detective suddenly has some clues for her about the man she’s been searching for.  It could be just a coincidence that everything is happening at the same time, but there is no such thing as coincidence.

Irene’s 30 year search for the truth behind the death of her late husband, and Martin’s recent meeting of beautiful boy Christian intertwine and connect in ways I didn’t suspect (I tried to guess though).  Without being obvious about it or making me feel stupid, Mr. Kelly does a great job bringing up events from the first book so he can wrap them up in this novel.

The greatest quote in the story comes at a point that I can’t mention because I would reveal too much, but not only are they words of advice for us all, but may just set Martin up for the third book:

“Try to be hapy Martin,…People deserve second chances, Remain in light; don’t dwell in darkness.”

Mr. Kelly did it again for me with Remain In Light and yes, I look forward to catching up with Martin, Irene and Diane in the final installment.  Would you understand Remain In Light without reading Conquering Venus? Why try? Read them both.

The Paris Wife

Like fellow BGB Blogger, Shaft, I love Paris. In fact, I am traveling there in a couple of weeks to introduce the City of Lights to my eight year old daughter. I had seen The Paris Wife by Paula McLain in every bookstore window but knew nothing about it until Shaft’s great review (read it here). I knew I had to put it on my list immediately and decided to listen to the audio version. Shaft’s review is dead on, so my commentary is only to confirm “what he said” without repeating too much.

The Paris Wife is indeed the story of Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson’s marriage as told from Hadley’s point of view. The story moves easily from their meeting to their marriage and through all of their travels – Paris, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada. They moved around a lot. In each location they were able to make friends with all the vanguards of the era: Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Scott Fitzgerald, Sherman Anderson. I was amazed at the lifestyles they lead including sexually open marriages and a motherload of cocktails and wine.

The 1920’s was an interesting time in history, for women especially. The 1920′s woman was emerging as a stronger force then she had been, more edgy and more opinionated. She cut her long hair into a bob (VERY edgy) and the corsette accompanying those long Victorian dresses were giving way to a more comfortable style à la Coco Channel. Hadley, eight years older than Ernest, was still a bit old-fashioned. Despite their lack of money and her frequent unhappiness, Hadley was willing to sacrifice her life and her career as a concert pianist, for Ernest’s ambition. She tried her best to keep the relationship going even while Ernest’s eye began to wander and he eventually bedded her best friend. Although when they married, Ernest was still a relatively unknown, during their marriage his popularity gained momentum with the success of The Sun Also Rises based on their travels to Spain. Their childhood experiences make their attraction inevitable. Ernest didn’t want a wife like his mother, and his egocentric personality boded well with the nurturing Hadley.

Although at times Hadley struck me as a woman all too eager to suffer for love, I was thrilled that she ultimately gained the strength to do what was best for her and their son. Even though Hadley had no clue what the future held, we know that Ernest Hemingway was destined for a miserable life, but she wasn’t.  And that made me happy.

I lived in Paris in the 1980’s and although still cool – the famous Parisian eras of impressionist painters and Hemingway’s literary cronies were long over. Heck, even Madonna who began her career in France had already come and gone. Throughout The Paris Wife, Ms. McLain reminds us that the Hemingways and their famous friends hung out at places where even I have memories: the Latin Quarter, Boulevard St. Germain, La Coupole, La Rotunde, Deux Magots, Montparnasse, and Brasserie Lipp. In its splendor, Paris remains a character in this and many other novels and stories, as it should be. You can’t forget Paris!

Prior to reading The Paris Wife, I am ashamed to admit that my knowledge of Hemingway consisted of The Old Man and the Sea from high school and his house in Key West with the seven-toed cats. I can honestly say that A Movable Feast (based on his life with Hadley in Paris) and The Sun Also Rises are now on my list.

Anna of Corotoman

I’ve been conducting a lot of ancestry research lately so when I found the name of the slave owner that probably owned my husband’s family, I was thrilled but surprisingly very uncomfortable.  I can only imagine how author Barbara Frank felt when she found a Bill of Sale for a female slave in an old farmhouse in Virginia, but I do know what she did.  Ms. Frank was inspired to write Anna of Corotoman, the first book in a trilogy about a young girl kidnapped from her African home and brought to the United States to be a slave.

In Africa, Anna is a princess in a tribe ruled by women.  In 1715 she is captured and brought to the Carter plantation in Lancaster County, Virginia.  Anna is fortunate enough to find herself working in the house and not the fields (we all know this, of course, based on movies we’ve seen).  The story follows Anna as she learns about her new country, her new place in life, and introduces the reader to many characters that would have played very important roles on a working plantation.  Sara is in charge of the kitchen and takes Anna under her wing for many reasons but early after Anna’s arrival, Sara recognizes a mark on Anna which signifies her rank as a very important person in her African tribe.  Sukey, the nurse on the plantation, has been around for a couple of generations and is well respected by both blacks and whites.  She has been known to never be wrong when she has “thrown the bones” (talking with spirits, predicting the future using bones).   Despite what seems to be an easy transition to her new world, Anna never loses sight of her origins and continues to practice as many of her old ways as opportunities arise.

Since Anna of Corotoman is a trilogy, it’s safe to report that she survives her life in America, so I won’t get too much into the details of what happens to her. Honestly though, I was waiting for some explosive, horrible, unthinkable event in the life of this new slave.  Spoiler alert – that doesn’t happen.  Anna isn’t a typical slave/master story with beatings and cruelty.  Although Anna hears about plenty that happens to other slaves, she is spared of this treatment.  And really, isn’t being a slave cruel enough?  When descendents of slave owners say “….but they were good to their slaves..”  I want to scream “But they were slaves – how good could it have been?!”    Through Anna, Ms. Frank brings us that other side of the Antebellum South, one we don’t read about often because we’ve come to expect whippings and hangings.

I asked Ms. Frank, who was very receptive to my emails, about the absence of cruelty in her novel and her response:

“The truth is there is little understanding out there of the history of slavery. It was never good, but human nature has not changed that much and there were good guys and bad, just like now.  Anna is with a master known to history as a good one, and in one of the most prominent households of the day, one looked to for example and emulation.  She suffers bitterly in any case, and loses her life, in essence — the life she was born to lead.”

Ms. Frank writes with an eloquent and poetic style.  Once into the rhythm, it’s hard to stop reading.   Although not filled with the horrors of other novels of this genre, I felt claustrophobic just reading about Anna’s description of her holding place on the ship that brought her and hundreds of others to the new world:

She willed herself to raise her right hand, then her entire arm to feel the surface above her face.  It was of a rough wood, like the place where she lay.  She calculated that if she were to draw her body into an upright sitting position, the top of her head would not quite clear the ceiling above her.  She would have to duck down and sit with drooping head and shoulders.

Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Frank doesn’t sugar coat the reality of what happened, Anna just doesn’t have a master that beats and rapes her – I suppose that he and his wife show as much respect as they could have for the time period.

I was also curious about the princess thing. Why couldn’t Anna have been just a normal girl? So I again emailed Ms. Frank who in addition to being an author, was a professor at Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia (Ms. Frank, for the record, is Caucasian).  Again, she was kind enough to respond:

“The reason I made Anna a princess probably has more to do with my generation’s experience and not with that of yours.  She had to be someone remarkable in order to demonstrate and emphasize that the society she entered had neither interest in nor comprehension of who she was.  That remained so for generations, on all counts for the most part, no matter the accomplishment or character, with early efforts on the part of slave owners to root out African customs, religion, etc., even though they did not fully succeed. I also wanted to write something for my students — the ones at Howard and at UDC — who struggled with self identity and felt they had little to look to as heritage they could either claim or understand or be proud of. My coming to know them was juxtaposed against also coming to know some of my fellow faculty members at the time who were black, but had grown up and studied in Haiti and in Cuba as sovereign people and acted like it.”

Lightbulb! This gave me a brand new perspective on the story.  Anna is based on a true story – there were African princesses that were captured.  We aren’t taught this in history class, so I had no idea.  Ms. Frank has inspired me to conduct more research on this.

Anna of Corotoman is currently only available in e-book format. If you haven’t downloaded a book yet, let Anna be your first e-book (as it was mine) .  Ms. Frank writes a beautiful story through Anna and although the subject matter remains uncomfortable, Anna is a strong girl who makes the best of her life and never loses her spirit.  I know when my daughter is a little older, she will enjoy reading about this amazing girl that could have been one of her ancestors.

Snow

After finishing After Dark by Haruki Murakami, which left me rather confused, what did I do? I popped in the first of what would be 15 long discs of Snow by Orhan Pamuk.   Reading the back cover, I would have thought Snow would be right up my alley – the story takes place in a small town in Turkey and deals with Muslim girls wearing or not wearing head scarves.  Unfortunately, listening to this one didn’t make my commute go by any faster.

Ka, a Turkish poet, has spent roughly a decade of exile in Germany.  He returns to Kars, a small Turkish town of his youth, as a journalist to investigate a rash of suicides by young Muslim girls.  It is presumed that the girls are killing themselves due to a new law by the Turkish government forbidding them to wear their headscarves to school.  Is this the true reason for the suicides?  Ka claims he has come to town to learn the truth.   His real goal appears to be to find Ipek, the beautiful, recently divorced woman of ealier days and profess his love to her.

Once in Kars, Ka moves rather easily around the town, discussing religion, suicide and love, in exhaustive detail, with anyone he can find, which is rather easy since all the roads are closed due to a massive snow storm.  He connects with government officials and those that are hiding from the government and seems to move seamlessly between these worlds.  He witnesses a murder and an uprising.    While learning more about God and religion, Ka spends so much energy pining away for Ipek that I felt embarressed fo him.   Listening to him go on and on I felt like I was trudging through five feet of snow never reaching my destination.

Did I mention that Mr. Pamuk writes in amazing detail?   Some readers will find his descriptions poetic and beautiful.  They were just too much for me.  I continued to insert cd after cd, waiting for something to happen, and when it finally did, I almost missed it amidst the drawn out dialogue.  I listened to every single cd and was surprised by the turn of events at the end.  Or maybe I was just glad it was over.

 Snow was recommended to me as one of the “best books I’ve ever read” by my very intelligent uncle, so although the critically acclaimed Mr. Pamuk wasn’t my style, he could be yours.

Rin Tin Tin

(Another guest post by our friend Debbie in San Francisco. :

I never saw the TV show “Rin Tin Tin”. Never saw a single film starring Rin Tin Tin. Never owned a dog. And yet, and yet….Susan Orlean’s opus to the showbiz dog told me all that was necessary to know about the story of this beloved canine character. The book tells a story, wrapped up in a story, wrapped up in yet another story.

The first story is a plastic figurine of Rin Tin Tin that the author’s grandfather keeps in his office. He does not let the children touch or play with the beloved item (more on that later). The next story is the author feeling compelled to share the story of this wondrous showbiz dog and how she became compelled to do so. Then of course, the next story is of the dog itself, and the man who created the legend. It doesn’t end there. Yes, there is another story, and that is of the continuing parade of dogs that keep the Rin Tin Tin legend alive and the dramas as they are pulled into service to share with a rapturous audience, both on the large and small screens. Then the final story is the denouement, the aftermath….and like many things in life, it fades to black.

While all this sounds convoluted (too many stories?) it is not. Orlean is a master at weaving compelling narrative, and she helps the reader make sense of it all. She is a generous writer, in that she is explanatory and helps us all keep things straight in our minds as we’re turning pages.

The tyranny of the years is sadly apparent in this book, as I was hoping for a little more emotive narrative, a la “Seabiscuit”, which made me cry. I did not cry in one place in this book, which surprised me, as I was prepared to do so. Those of you who are interested in Hollywood history will enjoy this book, as “Rinty’s” story could not be told without sharing the underbelly of the entertainment business at the time. With a bit of Kismet, the quasi-silent “The Artist” has won an Oscar this year. We learn a lot about the migration of Rin Tin Tin films from silent to dialogue-filled “talkies”. The author has some beautiful prose about the magic of movies and the emotional spell they cast on audiences. I was riveted.

This book is a life story. It’s a life story of not one dog, but of a character, an idea and a celluloid creation. The idea keeps a number of people happily employed, and we learn of their sagas in turn. When the last pages are unfurling, the reader feels a sense of joy for having known the story of Rin Tin Tin.

p.s. at the end, the author shares that her grandfather had a momentary lack of judgment/generosity, and lets the kids play with the Rin Tin Tin figure he treasured. Guess what happened to it?

Those Who Save Us

Germany during WWII is such a horrific part of history, why do I continue to become engrossed in this time period?  Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay remains one of my all time favorites. Why do I torture myself?  Since I don’t feel like digging into the self-help books to find out, I’ll just continue reading this genre because even after turning that last page I never stop thinking about them.    Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum is no exception.  Ms. Blum took me on another emotional ride through this part of history.

Trudy is a college professor embarking on a study of Germans who lived in Germany during World War II.  She questions them about their lives during this time, what they saw, how they acted etc…. she encounters some very interesting people.  In reality, she is using these interviews as a means to understand her mother.  Anna, her mother, isn’t talking.  She and Trudy moved to America from Germany and although Trudy was a little girl during this time she doesn’t remember the details about how they survived.  Frankly, Trudy has no idea about the truth of her existence.

Ms. Blum keeps the story moving even as she alternates between Anna and Trudy’s current life and their past life in Germany.  The story begins with Anna as a young adult who takes care of her father in their home.   She doesn’t get out much but when she does she encounters a Jewish doctor with whom she ultimately falls in love.  The war begins and life drastically changes for the worse.  Anna manages to hide her lover in a crawl space in her house.   He is ultimately discovered by Anna’s father who promptly turns him over to the authorities and throws a pregnant Anna out of the house.

Anna takes refuge with the local baker, who is still able to keep baking, thanks to subsidies from the German government.  More unfortunate events occur while the two women raise Trudy and then very unexpectedly, Anna finds herself running the bakery alone.  A Nazi officer enters the bakery one day, likes what he sees (in Anna, not the bread) and proceeds to make weekly visits taking what he needs from her (in the upstairs bedroom).  Anna figures out quickly how she can use this officer to keep herself and Trudy alive.  Her neighbors look at her accusingly and want nothing to do with her.   At the end of the war as her neighbors yell profanities, calling her a traitor, she is saved by an American soldier who marries her and brings her and daughter to America.

Interspersed between Anna’s story, we take an emotional journey with Trudy as she learns more and more about herself and her mother while conducting very painful interviews.  Through these interviews, she meets a man who knew her mother in their German town and her history begins to unfold.

A quote from the Nazi soldier sums up all the characters in this story:

 “Do you know, you alone save me. Your purity, your values – our shared values – they elevate me above the filth that surrounds me every day. You are my savior, he says. After all, if not for you, I might have been pulled into Koch’s decadence [reference to an unethical commander], and then I too would have been removed from my post. We might never have met, Anna! I often think of that.  As do I, says Anna.  As do I.”

In retrospect, every character in this book is being saved by someone and is saving someone else from something –  from emotional issues or frankly, from death.   The relationship between the Nazi officer and Anna is the most thought-provoking one to me in this story.  I’m a sucker for mother/daughter stories.  Obviously, Anna wouldn’t have chosen to be involved with this man, especially knowing that if the truth was revealed about her daughter’s father.  Having been involved with a Jewish man in this manner could have been death for them both.  But Anna had her sweet little girl.  If you’re a mother you know that you would do anything and everything in your power to keep your baby alive.  I can only imagine the mixed emotions Anna lived with every day – the sickening feeling of having this man force his way into her life, but his actions equal survival for them both.

Fiction? Supposedly.  But Jenna Blum herself is of  Jewish and German descent.  I imagine that much Those Who Save Us is based on her own family history.  If you are also intrigued with this genre or heart wrenching mother/daughter tales, then add Ms. Blum’s first novel to your list.

After Dark

I’ve never read anything by Haruki Murakami but I’ve seen his name a lot lately.  Looking him up at the library I found his novel After Dark.  Not having any clue about Mr. Murakami‘s style or the subject of the story, I inserted the audio book with much anticipation. I popped that CD right in.

Taking place during the wee hours of one night when most people are sleeping, we are told from the very beginning that we are mere observers into the story – a bird flying above or a solitary camera.  The narration begins objectively to find nineteen year old Mari Asai reading alone in a Tokyo Denny’s.  She is approached by college student Takehashi, a  part time jazz trombonist who reminds her that he has met her and her model sister Eri before.  This chance meeting drags Mari into a virtual foreign world far from her suburban life.  Fluent in Chinese, Mari soon finds herself in a “love hotel” helping a Chinese prostitute who had just been beaten.  As the night continues, she becomes familiar with the hotel’s staff and not only learns their secrets, but confesses her own.  Many of Mari’s secrets relate to her insecurities surrounding her beautiful sister.

During Mari’s story, Mr. Murakami reminds us that we are just observers as we frequently visit Mari’s sleeping sister Eri.  We learn later that Eri has been sleeping for two months and no one knows why.  And frankly, neither do I.  Mr. Murakami takes the reader on a bizarre journey from Eri’s sleeping room, into a television set with a man with no face. Uh, ok.

The camera also jumps into the life of the man who beat the Chinese prostitute.  Not a very interesting man, he works a lot of hours at a company while his wife dutifully waits for him at home.

I found After Dark very odd.  The individual stories were compelling enough to hear through to their respective conclusions, and the third party observer perspective was unique. Although not giving any obvious insight into the actual thoughts of the characters, I was able to form my own judgments based on their dialogue and actions.

After traveling through the book as a simple observer, my take away is the story of the two sisters, one who deeply cares for the other.  I also enjoyed the Tokyo setting and little American references – the Denny’s where the story begins and the mention of Hall & Oates on the sound system.

Once in a while I am interested in broadening my horizons to challenge myself.  I’m not giving up on Mr. Murakami, he has received accolades for his work.  Maybe after experiencing a couple more books, I will come back to After Dark and say “A-ha, of course!”

The Abstinence Teacher

After listening to The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (my review)  I was interested in checking out some of his other work.   I chose the audio version of The Abstinence Teacher, frankly because it was immediately available at the library.

Ruth, a divorced mother of two girls, is a Sex Education teacher at the local high school.  She is serious about her subject and wants her students to be armed with all of the facts.  Seemingly overnight, complaints about the curriculum are grabbing the attention of the school and local school board.  Coincidentally, the congregation of The Tabernacle, the local Evangelical Church, is becoming a louder presence in the community and suddenly Ruth is instructed that “abstinence only” will be taught, no questions asked.   The order doesn’t end Ruth’s continued conflict with the school officials and the new beauty-queenesque “Abstinence Consultant.”

Added to Ruth’s career angst, her personal life is boring.  A re-connect with her pudgy teenage-sexual-partner-turned-hard-body is a complete bust.  Then one day, Jesus-loving Tim enters her life and she is shocked and embarrassed at the feelings he stirs within her.  To add insult to injury, not being a fan of the Tabernacle doctrine, her daughters come home and tell her they want to go to church to “get to know” Jesus.

Tim, divorced father of one daughter and former drug addict/alcoholic/rocker, is a new member of the Tabernacle.  He is trying very hard to live a successful Christian life with his new Christian wife, but constantly struggles with his former self.  He can’t stop thinking of bedding his former wife as she greets him at the door in lingerie.  And the thrill of having played the guitar in a rock band must be currently fulfilled by jamming during church services.  Tim enters Ruth’s life when, as soccer coach to Ruth’s daughter, his faith overcomes him after a game and he prays with the team.  When Ruth hears about this, she and he have a heart to heart meeting which temporarily halts Ruth’s continued actions against him.

Contrary to what the title may suggest, The Abstinence Teacher isn’t only about Ruth.  Every character in Mr. Perrotta’s book abstains from something –whether by choice or not.  Ruth’s students are denied the facts, Ruth’s gay friends are denied the right to get married, her previous pudgy teenage sex partner must be denied the food that he used to enjoy, Tim’s ‘Christian’ wife denies herself in order to please her husband, and the list continues.  By bringing all of these characters together, Mr. Perrotta creates a story about this suburban town and what happens when the Christian Right invades and imposes their beliefs on everyone.   If I think about this subject too much, I become aggravated as The Abstinence Teacher poses more questions than answers about what should/could be done in this situation which seems to be currently happening all over America.  Thus, I choose to enjoy the story simply as entertainment.  Becoming upset is not the goal of listening to audio books during a long commute.

I have concluded that I have enjoyed all of Mr. Perrotta’s books thus far (Little Children, The Leftovers, The Abstinence Teacher) because I can put myself into any one of his stories.  Some readers don’t want stories so true to life – too depressing.  However, I find Mr. Perrotta’s sarcasm and humor extremely entertaining as I sit in traffic.  The Abstinence Teacher allows you to go deeper if you want to, but you can also enjoy it as is.

Anne’s Favorites of 2011

2011 felt like a slacker reading year for me.  But after reviewing my list of reviews of the past year, I’m happy to report that my top five are books that made such an impact on me that I have recommended them over and over to fellow readers.  In fact, all of the following titles (in absolutely no particular order) are now on my list of Favorite Books of All Time.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly was my entrance into the Young Adult genre (after other failed attempts of Twilight and Harry Potter).  Ms. Donnelly’s vivid and realistic picture of life during the French Revolution helped me sort out some facts while transporting me to another era. (my review)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is the unbelievable story behind the HeLa cells which became some of the most important tools in medicine.  I couldn’t put this one down. (my review)

Girls on the Edge by Dr. Leonard Sax gives us some disturbing insight into what issues currently face young girls of today.  Although I didn’t review this one, I was mesmorised by Dr. Sax’s extensive research on the problems for girls: from mean girl issues to Facebook to environmental chemicals that could be detrimental to their growth.  As the mother of a daughter, I read it in a couple of hours.  Technology is new to most of us parents, Dr. Sax reminds us that we’re the parents, and just because it’s new doesn’t make it ok all of the time.

Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand is the unforgettable story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic Athlete turned extraordinary POW survivor.  He is an inspiration for us all!  (my review)

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes is fiction, but may as well be non-fiction.  I can only imagine that Mr. Marlantes, having served in the Vietnam War, came extremely close to experiencing the horrors described in this story.  A book about war that I never thought I would have picked up and am so glad I did. (my review)

The Leftovers

I received the audio version of The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta from BGB Headquarters right after Tim read the book. Check out his review, too.

What would you do if suddenly millions of people disappeared from Earth? No explanation offered – one moment you’re having breakfast with your kids and the next second poolf! they are gone!  Would you be capable of resuming your life? Would you just give up?  Personally, I’ve never thought about it before, but now thanks to Tom Perrotta, I have.  In The Leftovers, Perrotta brings us his interpretation of this very situation in the town of Mapleton.

The title alone suggests an unsettled feeling and makes me think of old food in the refrigerator.  Maybe the people left behind weren’t good enough to be chosen.  Chosen for what? No one really knows since there is no rhyme or reason as to who is chosen.  Due to the randomness of people taken away, the citizens of Mapleton are depressed, angry and bewildered.

Mr. Perrotta focuses on one family who has a rough time, even though their immediate family remains intact.  Laurie, wife and mother, abandons her husband and two children to join a cult called the “Guilty Remnants”.  Their goal is to ensure that no one forgets the Sudden Departure by dressing in white, not speaking in public and silently stalking the townsfolk around.  They are also required to smoke to “proclaim their faith.”  I found this oddly amusing as Laurie becomes completely immersed in the GR despite their bizarre habits.  I was hopeful that she would regret her decision and return home but that was wishful thinking on my part.

Kevin, husband and father, is elected mayor and tries to cope by helping the community.  Since his wife has left him, he attempts some sort of normalcy by dating, but it’s hard to find anyone that hasn’t developed some odd psychological behavior due to the Departure.  His strongest attempt is with Nora who has a strange fascination with the cartoon “Sponge Bob Square Pants”.  While focusing on his own life, he neglects his teenage daughter who is in desperate need of a parent.  Her mother abandoned her, her dad doesn’t know how to reach her so like any troubled teenage girl, she becomes preoccupied with her ‘new’ friends, parties and subsequently fails her classes in school.  Her brother, Tom, follows a self-proclaimed healer called “Holy Wayne” across the country and then is lost when the prophet loses sight of his original dream of healing people and ends up in jail.

At first the story appears very serious and at times depressing, but then I found myself laughing and feeling guilty about it.   I felt better after hearing the interview with Mr. Perrotta at the end of the audio book (bonus!).  He says that his original intention was to write a comical book about this situation and although it turned serious, he managed to maintain some of the humor he had originally wanted.   I already mentioned the Guilty Remnants making me chuckle, you’ll have to read the book to catch the others.

Even though The Leftovers doesn’t really have a traditional plot, the characters kept me entertained and  I really enjoyed listening to it. I recommend it to anyone else who uses audio books as a means to contain their road rage.  It also got me to thinking about the people that have simply disappeared from my life. Sometimes they died and sometimes we just grew apart and they were gone.  Compared to the family in this story, I’m doing pretty well.

Steve Jobs

(This is a guest post by our friend Debbie in San Francisco.  She couldn’t stop talking about this book. )

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and Albert Einstein: His Life and Universe) is everything a reader could want and more. It appeals to those interested in the formative years of Silicon Valley and personal computing.  It also appeals to those who like to read success stories of groundbreaking corporate founders and even has something special for readers who just like a well-crafted biography.  But the most rewarding thing to take away from the experience of reading this book is the feeling that we have a front row tour of the history of our beloved Apple products.  We learn how the iPod’s continuous scrolling functionality came to be.  We read about who’s idea it was to make the earbuds pure white on the iPod (hint: it’s not Jobs).  Credit where credit is due is another reason this book should be required reading for anyone who uses Apple products.

Do not be fooled by the author’s seemingly breathless and gossipy tone.  While off putting at first, we realize that this is necessary to tell the tale from multiple viewpoints after many exhaustive personal interviews with major players.  The only way to tell the story is to tell what others say and how they feel and that cannot help but read like “he-said/she-said” gossip.  However, since most all the players are living, the device works.

The ultimate triumph of the book is that Isaacson was able to speak to Jobs himself while there was still time.  Over the course of two years, Isaacson conducts over forty in-depth interviews with Jobs.  During the process it’s clear the two develop a friendship of sorts. Jobs implored his biographer to tell the whole story, even if it made him look bad, which it often did.  The perspective gained from these sessions is infinitely rewarding.  Add hundreds of interviews with others and the resulting prose is dramatic and compelling.

And yet, and yet.  The same reader could feel that something was missing in the story.  The book leaves us wanting to know a little bit more about how Mr. Jobs became so brash and narcissistic in the first place, as these traits are usually visible at a very young age.  We never really learn where in his formative years this behavior was allowed to take root and take over.

We get a glimpse of his earlyish years and the fascination with electronics (remember Heathkits?).  We see the willfull youth pushing back on hapless adults (and maybe not so hapless as in the case of Bill Hewlett who ended up offering the 13-year old Jobs a summer job after the kid looked him up in the phone book and called him to inquire about an electronic part).  We see a friendship of youths forged of mutual interests from different perspectives between Mr. Jobs and Wozniak (“Woz”).  The symbiotic (maybe opportunistic?) nature of this coupling is apparent when we read about Woz’s interests (tinkering, hacking, open systems, freeware) and Jobs’ (closed systems, marketing, aesthetics, revenue streams).  These opposing worldviews remain firmly in place throughout the book and professional careers of these gentlemen.  They never really meet in the middle even though they created something significant together.

The best part of this book is the wild ride and we are in the front seat with Jobs (or at least Isaacson).  The adventure that is creating the epic masterpiece that is Apple, which is the world’s most valuable corporation on some days, next to Chevron.  This is no small feat, and the story is transfixing.  Mr. Jobs outsize personality dwarfs most other players, making reading this book exhausting.  But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Creating something this successful IS exhausting, so the reader really gets a sense of the drama and hard work and human interplay that gets inserted to each corporate situation and strategy.

Jobs’ lack of interest in the trappings of vast personal wealth is fascinating.  He and his family seem grounded and as normal as they could be under the circumstances.  Opulence was not something to which he aspired.  He aspired to seeing Apple’s ideas manifest in physical reality of useful and pleasurable objects that serve and entertain.  Mr. Jobs is the Chief Architect of this unprecedented bout of forward motion in manufacturing excellence. As stated elsewhere, he deserves a seat in the pantheon of America’s best business leaders.

After all this, we really want to see the protagonist (is Jobs the protagonist?) personally redeemed.  Sadly, this is not the case. That is one of the great disappointments about the book, and perhaps his life story.  We see the fractured relationship he has with his children which the author describes in painful detail.  The heartbreak of the youngest daughter when a long-promised trip to Kyoto is cancelled by Dad  was especially hard to read.  Also hard to read was Jobs’ clear favoritism toward  his son Reed.

Jobs has been identified as having a narcissistic personality disorder.  Author Wendy T. Behary  in an Oct 06, 2008 article offers the best definition of a narcissist I have seen:

A quick definition of a narcissist: someone who has an exaggerated sense of self-worth, is highly self-absorbed, entitled, condescending, superior, show-off-ish, competitive, and approval-craving. They do not appreciate the impact of their often obnoxious behaviors on others. They have a lot of trouble with empathy and with the notion of give and take.

In the end, we are left with Mr. Jobs’ outsize personality and its effect on those in his family, friends and colleagues.  Much of it is gut wrenching.  How much was necessary?  Given what was created in its wake, maybe all of it.  The reader is left not with a feeling of disgust toward Mr. Jobs’ obvious personality handicaps, but a feeling of gratitude for all that was created under the sheer will of Mr. Jobs.  He has made millions upon millions of lives better, and reading a book about this remarkable evolution is a reward in itself.

Thank you. Jobs and Isaacson.  I am going to read Steve Jobs a second time.

Unbroken

I unintentionally jumped from the Vietnam War (Matterhorn by Karl Melantes) right into World War II by listening to Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand.  I had heard it was a great story without being aware of the subject matter.  If I had known I may not have listened to it, but I am certainly glad I did.

The book chronicles the epic transformation of Louis Zamperini.  His life story is so compelling that Ms. Hildebrand (Seabiscuit) decided it was worth telling.  Louis is a young boy being raised in Torrance California. He spends much of his youth during the 1920′s stealing from people and getting into all kinds of trouble.  For being so mischevious, his personality is bright.  He is perennially upbeat.  He lets no one discourage him; he does what he wants.  His saintly and high-achieving older brother Pete saves Louis several times, but the last time he had to make a deal with the high school principal.  Louis wouldn’t be punished if he ran on the school’s Track team.  This turning point in Louis’ young life gave him a passion he didn’t know he had and he ultimately breaks the mile record all the way to the 1936 Olympics.

World War II breaks out in time to cancel the 1940 Olympics and Louis becomes an airman, flying for the US Army Air Corps, the precursor to the US Air Force.  During an air fight, Louis’ plane goes down in the Pacific Ocean with two other men.  The details of their 46 day survival are too impressive and creative to give any spoilers – it’s unbelievable but true.  In fact it should be said that this entire story is true, which makes it that much more incredible.

After a dramatic water shooting scene, Louis is captured by the Japanese.   We are filled with relief and joy when he’s captured because life in a POW camp has got to be better than life on sea.  Not so in Japan.  Throughout Louis’ two year stay in several Japanese POW camps, he is consistently beaten, starved and injected with unknown substances.  The Geneva Convention had drawn up international laws for POWs which the Japanese chose to ignore.  In fact many of their camps were hidden and unknown to anyone other than the Japanese military.   The worst abuser of all is a man named Watanabe. He is noteworthy because he chooses Louis out of hundreds, to beat daily. It is as if he recognizes Louis’ strong spirit and takes it as a personal mission to squash it.

It is said that man can survive without a lot of food and water, however, if a man loses his dignity there is no hope.  While being held captive, the prisoners find various ways to keep this dignity: they steal and share food, and communicate with fellow prisoners by addressing the Japanese guards, knowing the guards do not understand. The communication is for fellow prisoners.  In one camp in which they aren’t allowed to speak at all, they communicate in Morse Code with their fists.  In so many ways they learn how to trick the guards.

After the war when it seems everything should be going well, Louis and his friends continue to struggle through psychological turmoil.  Although Louis marries and tries to live a conventional life, he has nightly flashbacks and dreams of Watanabe and the horror he inflicted.   His wife works hard to be supportive, but even she starts to lose hope.  One evening, Louis has an encounter that changes his life – and that’s all I’ll say.   It is possible to Google Louis to learn the rest of the story, but I didn’t.  I wanted to listen to it via Ms. Hildebrand.

Ms. Hildebrand brings us a shocking tear jerker – tears of sadness and horror and tears of joy.   Louis Zamperini is an amazing man.  He endured torture that none of us can imagine. Throughout it all, when he thought he couldn’t take another lashing, he found a way to keep his dignity and he lived on.  Louis didn’t just survive the camps, after the war he eventually found a way to flourish and use his experiences to help others.  He remained positive and upbeat. According to his brother Pete, everyone loved Louis.  He truly was unbroken.

My respect for our troops and veterans that was renewed while listening to Matterhorn, only deepened after listening to this magnificent story.  So many combat veterans have and survived by the skin of their teeth, ready to sacrifice it all for America.  I am grateful to Ms. Hildebrand for bringing us this detailed chapter of World War II.   I’m also thankful that she researched every character’s life after the war.  So often after reading these stories I’m left with an emptiness of not knowing what happens.  I’m happy to learn the rest of the stories in Unbroken.

Matterhorn

After reading about how Tim learned about the novel Matterhorn by Karl Melantes and then reading his review, I decided that this war book had to go on my list.  I didn’t read it however, I listened to it.  I’ve seen plenty of movies about the Vietnam War but I’ll admit, I never thought I’d be interested in reading about it.  Reading or listening, Matterhorn is one intense novel.

The story begins with a very graphic incident of a leach being found where no leach belongs. (I had to actually look up leaches because I didn’t realize how horrible they can be.) We quickly learn about crotch rot, heating coffee in cans with explosives and living in a jungle with no food or water.

Yale educated, Second Leutenant Mellas, has volunteered with the Marines during the Vietnam War.  He wants to believe that his reasons for volunteering are to build his resume.

Mr. Melantes immediately transports us into the jungle, to a mountain called Matterhorn, where we follow Mellas through his first three months in Vietnam.  Mellas and his company, due to egos above them, are forced to survive for seven days on just a few days of rations.  They are ordered to build barracks and then ordered to leave and build somewhere else.  They are forced into ambushes for which they aren’t equiped.  And although discouraged by losing limbs and lives, they march onward to finish the job that they have been ordered do complete.

There are quite a few battles raging throughout the story in addition to the war.  Within the company, the racial unrest reflects the inequality at home. The captains and colonels making the strategic decisions are fighting their own political war as well, which makes me just as ill as the actual fighting.  And throughout the story, Mellas has his own internal conflicts –  did he try to save the wounded soldier because he wanted the medal? or because he cared?  Can it be for both reasons?  He spends a lot of time contemplating the war, his friendships and his past.

Mr. Melantes has written a war novel for men and women.  Men love war scenes, right?  I enjoyed these glimpses into war myself,  but I may not have enjoyed the story as much without the complete development of the characters and their relationships with each other.  I really cared for these ‘kids’ and was brought to tears several times.

When Matterhorn ends I wonder what happens to everyone.   The story only covers the first three months, then what? What does Mellas become? What about the young men who begin their adulthood fighting in a war?  I want to believe everyone gets out, but reality in war dictates that very few will come out alive or whole.   If Mr. Melantes decides to write about the rest of Mellas’ tour, then my questions will be answered.

Tim:   Hi, Anne.  Hate to muscle in on your review here, but I just wanted to note that Karl Marlantes is reading tonight at The Tattered Cover in Denver.  Which is where I am this week.  Woohoo.   Carry on.

The Red Umbrella

Had I known the subject of The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, prior to reading Barnacle Love, I could have written a great comparison between the two.  Both deal with individuals moving to a new land – trying to fit in.  In Barnacle Love, the main character has a difficult time of it, and the ending isn’t happy or warm and fuzzy.  Ms. Gonzalez however, brings us a YA novel with a more pleasant ending that I enjoyed.

Unbeknownst to me, in 1961 thousands of parents loaded their children onto boats and planes to escape the communist changes of the Cuban revolution.  This event was called Operation Pedro Pan.  Ms. Gonzalez’s parents were part of this exodus and their story was the inspiration for The Red Umbrella.

Fourteen year old Lucia and her younger brother, Frankie, are living a very comfortable, carefree life in Cuba until they notice soldiers all over town.  Their father loses his job as a government official and after returning from an unexplained absence is forced to find work as a manual laborer.

Lucia just wants to be a normal girl.  She tries to engage her best friend, but she attends the Communist youth camps, and is obsessed with Castro and the great changes he is bringing to the people of Cuba.

Lucia’s parents manage to secure visas for the kids and they are shipped to the United States – alone.  They spend a few months at a a camp in Florida and thanks to some connections, both are lucky enough to travel to the same foster family in Nebraska.

While in Nebraska Lucia confronts the same challenges as all teenage girls.  In addition to her coming of age issues, Lucia has to deal with the issues of being different and not knowing if she’ll ever see her parents again.

Although Lucia tells a story that relates to teenagers of any era, this isn’t 2011, it is 1961.  Leave it to Beaver was still on the airwaves.  This was also the age of The Kennedy’s, space exploration, the Cold War, West Side Story and Breakfast at Tiffany’s – a more naïve part of our history when international travel was not common for most Americans.  Cubans, in particular, were treated with a bit of caution due to the events surrounding the Bay of Pigs.

Lucia has a few rebellious moments during her self discovery, but manages to keep her head up and stay positive.

Ms. Gonzalez brought me to tears throughout The Red Umbrella.  As a mother, I can not imagine sending my child away with the uncertainty that I may never see her again. Also as an adult, I would have enjoyed learning more about this period in Cuba’s history through the story, but, the book wasn’t written for me, the adult. It was written for the young adult.

The Red Umbrella would be a great addition to a young adult’s libryary.  Reading about someone else’s struggles can be very therapeutic.  Throw in some Cuban and American history and our YAs will become more worldly.  I’m hanging onto this one for my daughter.