The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh – A Woman in World History

I resolved to get back on track with posting for 2008 and have decided to stick with the brief synopsis plus pros/cons format.

As Linda Colley, the author of The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh, states in the introduction, this book tells three stories – the life of Elizabeth Marsh, the lives of her extended family members and most importantly, the historical events which were taking place during this time period. This book is not a biography of Elizabeth Marsh; it is more of a historical textbook with Elizabeth’s story interwoven throughout. I think that Colley found that Marsh was the perfect vehicle to describe the tumult of globalization during this time period. None of Marsh’s travels or experiences could have occurred were it not for the spread of English imperalism, the Revolutionary War and the economic ties that were beginning to interconnect the world through the East-West trade of salt, tea, textiles, etc.

Elizabeth Marsh lived from 1735 to 1785 and during her life she lived in England, travelled to Morocco (she was the first woman in history to write about Morocco in the English language), and lived and travelled extensively in India. What is remarkable is that most of her life was spent journeying alone or in the company of men who were neither her relatives or husband.

Marsh was a resourceful, independent woman who continually changed her path depending on her financial resources and personal situation at the time.

I admire Colley’s decision to interweave a biography with a historical narrative. However, I did not feel that Colley had enough information to write a true biography of Marsh. She was able to state the facts of Marsh’s life, but there was minimal information as to her state of mind and emotions which is what typically makes biographies engaging. While I learned a lot about England’s imperialist developments during that time period, the Royal Imperial Navy, the East India Company and global trade routes in the mid eighteenth century, I was never fully immersed in Marsh’s life.

The “+”:

- Detailed historical description of global events in the mid 18th century
- Lots of detail around the merchant society of that time and the expansion of British imperialism in India
- Impressive research into the extended Marsh family and how members of their family dispersed around the world

The “-”:

- Not enough information about what made Elizabeth Marsh tick (because that documentation doesn’t exist)
- Very dry; I would have preferred if this book was made into a historical novel and Marsh’s emotions and relationships embellished
- Tough read unless you are a world history/women’s history fan

Nitro’s 2007 Wrap-up

I know that this is the time of year that you are supposed to reflect on your achievements, disappointments, highs and lows for the year. I think it’s much more fun to take a look back at your book reading for the year. And I have to say – what a year it was! When I went back through everything that I had read this year, I realized that not only was it a prolific year but truly a year for originality and a lot of damn good books.

Unfortunately, my posts to this site slowed down to a halt the last few months of the year, but that was due to my over-scheduled, stressful life, not to a lack of reading either books or this blog. It’s hard to believe that this blog started as a year-end list and look how far it has come.

Hats off to Tim for keeping it going despite many days, weeks, etc when he was the only one adding info onto the site. And without further ado, here’s my list of my favorites that I read in 2007…….

• Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
• What is the What by Dave Eggers
• Brookland by Emily Barton
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie
• Yiddish Policemen’ts Union by Michael Chabon
• Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
• Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander
• The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

And I still have some honorable mentions (it was tough this year narrowing down the selection):

• Wild Trees by Richard Preston
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson

Hmmm…..Interesting that my runner’s up are all non-fiction. I guess for me – there’s still nothing like a gripping novel.

Manhunt – The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer

Manhunt – The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson is the poster child for why bookclubs rock. This was my bookclub choice this month and a book that I would never have picked up on my own. This detailed account of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth was a fascinating snapshot into Lincoln’s assassination and all of the characters involved in both the crime and the following 12 days before Booth’s demise. This book was filled with a myriad of facts and information that was completely new to me. Did you know for instance that the actual assassination plan involved the simultaneous murder of Secretary of State Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson? I don’t think that I was ever taught that in high school US History.

The book is very detailed and somewhat long but provides the reader with a real feel for not only the escape by Booth and his accomplices but also what was going on amongst the politicians, miliarty, press and American people during this time period.

The +
- Interesting snapshot of a turbulent 2 weeks in American history
- Swann’s research into this book is impressive. No detail, letter, or fact is left out
- Even for someone like me who is neither a Lincoln buff, nor even an American history buff – it was an enjoyable and fascinating read

The -

- Very long and you have to push through the first 50 pages to get into a rhythm
- Not enough detail about Booth’s motivation
- The myriad of people involved (particularly all the military involved in the chase) became a little confusing

The Septembers of Shiraz

Having finished The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer a couple of weeks ago, I am motivated to get my post up since the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, was in NYC last week continuing his lunatic rants.

In her debut novel, Sofer tells the story of a prosperous Jewish family living in Tehran in 1981. Isaac Amin, the patriarch of the family, is arrested and thrown into prison for being wealthy and Jewish. The story details Amin’s experience in a dank prison cell where his fellow inmates are tortured, often killed and have no legal recourse at all. His wife, unaware of where her husband has been taken and his fate, struggles to get through daily life and begins to mistrust everyone, including her long-time housekeeper.

I was most affected by the 9 yr old daughter, Shirin, who is told that her father went away on a long trip and in an effort to shield her mother from additional pain, does not have anyone to share her feelings of loneliness and fear with. Her fellow classmates are all Muslim and one of her closest friend’s father is actually in charge of identifying citizens to target for arrest (including her own family). She just tries to blend in and get through each day. The last member of the family, Parviz, who attends college in NYC, finds himself suddenly cut off from his family and without any financial support. He ends up living in a Hasidic community and struggles with his own identity and place in the world.

This book is beautifully written and very moving. Similar to a A Thousand Splendid Suns, it conveys that there was a time in Arab countries, where life was good regardless of your religious, political and/or economic status. And then comes regime change(s), and anyone can be left as a persona non grata overnight. Sofer left the reader feeling the same mistrust, uneasiness, and fearfulness as her characters.

Considering that Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map and believes that Holocaust was a myth, the Amin family in this book were probably a lot luckier than most Jews who were/are left in Iran.

The +
- Fantastic debut novel by a woman in her 30′s
- Beautifully written, very intimate portrayal of a family in crisis
- Gives a great back drop to what is currently going on in Iran
- If you liked Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns – this book is for you

The -
- None!

Nitro’s Vacation Read Wrap-up

Now that my vacation memories are fading quickly, I am going to wrap up with my last 2 books.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was the perfect vacation read. I picked it up at 10 am once I got set up at the beach, didn’t bother to even put it down while eating my tuna sandwich (sand being the operative word) and didn’t engage in conversation during cocktail hour because I needed to finish the last 50 pages of the book. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down.

Spanning three decades in Afghanistan, Hosseini once again (his first novel was the runaway hit, The Kite Runner) creates a beautiful novel about Afghan culture, customs and the impact that years of war have had on this country. Even pre-Taliban, Afghanistan has always been a heavily male dominated culture and this novel told from the perspective of two women, demonstrates the inherent denigration of women in this society.

Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy business-man who is forced at 15 years old to marry a much older man. Mariam is independent and intelligent as a child but when she marries Rasheed who is cruel and abusive, she becomes a submissive shadow with no hope for the future. A few doors down, lives Laila, who has a very happy childhood with many friends and enlightened parents. When her parents are killed during the civil war, Laila has no way to survive on her own in a society where single, unmarried women are worthless. I don’t want to give away anymore but the intertwined lives of these two women is heart-wrenching.

THE (+)

• Even more engaging than the Kite Runner since it was from a women’s perspective
• Multi-dimensional characters that create instant empathy from the reader
• Demonstrates the strength and power of friendship between two women
• Educated me that while Afghanistan may have once been a beautiful country (pre Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban), it has always been an inequitable and harsh society for women

THE (-)

• I’ll have to wait a couple more years for his next novel

And I guess that whatever book I read next would have been disappointing so The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery just left me feeling ho-hum. My disappointment stems from the fact that this could have been a great book.

The setting is end of the 19th century Japan when Western culture is first starting to infiltrate traditional Japanese society. Aurelia is a 9 yr old American who travels to Japan with her missionary uncle who ends up dying shortly after their arrival. She is taken in by Yukako Shin, the daugher of the most famous temae (tea ceremony) teacher in Japan. Told from the perspective of Aurelia as an elderly woman, she recounts her life and the many changes that took place in her family and society as Japan opened itself up to the West. The details about the tea ceremony, geishas, samurai, the caste system, and the political climate at the time, were somewhat interesting but I can’t decide if Avery was too descriptive and hence lost my interest by the sheer length and density of the book or whether she was not descriptive enough to give me a full appreciation for the uniqueness of this time and society.

THE (+)

• Garnered enough interest in tea ceremony that I would like to attend one
• Learned lots of interesting facts about 19th century Japanese women – i.e. they blackened their teeth and shaved their eyebrows
• Japanese culture is so unique so you were immersed in a completely different world

THE (-)

• Too long – could have been better edited.
• Aurelia’s persona was never fully developed.
• Depicting Aurelia as a lesbian did nothing for the story and was actually distracting. The dichotomy of Japanese and Western culture was enough without adding in this additional cultural clash.

Vacation Reads – Part III

My book-club selection this month was The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. Marina Buriakov is an 82 year old Russian immigrant afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease. The novel flits back and forth between the current day in which Marina can not even remember whether she has eaten breakfast or recognize her own daughter and the siege of Leningrad at the beginning of WWII where her family ended up living in the basement of the Hermitage.

Marina was a tour guide in the Hermitage when the war broke out and was responsible for packing up for storage the thousands of paintings, statues and art works that the Hermitage housed. The siege of Leningrad devastated the population many whom nearly died of starvation and Marina had to to eat the glue from the picture frames to survive. The book is filled with many references to famous works of art and conveys how the beauty of art can provide solace during the worst of times.

THE +

• Good descriptions of many works of art
• Describes Alzheimer’s and how much more devastating the disease is for the family members than for the patient

THE -

• Overall, was uninterested in any of the characters, even Marina
• Had no real ending and didn’t link Marina’s past and life as an American together
• Boring and just didn’t float my boat

I’m lukewarm on this book and unless you have any interest in Alzheimer’s or Leningrad -pass.

Vacation Reads – Part II

Chabon, Safran Foer, Lethem – we sing their praises and love their quirky, cutting-edge stories.  After reading, Ministry of Special Cases, Nathan Englander should definitely be included with this crew.

This witty, unique novel takes place during Argentina’s “dirty war” and tells the tale of a middle-class, Jewish family that is just trying to make it in a world run by a terrorist government that is kidnapping and disappearing students and other leftist citizens. The story is about the complexity of family relationships and what happens to a family unit under times of duress and, ultimately, tragedy. The main character, Kaddish, is disliked by his son Pato, tolerated by his wife Lillian, and just tries to make his family happy while making a quick buck along the way. When Pato disappears, the many paths that Kaddish and Lillian follow to try and find him and their accompanying emotions keep the reader completely engrossed to the gripping finale.

THE +

• I know it’s a cliche, but this book makes you laugh, makes you cry, and experience the full range of all the emotions in between
• The writing is brilliant and the story is well constructed – full of symbolism, humor – and keeps the reader gripped until the end of the book
• Englander’s use of Judaic rituals and themes is clever and seamlessly interwoven throughout the book
• Introduced me to the Argentinian “dirty wars” which I knew nothing about and engaged me to do some research about what went on during those years

Big thumbs-up from me. Even better than Yiddish Policeman’s Union. (I know blasphemy…)

Vacation Reads and More: Part 1

I have fallen way behind on posting some of my recent reads. To further add to the backlog, I just came back from a beach vacation where I basically sat under an umbrella and read for a week. Due to time constraints as well as lack of motivation to write thorough reviews on all of my recent books, I have decided to go with a new format based on my other favorite blog – Midtown Lunch. This blog is geared toward the food-obsessed like myself who doesn’t want to eat a deli sandwich every day for lunch. The blogger posts on all the cheap restaurants, food carts, etc in the NYC midtown area. He summarizes his lunch experience, post some photos, and then does a +/- section.

I have decided to follow this format by posting a brief summary of each book and then a +/-. The goal will not be to provide a true review of each book but rather to either garner interest or disinterest in any of these books from our readers.

Here goes (in order of read the longest ago to most recently read):

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

This book was previously reviewed here by RaeRae but as a refresher, Kingsolver and her family move from Tucson to a family farm in Appalachia and decide that for 1 year they are only going to eat food that is grown locally and seasonally in the Virginia area. She has 2 daughters, a teenager and a pre-teen, so it is all the more impressive that she managed to do this considering how challenging it often is to cook for children. Kingsolver’s basic premise is that if we really want to stop harming the environment, then eating locally is the way to go. Her descriptions of how much fuel and resources are used to transport food are mind-boggeling.

She acknowledges that this experiment is “easier” for her since they live on a farm and are able to grow the majority of their produce and raise turkeys and chickens. However, she gives a lot of guidance throughout the book on how to make small changes in your food buying and eating habits.

It is amazing how much the availability of food has changed even in my lifetime. When I was growing up, you couldn’t buy a perfectly ripe peach in the middle of January – it just wasn’t available. And that is exactly Kingsolver’s point – you should eat what is seasonably available. The amount of damage to the environment as well as the economics of transporting that tree-ripened peach in the middle of January is nonsensical.

Kingsolver keeps the book entertaining by including recipes, funny stories as well as lots of historical facts.

THE +

• Powerful statement about our eating habits vis-a-vis the environment
• Motivated me to shop at my farmer’s market on the weekends
• Good recipes
• This book has become a topic of conversation amongst my friends

THE -

• I was paralyzed the other day in the grocery store when I wanted to buy apples for my kids and they were all from Chile. I succumbed and bought them anyway
• In the 21st century, you shouldn’t have to deprive yourself of eating bananas because they don’t grow in the northeast
• I’ve been feeling way too guilty eating a lot of my meals

Next up:

The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

This was one of those books that got a lot of hype in 2006 and definitely did not live up to all the hullabaloo. The book describes the lives of three privileged 30 yr old New Yorkers right before and after 9/11. There is the beautiful daughter of a famed journalist who has never done anything with her life, the more homely, intellectual documentary film maker, and the resident gay male to round out the three-some. Interwoven with these three characters is the famed journalist and his subservient wife, his nerdy, brilliant nephew from Middle America, and lastly the daughter’s sarcastic, condescending fiance. Sound pretentious and contrived? Well it is. I did not find any of the characters in the least bit likable and my main problem with the book was that the writing was pretentious, over-wrought, full of run-on sentences and much too wordy. And in what I found to be a lame and almost offensive ending, Messud used the tragedy of 9/11 to neatly wrap things up for the characters and their ongoing issues.

THE +

• Any book set in NYC is somewhat interesting, because I know the streets and restaurants they are referring to
• The characters are so pathetic that it makes you feel that much better about your life

THE -

• Way too long, no real plot, like reading a bad reality show
• Completely uninterested in the characters
• Use of 9/11 to “wrap things up” really stank

Obviously a thumbs down for me.

And on that happy note – I will sign off and continue the vacation reads in parts 2 and 3.

North River

As many of you know, I love historical fiction and am particularly partial to stories set in New York (Brookland being a recent post). One of my favorite NYC historical fiction novels was Forever by Peter Hamill. The synopsis was that the main character, Cormac, was shot and then granted eternal life as long as he never left Manhattan. Cormac then lives in Manhattan over the next 250 years and the reader gets to see Manhattan in its finest glory through the years. I loved this book and recommended it to many friends.

Thus, I was excited when I heard that Hamill published a new book, North River, which was also set in NYC – this time during The Depression. I picked up the book with enthusiasm, but could not get past 20 pages without being lulled to sleep. For complete disclosure – my reading is done during my commute on the train into the city which does have a very lulling effect. However, a good book will always keep me awake despite the rocking whereas a boring book will just cause my eyes to close.

The story centers around an Irishman, Dr. James Delaney, who has had a lot of misfortune in his life, and is living alone in poor Greenwich village, serving his community (comprised of Italian gangstas and your average poor New Yorker suffering through the depression) as the resident doctor. His wife vanished a couple of years ago, his daughter is living in Mexico with a revolutionary and he lost the use of his right arm during WWI which wiped out his dream of being a surgeon. He is living a completely miserable life until his 3 year old grandson is left mysteriously on his doorstep.

Delaney through his toddler grandson, Carlito, and the woman, Rose, who he hires to take care of the boy, slowly reawakens to the world through the power of love and realizes that life is wonderful and vibrant. Sound shmaltzy – well it was. And not only was it a trite and so done storyline, but the history was not even gripping. There were many references to Tammany Hall political power and one of the interwoven storylines centered around two rival Italian mobsters but all of the characters were one dimensional and there was nothing remotely exciting about the events that were described.

I can’t abandon any book, no matter how bad, so I did finish the book and the ending was even more disappointing in its ridiculous predictibility. Hamill is a renowned NY journalist and novelist and has written 9 novels and published many essays and articles. Hopefully North River was just an anomaly in his writing career.

The Wild Trees – Awesome recommendation

I don’t think that we have spent enough time touting one of the great benefits of this blog – the recommendations of our fellow bloggers. I love being part of my book club because it forces me to read books that I would never typically pick up. And now I feel that BGB is accomplishing the same thing.

RaeRae’s recommendation for The Wild Trees was so compelling that I decided to check it out even though I had absolutely no interest in the topic. Contrary to RaeRae’s first sentence, I wasn’t captivated by the redwoods and had never even thought about them. Since I finished the book – I can’t stop thinking about these trees to the point that we are now trying to plan a trip out to the Redwood forest in the fall. Furthermore, I am now compulsively staring at all the trees in my neighborhood and trying to figure out how tall they are, what type of ecosystem might exist on them and whether it is climbable or not.

This book is fascinating and really pulls you in. I was fully vested in the character’s quest to find and climb the Tallest Tree. I was also awed by the character’s passion for the redwoods. I admire anyone who is so dedicated and committed to their field/and or hobby that they pursue it to the highest level of success.

RaeRae – thank you for posting on this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish and have definitely learned a decent amount of botanical knowledge – who else knows what a lichen is?

Chabon – Part tsvey (that’s Yiddish for 2)

Phew! I am very happy that Shortbus posted about this book first making my job that much easier. She already pretty much covered the synopsis so I will just highlight my thoughts.

I completely agree that it started a little slow. I had been looking forward to reading it for so long and then once I started, it took me almost 2 weeks to get through the first half of the book. It was extremely wordy and did contain an inordinate amount of detail about the characters, the town, the varying Hasidic sects, etc. This book is ripe to be made into a movie. With all of Chabon’s description, I can already picture exactly what the movie sets and actors would look like.

The brilliance of this novel was in the total craziness of the premise. It is such an absurd idea that instead of Israel, all the Jews would have been settled (albeit forcibly) in Sitka, Alaska, yet Chabon managed to make it so realistic that it didn’t seem so ridiculous. The question that has really troubled me about this book is whether a “goy” would like the book. It is SO heavily geared toward a Jew that I can’t imagine that it would be as interesting or funny to a non-Jew. The book is strewn with Yiddish phrases which were part of my vernacular growing up but had they not been – would I have found all this terminology frustrating or annoying?

I was fascinated by all the sections about the Verbovers, an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sect, who live on their own island and are so heavily financed, armed and powerful that they could have been interchangable with the Jersey mob save for their 18th century style dress attire. I am curious as to whether Chabon ever visited Kiryas Joel, which is a village that is about 1 1/2 hours north of New York City and all of its residents are Satmar Hasidic Jews. Verbover Island seemed like a replica of Kiryas Joel except they had a lot more money and a lot worse weather conditions.

It’s definitely one of the most original books I’ve read and like Shortbus, I couldn’t wait to find out the who and how dunnit. I think Chabon purposely left enough material for a follow-up book.

Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those books that has been on many award/best of lists. I picked up this book as well as Digging to America by Anne Tyler after they were both on the Orange Prize Book Award. I did read Digging to America, and it’s not even worth posting on so we’ll just move on to this wonderful book which deserves any prize that it wins.

The book takes place during the Nigeria-Biafra war which took place from 1967 – 1970. It is told from the viewpoint of 2 sisters, Olanna and Kainene, and the 3 men in their life. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing about Biafra and it probably would have been helpful to read the Wikipedia entry. The title of the book comes from the Biafran flag

As a brief summary, Nigeria is primarily made up of the Igbo (Christian) tribe and Hausa or Fulani Muslims. Most of the Igbo live in Eastern Nigeria and in 1967, an Igbo military commander, Colonel Ojukwu, seceded from Nigeria and declared Biafra an independent state. The war went on for three years with Nigeria blockading Biafra from receiving any supplies including those from the Red Cross. By the end of the war, more than a million people had died as a result of starvation and other war atrocities. By 1970, with no chance of survival and minimal world recognition, Biafra surrended and rejoined Nigeria.

As a brief summary, Nigeria is primarily made up of the Igbo (Christian) tribe and Hausa or Fulani Muslims. Most of the Igbo live in Eastern Nigeria and in 1967, an Igbo military commander, Colonel Ojukwu, seceded from Nigeria and declared Biafra an independent state. The war went on for three years with Nigeria blockading Biafra from receiving any supplies including those from the Red Cross. By the end of the war, more than a million people had died as a result of starvation and other war atrocities. By 1970, with no chance of survival and minimal world recognition, Biafra surrended and rejoined Nigeria. So now that you understand the backdrop of the novel, let’s get back to the characters. Olanna and Kainene are the twin daughters of wealthy Nigerians who have very different temperaments, hopes, desires and even looks. Olanna is the beautiful sister and Kainene is the homely one. Olanna lives with Odenigbo, who is known throughout the book as the Revolutionary Lover. He is a mathematics professor and surrounds himself with fellow intellectuals. They spend their evenings discussing politics, literature and the arts.

Odenigbo and Olanna are very involved in Biafran politics and are much in favor the secession. They have a houseboy, Ugwu, who is a poor village boy whose voice is heard throughout the novel. Ugwu, who I assume was representative of most of the Biafran population at that time, really had no understanding of the war. He just blindly followed his Master and believed that the Biafrans were “good” and the Nigerians “evil.”

Kainene is the more practical of the two sisters and is taking over the family manufacturing business. She lives with Richard, a white English man who desperately wants to be Biafran. When Biafra secedes, she views its effects from an economic standpoint and her discussions and relationships never center on the politics and morality of the war.

This is another story with a common theme of how upper-middle class families react during war-time. Similar to Suite Francaise, set during WWII, the main characters can not imagine how dire their circumstances can become. Their world, both economically and intellectually, shrinks little by little as the war progresses until by the end of the novel they are no different from the millions of other victims of the war who are starving and living in dire circumstances.

All of the characters are rich, multi-dimensional and their inter-locking relationships would have been enough material for a novel without the historical significance of the Nigerian civil war. That’s what makes this novel so wonderful – it is a story about relationships of all types – political, tribal, familial, romantic – and Adichie captures it all with beautiful prose and a gripping story. It was one of the books that I just couldn’t put down.

Lethem and Englander

Last night I heard Jonathan Lethem and Nathan Englander do a reading at the 92nd Street Y.  For clarification purposes, the dude on the cover of You Don’t Love Me Yet is definitely not Lethem.  Lethem did a great job reading one of the chapters by assuming the voices/personalities of his characters.  I have not read the book yet but as we have previously discussed, it’s about a nascent rock band in L.A.  During the Q&A, one of the questions referred to Lethem’s interview with Bob Dylan and asked what Lethem was currently listening to.  He talked a little about his love for music and then described how many people assumed he actually was a music critic since The Fortress of Solitude was semi-autobiographical.  He laughingly told how he got to jump to the top of the food chain and was asked by Rolling Stone to interview James Brown and Dylan even though he had absolutely no experience in this area.  Classic.

Nathan Englander also read from his newly released and first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases which took him 10 years to write.  He is definitely an interesting character – a real, “nebbishy” guy who was raised an Orthodox Jew and recently moved back to NY from Jerusalem.  He was clearly not comfortable doing the reading and speaking to an audience.  His voice throughout the reading was monotone and contrary to Lethem he did not give any insight into the characters.  That being said though, I found the writing much more engrossing than Lethem’s.  I read his first book of short stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which was reviewed by me here.  I look forward to reading his new book which is set during Argentina’s “dirty war” with a protagonist named Kaddish (which is the Jewish prayer of mourning).  So far the limited reviews have been positive and a main character named Kaddish is reason alone to pick up the book.

My one disappointment with the evening was that my question which was whether the ring in Fortress of Solitude actually had superpowers was not selected.  If you have read this book – please comment on your thoughts around the “super ring.”  It has always been something that remains a mystery to me. 

The Places In Between

Even though The Places In Between by Rory Stewart is not a post-apocalyptic novel, it certainly is the story of survival in extreme conditions.  Rory Stewart, a Scotsman, walked across Afghanistan in early 2002 right after the fall of the Taliban and this tells the story of his adventure. 

My initial reaction to this book was that this guy must be whacked, and this opinion did not change by the end of the book.  I am all for adventure but he walked in the middle of the winter through the most remote area of Afghanistan on unmarked roads, without a map, and would just arrive in these villages and sleep on the floors of the villagers huts.

The book was fascinating because I did not know much about the history, religion, geographic landscape, or the politics of Afghanistan but now feel a little more knowledgable than I was.  However my fascination was matched by frustration because Stewart discusses Afghanistan as if the reader knows the country as well as he does. 

Each village is run by a different tribe with different religious and political beliefs.  Halfway through the book, I was so confused between who was who and which village were descendants of Genghis Kan versus the Shia or Sunnis that I somewhat gave up trying to figure it out.  There is one map at the very beginning of the book that I kept having to flip back to but even that didn’t help much.  I think that if Stewart had given an introductory chapter on the history of Afghanistan and who ruled when and how it evolved to its current situation, it would have been much easier to understand and appreciate all the characters he met along the way.

My other disappointment in the book is that you never really got to know Stewart.  What motivated him?  Why did he make this trek?  The preface begins with

I’m not good at explaining why I walked across Afghanistan.  Perhaps I did it because it was an adventure.”

I would have thought that by the time he wrote the book that he would have figured out his motivation and perhaps allowed the reader to get to know him better.

The other aspect of the book which fascinated me was the hospitality afforded Stewart.  Apparently there is a basic Muslim concept that you must open your door and provide food and a place to sleep to any traveller.  In every village, Stewart found a house/mosque to sleep in and was provided a meal.  Could you ever imagine that happening in the US?  If someone knocked on your door and said they were walking across the country and could they sleep at your house for the night – you would slam the door on them and probably call the police.

I did enjoy the book and definitely learned more about Afghanistan and realized how similiar it is to the current Iraq situation.  In fact, in late 2003, Stewart was appointed to be a provincial governor of the Maysan province in Southern Iraq as part of the coalition govenment.  He just published a book, The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards about his year long experience as a governor and the reviews I’ve seen said that the book offers great insight into the chaos in Iraq. 

Brookland

As the resident blogger of historical fiction for BGB, I picked up Brookland by Emily Barton after seeing that it was in the Tournament of Books and that it was set in Brooklyn which is also a favorite locale of our blog.

The story takes place between 1774 and 1822 during the heart of colonial America when Brooklyn was known as Brookland. The main character, Prue, has inherited a gin distillery, Winship Daughters Gin, from her father, Matty, since he had the ill-fortune to not produce any male heirs. Luckily for our main character, he was an enlightened 18th century male and believed that his eldest daughter, Prue, was up to the task of running a distillery.

He begins training her at the age of 10 and by the time she is a teenager, she is practically running the distillery. The first half of the book focuses on Prue’s distillery training, life in 18th century Brookland, and Prue’s familial relationships; she has 2 sisters, one who is “mysteriously” mute (this becomes a key point in the novel which I don’t want to give away) and one who becomes her business partner.

She adores her father who is a role model in his community, and she has a rocky relationship with her tragic and depressed mother. Her parents die young and Prue and her sister, Tem, end up running the distillery at a very young age. As if managing a gin distillery before the age of 20 is not enough of an accomplishment, Prue decides to fulfill her dream of building a bridge from Brookland to New York. At that time, the only way to get to New York City was via boat, and Prue had a grand vision to build an architectural masterpiece.

The second half of the book focuses on the building of the bridge – from how Prue learns how to design and engineer a bridge to getting approval from the New York legislature to getting the bridge actually built. While bridge building is not a topic that excites me, Barton does an exquisite job of educating and enlightening the reader of the intricacies involved in bridge construction both from an engineering and political standpoint. Along the way, Prue marries, has children and continues to be caught up with family and community issues.

I really enjoyed this book and felt myself immersed in 18th century Brooklyn. All of the characters were fully fleshed out and multi-dimensional. Barton’s descriptions of the time period were so vivid that often times it felt like I was watching a movie rather than reading a novel. In fact, I would be surprised if this wasn’t made into a movie. My one fault with Barton’s writing style is that she chose to tell the story through Prue’s letters to her daughter, Recompense. I did not think this added anything to the story other than verbiage. Barton could have just as easily told the story in third person without losing any of the family drama. Good reading for any historical fiction lover.

The Namesake

More often than not, when I see a movie that was adapted from a novel I am usually disappointed.  That is definitely not the case with the movie I saw last night, The Namesake.  I originally posted on this book about 2 years ago and upon rereading my post, I remember that I was a little disappointed with the character development.  The strength of the movie and one of the many reasons that it was FANTASTIC was that Mira Nair, the director, beautifully developed all of the characters.  She really made you feel as if you were part of the Gangul family.  Her portrayal of family was not as a 3rd person observer; this was one of those films where you felt that you were immersed in all the personalities, conflicts and issues of the characters.  The cinematography was stunning and the scenes shot in India really captured what I imagine India to be like.  The beautiful costumes, music and even the lilting accents brought this story to life.  This movie not only got across its varying message of clashing cultures, how a name defines you, the identity struggle of many immigrants but it was also one of the movies that I would call an “escape.”  It made me completely forget about my little world for a couple hours and escape into that of an Indian family living in America.  Bravo.

Accessorizing with Lit

Straight from this week’s New York Magazine, a guide to what your literary journal says about you —

• The Paris Review – You wear blazers with only a dash of irony and lament the deplorable state of modern cocktail parties. You consider T.C. Boyle a hip young writer
• The Believer and McSweeney’s – You balance your hipster wit with do-gooder earnestness. You thought Colbert kicked ass at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
• n+1 – You think McSweeney’s writers are lightweights. You take pride in perfecting your intellectualized rants—cell phones and exercise as talismans of cultural decline, etc.
• Granta – You studied abroad in Britain, and you still won’t shut up about it. Graham Greene is your idol, and you use words like reportage.

You Don’t Love Me Yet

Hot off the press and to continue with our rockin’ book discussion, comes Jonathan Lethem’s new book, You Don’t Love Me Yet. According to the publisher, this book is a comic novel about “a girl, a boy, their band and the sea of hipsters they swim among.” The reviews aren’t great so far but he’s already offering a film option on the book.

How could this not be a BGB mascot? Speaking of mascot’s – someone should nominate a book that best represents the blog.

A Cook’s Tour

I am passionate about reading and even more passionate about food. I come from a family who thinks and talks about food ALL the time. A typical meal is spent as follows: first 10 minutes critiquing what is wrong or fab about the food we are eating at that moment, second 10 minutes discussing what we are going to eat at our next meal and last 10 minutes spent discussing new restaurants, where we recently dined, and where we want to dine. Needless to say, A Cook’s Tour, by Anthony Bourdain, should have been right up my alley. It was and it wasn’t.

The descriptions of the food and the local scenery were great but by the end of the book I was SO sick of Bourdain extolling his virtrues as an amazing chef and overall cool dude. Anthony Bourdain is the executive chef at Les Halles in NYC and author of Kitchen Confidential. Kitchen Confidential revealed all the secrets of the restaurant trade – never order fish on Monday, extreme abuse is the norm in restaurant kitchens, etc. For his next book, he pitched the idea that he would travel around the world in search of the perfect meal. The end result would be this book as well as a 22 episode TV show. Some of you might have seen the show – I think it has the same name as the book.

Each chapter takes place in a different country and describes the fabulous and wacky meal prepared and eaten by Bourdain. Vietnam is clearly his favorite destination and he devotes three chapters to his eating experiences there. I must admit that Vietnam has always been on my destination list and after this book – I can’t get there soon enough and consume my all-time favorite soup – pho. The book is not for the faint of heart as there is an enormous amount of varying kinds of coagulated blood consumed – pigs blood, haggis, lambs blood and testicles:

…God help me, I tore off a sizable piece of gonad and popped it in my mouth. It was sensational. Tender, even fluffly, with a subtle lamb flavor less intense than shoulder or leg; It was certainly the best testicle I’ve ever had in my mouth. Also the first, I should hasten to say. I enjoyed every bite. It was delicious. Delightful. I’d do it again in a hot second.

You get the idea. That was definitely one of his more wacky meals but for the most part they really made your mouth water. The chapter about San Sebastian, Spain was my favorite and having actually vacationed there in the past year, I can concur that if your ideal meal is having a glass or two of wine and a couple of pintxos (the Basque name for tapas) at many different locales, you must take a vacation there.

Where the book completely fell down was in Bourdain’s preening about himself as the “ultimate” cool, chef dude. His self-image is so over-inflated and just typified everything that is wrong with our celebrity chef culture. I’m sure he’s a decent chef and he’s obviously adventuresome but get over yourself. Given the opportunity – there are thousands of people (myself included) who would travel to crazy places and eat crazy things. He is literally begging the reader to say “Wow you are so cool………” but it had the exact opposite effect on me who said “you’re an idiot and ruined your book with your pomposity.”

The Inheritance of Loss

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai was probably not a good book choice coming right after reading What is the What. This book won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and has gotten rave reviews, but I was slightly disappointed by the book. While the subject matter was interesting and it was beautifully written, I did not enjoy reading the book. All of the characters were downtrodden and unhappy and there was no sense that there was any chance for change in the future. Even though What is the What told a horrific story, I still found it to be uplifting while this book was just depressing.

The book is set in Northeastern India at the foot of the Himalayan mountains and is filled with quirky Indian/Anglo characters. The main characters of the book are Sai, an orphaned teenager, who lives with her miserable grandfather, an upper class former judge. Sai is in love with her math tutor, Gyan, who joins up with the Nepalese revolutionary forces fighting for independence from India. Other characters include Biju, who is the son of the judge’s cook. Biju is an illegal immigrant in NYC eking out an existence and then various other Anglophiles who live in the town.

The story tells the lives of each of these characters with the dominant theme being how economically, politically and socially repressed each character is in this 21st century world. Even though the book takes place in such a remote part of the world, the people of this region can’t live together peacefully. The Nepalese hate the Indians, the Indians hate the Pakistanis, the Hindus hate the Muslims, the Sikhs hate the Hindus, and they all hate the British. All of the characters are caught up in their own form of hatred of someone or something else, and it seems that this cycle can not be broken.

My favorite character was Jemubhai, the judge. He is so wretched and pathetic that I was somewhat sympathetic to him in the end. He began his life as the son of a lower middle class Indian family. He wins a scholarship to study in England and then become a British civil servant. While living in England, he feels like he is completely invisible and non-existent in British society. He goes weeks, even months without speaking to a single person.

He grew stranger to himself than he was to those around him, found his own skin off-colored, his own accent peculiar. He forgot how to laugh, could barely manage to lift his lips in a smile, and if he ever did, he held his hand over his mouth, because he couldn’t bear anyone to see his gums, his teeth. They seemed too private…..To the end of his life, he would never be seen without socks and shoes and would prefer shadow to light, faded days to sunny, for he was suspicious that sunlight might reveal him, in his hideousness, all too clearly.

Even thought British society rejects him, when he returns to India and gets married, he ends up being repulsed by his Indian wife and the rest of the Indian community. He hates his native country, but neither does he long for England.

This theme is interwoven throughout the book as many of the characters are expatriots but find that their adopted homeland does not offer the dream life they wished for. Biju leaves India to find a better life in America but ends up without a green card, living in the basement of an Indian restaurant, being paid less than minimum wage, and having a worse existence than if he had just stayed in India. All of the characters have one sad story after another.

Perhaps if the current daily news wasn’t so bleak, I might have appreciated Desai’s prose more and not been so hung up on her pessimistic outlook. I have always loved novels set in India, but this just didn’t put a smile on my face. One of my favorite books about India is Far Pavilions by M.M.Kaye. I was hoping that Inheritance of Loss might have been an updated, 21st century version of that story, but it just didn’t do it for me.