tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28856526443488531572024-03-13T23:17:17.440-07:00Method to Her MadnessStephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-23484502259863419902023-07-17T14:17:00.001-07:002023-08-01T11:25:39.107-07:00A Kinder, Gentler Dubus?<p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I have described Andre Dubus III in the past to people who do not know his work, I used to say, "The man writes only tragedies." He writes of the woes of the working class, treating the same topics as Raymond Carver's K-mart realism, but with an antithetical style: he weaves intricate tapestries of trouble. His best known work is probably <i>The House of Sand and Fog</i>, on which an acclaimed movie was based, the story of a tug of war between two families, with the house in the middle; in the end, there are no winners. </span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7thhHxHvHxAx0P0bgSNxbwEExcQycV1JQ9WnxZ40yTjcj3uqErPSmvV6sTe2ngIzvWq6-kXqJSH3C9LFRaMy-zyVJOiHKWkrTrIuHggaN2kjpG5T8gCI-hj8JZXcLtRw6EIsBY5KmmqQVzxK3IX9ShC5tqrird3ahQjLQpRB6lRIQLCDkJqqndCPulSs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="210" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7thhHxHvHxAx0P0bgSNxbwEExcQycV1JQ9WnxZ40yTjcj3uqErPSmvV6sTe2ngIzvWq6-kXqJSH3C9LFRaMy-zyVJOiHKWkrTrIuHggaN2kjpG5T8gCI-hj8JZXcLtRw6EIsBY5KmmqQVzxK3IX9ShC5tqrird3ahQjLQpRB6lRIQLCDkJqqndCPulSs" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My favorite of his work is <i>The Garden of Last Days</i>, which alternates between the perspectives of a working class man, a stripper, and a pilot training to crash an airplane into a tower. Another work with only a kernel of hope at the end.</span><p></p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dubus' latest work, <i>Such Kindness</i>, focuses on one Tom Lowe, who has indeed been laid low. First by the variable interest rate mortgage fiasco. Then by a fall from the top of a roof he was repairing. Then from oxycodone addiction as he recovered from his broken back and pelvis. Along the way he lost his wife and son. Now Tom sits, or rather lies, in his Section 8 housing unit, fretting over what he can do for his son's 20th birthday.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;" /><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><div><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Then somehow Tom begins to change. He rediscovers the line between right and wrong, and determines not to cross it. </span><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">He becomes more open to his neighbors. </span><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And he begins receiving small gifts of kindness. Such kindness that he must pay it forward.</span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Glancing through other reviews of this book, I did see the word "cloying." And perhaps Tom's story is implausible to some. But perhaps those people have not hit rock bottom, and what a gift that is. I think it's a meditation on growth and gratitude, two things we all could use. </span></div>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-49445374462900694582022-07-22T10:01:00.011-07:002022-08-27T16:36:36.645-07:00Coming of Age: Girls on a Mission (and one boy)<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I recently read two books that reminded me of each other, and of a classic that has been fading in my memory, so now I'm rereading it. All are about young people doing more than coming of age: they are on a mission.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">First, I recently read Lauren Groff's latest novel,<i> Matrix. </i>I had no idea what it would be about and was pleasantly surprised to find it set in Medieval France. Her other books I have read, <i>Fates and Furies, Arcadia </i>(my favorite)<i>,</i> and the short-story collection <i>Florida</i>, are set in the contemporary United States. <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">I was thoroughly captivated by this beautifully imagined life of Marie de France, first known female poet of France, and her love for Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Marie, homely bastard child of rape, but educated and partly noble, is exiled from Eleanor's court to an English convent. There, she grows into her wit and wile, becoming Abbess, and creating her own miniature queendom inspired by stunning hallucinatory (and sensual) visions of women in power. This novel reminds me of Hilary Mantel's amazing trilogy on Cromwell that won two Booker prizes, because of the way we get to know this ambitious character in a thoroughly researched historical setting, but this time with no male characters to speak of.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtcRpvcjvfPMxVPMD7qGQxwW_44utqLHtFAhAI8hOaGVMyi_ot2iAmZWf1qzU6mmQMFyzsaIB5zkxAAw_TexP1gb2UIe1DN_ZEGPrZZpAiBz2ewgBX9fDjxd7WHTIs45J-NhwVt_z2xsg5WQhkuaoIXe2xtx9XVPycfDDW9ARQD8HoDzVi7W4gJoRW" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtcRpvcjvfPMxVPMD7qGQxwW_44utqLHtFAhAI8hOaGVMyi_ot2iAmZWf1qzU6mmQMFyzsaIB5zkxAAw_TexP1gb2UIe1DN_ZEGPrZZpAiBz2ewgBX9fDjxd7WHTIs45J-NhwVt_z2xsg5WQhkuaoIXe2xtx9XVPycfDDW9ARQD8HoDzVi7W4gJoRW" width="156" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNP3xva05KzHezmpI_XoZqv23aCJAdXvgfMKLoXuiirjo4ME7HcDOMT4DFJ1sNaCdguoJkTVeyBLRqdGCx5hU_LAg5P4fb3yk5ZIIx9dk1zjfLWlzCfxEIiSfs0J73C6hEGO6GKkP08KX4hwbbhkeKha-i7uawzDzSbGHcmRPdREjCntGyDww04F0c" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNP3xva05KzHezmpI_XoZqv23aCJAdXvgfMKLoXuiirjo4ME7HcDOMT4DFJ1sNaCdguoJkTVeyBLRqdGCx5hU_LAg5P4fb3yk5ZIIx9dk1zjfLWlzCfxEIiSfs0J73C6hEGO6GKkP08KX4hwbbhkeKha-i7uawzDzSbGHcmRPdREjCntGyDww04F0c" width="161" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>She Who Became the Sun</i>, by Shelley Parker-Chan, was even more impressive in its own way. The story opens on a father and two children in a drought in medieval China. The father gives his last fresh food to a fortuneteller, and learns that his son has a great destiny. The girl's destiny, of course, is "nothing." However, after the father is killed, the son gives up on life, and the audacious clever daughter says to herself, why should I not take over my brother's destiny? And so she does: she becomes the son. She goes to the local monastery, presents herself as her brother Zhu Chongba, and through persistence becomes its leader's right hand "man." When a eunuch general in service to the Mongols burns the monastery down, Zhu has found her foil: both are excluded from the realm of men, yet have found their own paths to power. It's a fascinating exploration of the conflict between fate and desire, and speculation on women in forbidden roles.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This second novel reminded me strongly of <i>The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer</i>, by Neal Stephenson. The place is also China, but several centuries after the Mongol invasion -- and after our present. The greatest similarity is a stolen fate. An engineer has been commissioned to create an interactive book that will train his patron's daughter to be subversive: to find a novel way to succeed in a conformist society. The engineer, of course, wants a copy for his own daughter, and goes to great lengths to create one illegally -- only to have it stolen by a street criminal, who gives it to his little sister. In this way, Nell unwittingly steals another child's destiny and will fulfill it in a most unexpected way. This Stephenson classic is not just a coming of age story, but a vision of a whole society molded by nanotechnology and the MC, or matter compiler -- basically, ubiquitous 3D printers that make manufacturing and shipping obsolete. It's breathtaking to go back to this book written in 1995 and see how far Stephenson was looking into our future, as he always does.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPkFVkxgQYgzQPA5vXpv71-bkOa_z4gRv7z4r2U35TaA-H6F2UwLfeKmvksMIMtHDor-4Bi4rQpnrDVNrRWJ5OBcrP0E7WwUDqFfzWbL5kjwycQf_XQrefd5Ykt_KBTG6ZkA0ew1CNf2fWrC0xw0QaF0so00BdVGHTVJ1xRSDmF4uZfaiLTYdmrdCR" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="301" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPkFVkxgQYgzQPA5vXpv71-bkOa_z4gRv7z4r2U35TaA-H6F2UwLfeKmvksMIMtHDor-4Bi4rQpnrDVNrRWJ5OBcrP0E7WwUDqFfzWbL5kjwycQf_XQrefd5Ykt_KBTG6ZkA0ew1CNf2fWrC0xw0QaF0so00BdVGHTVJ1xRSDmF4uZfaiLTYdmrdCR" width="152" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHbr6FLB4MTWFtmK0kxbt8pisw4FkpzKV95zymhWi5kq48Tis9w32TLmEhj2tfbyyyuFqRT_gn0oZAa0xxR_ZU9JdxbZuRi433NlijVzQMtcExwkJUThFjh_fUZVJhflUQ_8-JGb1juX-WJBnRSuQqpB_HaEclt4nQ238RSypxxNl4XJbzI787x1_s" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="166" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHbr6FLB4MTWFtmK0kxbt8pisw4FkpzKV95zymhWi5kq48Tis9w32TLmEhj2tfbyyyuFqRT_gn0oZAa0xxR_ZU9JdxbZuRi433NlijVzQMtcExwkJUThFjh_fUZVJhflUQ_8-JGb1juX-WJBnRSuQqpB_HaEclt4nQ238RSypxxNl4XJbzI787x1_s" width="159" /></a></div></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And if you want to round out your reading with a young <i>man </i>on a mission, I recommend<i> How to Find Your Way in the Dark</i>, by Derek B. Miller. Young Sheldon's mom and aunt die in a tragic movie house fire, in the years leading up to World War II. After the funeral, Sheldon's father's truck is run off the road and the father is killed, too, leaving Sheldon an orphan obsessed with revenge. He goes to live with the cousins who lost their mother in the cinema fire, and begins to seek out his father's killer. When he and his friend spend a summer in the Catskills, working as bell boys, he unexpectedly gets his chance. It's part boys' adventure, part chilling detective work. </span></p><p></p><br /><br /><p></p>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-88222350251570544892022-06-27T09:49:00.001-07:002022-06-27T11:29:21.429-07:00Emily St. John Mandel's Reading List<p> At the end of Emily Mandel's <i>Sea of Tranquility</i>, she lists these eleven books (including her own <i>Station Eleven</i>, must be a favorite number) that influenced her and that she recommends. I thought I'd share the list and my reactions.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVOWwzecApg2i89TxNSAH5Voj6hGDsj6Ikw5vwjV8sOIFRSZ15F7u5IVGbVbR_91XJgCESlVGfwPT-mce5RjyS_EFBBvxthPZ9YWbcOFRfYg90sdrW9oLb-_-02TSIniRVDki5p0SON2-dHt_1M6vAEz2rTBTiyr6g0VCeZEVEDJj0S0F_aGU6oGzj" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVOWwzecApg2i89TxNSAH5Voj6hGDsj6Ikw5vwjV8sOIFRSZ15F7u5IVGbVbR_91XJgCESlVGfwPT-mce5RjyS_EFBBvxthPZ9YWbcOFRfYg90sdrW9oLb-_-02TSIniRVDki5p0SON2-dHt_1M6vAEz2rTBTiyr6g0VCeZEVEDJj0S0F_aGU6oGzj" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">1. <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> by Margaret Atwood. I loved it, I have taught it, you may have watched it, now we're living it. If you haven't read it, you must. There's a reason it tops the list. </span></div><div><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">2. <i>To the Bright Edge of the World</i> by Eowyn Ivey. I loved it. In 1885, a US Army Colonel is sent to explore Alaska, while his wife reluctantly stays home, discovering birds and photography. You'll recognize the Pacific Northwest setting shared in <i>Sea of Tranquility. </i></span><i><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></i><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">3. <i>Station Eleven</i> by Emily St. John Mandel. I loved it. Speculative, post-apocalyptic tale about the role of culture in civilization.</span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">4. <i>The Time Traveler’s Wife</i> by Audrey Niffenegger. An amazing love story about an involuntary time traveler and his love, and their intersections at random times in their lives. </span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">5. <i>Stories of Your Life and Others</i> by Ted Chiang. Wonderful Chinese-influenced sci-fi short stories. The title story, about first contact with extraterrestrials who do not think linearly, was adapted to the film <i>Arrival</i>.</span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">6. <i>Cloud Cuckoo Land</i> by Anthony Doerr. Like <i>Sea of Tranquility</i>, this incredible novel intertwines parallel stories in the past, present, and future, about the power of story. </span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">7. <i>Dune </i>by Frank Herbert. I read this a long time ago; I found it interesting, but not enough to read the whole saga. </span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">8. <i>Crystal Eaters</i> by Shane Jones. The only one on this list I have not read yet. I'm on a wait list.</span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">9. <i>The Road</i> by Cormac McCarthy. Grim post-apocalyptic speculation.</span><br style="color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">10. <i>The Opposite House </i>by Helen Oyeyemi. I tried to read this, and found it very confusing and not very engaging. However, I loved her </span><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">collection of short stories, <i>What is Not Yours is Not Yours</i>. From my Goodreads review, a "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">mix of really original stuff, fables and fairy tales with a modern twist. Think Margaret Atwood meets David Mitchell."</span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 13px;">11. <i>State of Wonder</i> by Ann Patchett. I'm a big fan of Ann Patchett, but this one is not one of my favorites. It's about an Amazon tribe that seems to have mastered fertility. But I can highly recommend <i>Bel Canto</i> and <i>The Magician's Assistant. </i></span></div>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-35786099870752672322022-03-23T09:01:00.000-07:002022-03-23T09:01:36.091-07:00Bringing characters alive: Penelope Lively<p>I've been on a Penelope Lively kick lately. I first discovered her on my mission to read all the Booker Prize winners in 2018. Her <i><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/search?q=lively" target="_blank">Moon Tiger</a></i> won for its beautiful depiction of romance and nostalgia set in World War II. Her books that I've been reading lately take place for the most part in more recent times. </p><p><i>The Photograph</i> is the story of a man who discovers, after his wife's death, a photograph of her holding hands with another man. Whom he knew. During their marriage. So Glyn sets out on the warpath to unearth everything he can about Kath. The unexpected discoveries end up overturning more than his own understanding of his departed wife. It's great writing, with varied and believable characters, and unforeseen consequences, of course. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIMl-7uG5e6WZITqDOBby6Mi3Cj-vKid4RXu2aLihamv2zOIvTg2ZCrsbKhMLJLrNOFzT4qX3jjnIVz61Df7E7k1iq02pVfOASVkw_bkXfOz0SuSq1z5LDer267AZDFweMOBoQ-5P8qcFLuQ4eCmZ8V1IC16hrTnjmrtlGE-iVrq-HaBsotGfgxg7K/s350/lively%20consequences.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="233" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIMl-7uG5e6WZITqDOBby6Mi3Cj-vKid4RXu2aLihamv2zOIvTg2ZCrsbKhMLJLrNOFzT4qX3jjnIVz61Df7E7k1iq02pVfOASVkw_bkXfOz0SuSq1z5LDer267AZDFweMOBoQ-5P8qcFLuQ4eCmZ8V1IC16hrTnjmrtlGE-iVrq-HaBsotGfgxg7K/s320/lively%20consequences.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p>If you like <i>The Photograph</i>, you might love, as I did, <i>Consequences</i>, which in a similar way explores the consequences of a chance meeting, this time reverberating throughout generations. What I love about <i>Consequences</i> is how it touches on so many varieties of romantic relationship: marriage for love; marriage for friendship; an employer-employee affair; a gay couple; and so on. The narrative begins in the thirties, brings us to the present day, then loops back to the beginning in a most satisfying way. </p><p><i>Family Album</i>, on the other hand, focuses on, as the title indicates, family relationships -- and secrets. Alison and Charles live in a lovely home where they have raised six children, with the help of au pair Ingrid. The children, adults now, return home for various occasions, comparing notes and uncovering a hidden truth about one of them. It's a delicate exploration of the complexity of familial roles and relationships. </p><p>Finally, <i>How It All Began</i> follows in the steps of <i>The Photograph</i> and <i>Consequences</i>: how does one chance act, in this case a mugging, have a butterfly effect on many lives? After the attack, Charlotte must recuperate from her broken hip with daughter Rose. This disruption has consequences for Rose, her employer, her employer's niece, and the student Charlotte starts tutoring during her convalescence. It's a beautiful story, wistful at times, about possibilities glimpsed, seized or left behind. </p><p>In all, Lively writes stories that dig into relationships, focusing on how people react to and grow from drama, rather than the drama itself. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-7121662827450885832022-02-17T16:49:00.002-08:002022-03-09T07:21:26.023-08:00A Triptych: Women and Art<p>I recently read three books in a row, not exactly on purpose, about women and art. </p><p>I'll start with the most popular and my least favorite: <i>A Piece of the World</i>, by Christina Kline Baker, author of <i>Orphan Train</i>. This is the fictionalized story of the life of Christina Olson, from the iconic painting "Christina's World," including her relationship with the man who painted her, Andrew Wyeth. The novel provides a slice of life in rural Maine, from Christina's parents' time through World War II and approaching our day. We gain insight into what it meant to be disabled then and there; I learned that Wyeth had his own disability, a limp caused by a hip defect. It is a well-written book, but the reason it was my least favorite of these three is that the jumping around in time is disorienting. By now, every reader of modern popular fiction is used to narration that shuttles back and forth between now and the past. But this book's chapters could plop you down anywhere from 1899 to 1980, and I couldn't sense any rhyme or reason behind the frequent shake-ups. Those who loved <i>Orphan Train</i>, be prepared for something quite different but engrossing in its own way.</p><p>Next, I highly recommend <i>The Last Painting of Sara de Vos</i>, by Dominic Smith. This is a narrative that more skillfully weaves together various stories and time periods; each one is so distinct that I had no trouble keeping up. Sara de Vos is a fictional painter who lived and worked in the Netherlands in the 1600s. The other main characters are a New Yorker who has inherited a de Vos painting, and the young woman who is hired to forge it. The way these two modern characters come together and discover more about the elusive artist echoes the painter's own evolution, through hard times to finding love. I was reminded a bit of <i>The Glass Hotel</i> by Emily St. John Mandel, in the way that characters present different facets of themselves to others. It is as much about artifice as art, fascinating and well written. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8hCuoO1CBuJOBrBiTUl8htP1Q5Umc9STNiZ2hHWiLB-PHqnwZnklb6XKp8J98YXZZj0wfC00gFfYavB4gOtPPFFDTJc1nzd4PvkGeJDnqItZFobrvAKFL--Ro3GzXB9e36LjgNaN-z2eZqN-l6rR49fMpbqW-NP-brBCddjLVo_CBqK5_7KPVMIGZ=s350" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="226" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8hCuoO1CBuJOBrBiTUl8htP1Q5Umc9STNiZ2hHWiLB-PHqnwZnklb6XKp8J98YXZZj0wfC00gFfYavB4gOtPPFFDTJc1nzd4PvkGeJDnqItZFobrvAKFL--Ro3GzXB9e36LjgNaN-z2eZqN-l6rR49fMpbqW-NP-brBCddjLVo_CBqK5_7KPVMIGZ=s320" width="207" /></a></div><br /><p>Finally, my favorite of the three was <i>The Age of Light</i>, by Whitney Scharer. This novel is based on the true story of Lee Miller, an American fashion model who moved to Paris to reinvent herself as an artist. She becomes apprentice, and later lover, to the famed Surrealist photographer Man Ray. Together, they influence a modern art movement. Later, Miller documents World War II. It's a compelling book about the difficulty of being a female artist in a man's world, with lots of titillating glimpses into Paris of the 1920s and 30s. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-515231551455066992022-01-08T07:18:00.003-08:002022-01-08T07:32:53.428-08:00The Bookshop of Yesterday's Cliches<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">The Bookshop of Yesterdays, by Amy Meyerson (2018)</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjnUC_TKUwi4ZRTMrKxzxc58jTK235sxh6CvAyC6VMPkVKGUM3WSVSi3rDNfuSYSgZKFyL_eVt0L8k7STWRMo0TBvVSB73GW3_ClokNzY7x_jaYM89YpP9xWXQFppeLvYA14PZTPy3O1GlQ8ifJBlcRPIkUSQntgSv1vYcoZ3qJoRvSaEfw2I6U2Ql=s293" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="198" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjnUC_TKUwi4ZRTMrKxzxc58jTK235sxh6CvAyC6VMPkVKGUM3WSVSi3rDNfuSYSgZKFyL_eVt0L8k7STWRMo0TBvVSB73GW3_ClokNzY7x_jaYM89YpP9xWXQFppeLvYA14PZTPy3O1GlQ8ifJBlcRPIkUSQntgSv1vYcoZ3qJoRvSaEfw2I6U2Ql" width="198" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">The more I think about it, the more disgruntled I am that I finished this book instead of setting it aside, as I was tempted to do one-third of the way through. It is a mish-mash of chick lit cliches, well done, but still.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Big cliche 1. A death brings Our Heroine back home from the Big City. Granted, home is LA, an even bigger city than Philadelphia, where she teaches history. But the go-home-for-a-funeral-to-rediscover-yourself bit has been done to death (pun intended).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Big cliche 2. That death sends her on a scavenger hunt to uncover a Big Secret. Uncle Billy left our heroine a book store, so he uses books to send her clues to a Big Secret in her Past. Cute. Too cute. Any normal person would just write a letter.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Big cliche 3. The bookstore is going under! Let's throw a party to save it! I am so very tired of the "let's save our neighborhood business with a party" trope. It's just an excuse to bring all the characters together at the end.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Big cliche 4. Your Past is Not What You Think! I'll stop there, because spoilers, but really? If you read enough chick lit, you won't believe anyone's version of their past.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Anyway, like I said, it is well written. And there are lots of literary references. But if you have a cliche-detector AT ALL, you may be disappointed.</span>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-64754899940260944932021-12-18T14:50:00.002-08:002021-12-18T15:11:53.014-08:00Three More Short Takes on the Short List<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">See my reviews of the other 3 Booker Prize short-list nominees <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2021/10/short-takes-on-short-list-2021.html">here</a>.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ef14763f-7fff-37ae-d15e-87081b219bef"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The question raised for me this year, and every year, really, is what type of book should win this prize? The nominees tend to highlight important international stories: the end of South African apartheid (<i>The Promise</i>); the Sri Lankan civil war (<i>A Passage North</i>); a miscarriage of British justice against a colonial immigrant (<i>The Fortune Men</i>); climate change (<i>Bewilderment</i>). <i>Great Circle</i> and <i>No One is Talking About This</i> highlight the more personal problems encountered by women in a man’s world -- though that certainly counts as an important international story, as well, just not as circumscribed. The question remains, is the winner the book that tells the best story, or that addresses the most important problem? I would favor the best story, and therefore to me, <i>Great Circle</i> should have won over <i>The Promise</i>, though all six nominees were of course excellent. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>My favorite this year: <i>Great Circle</i>, by Maggie Shipstead.</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Great Circle</i> is a great story about women and flight. Marian is obsessed with flight from early days. Her father died in shipwreck, a captain who didn’t go down with the ship but saved his babies instead, while mother took advantage of the disaster to disappear. Marian and her twin brother are raised by a professorial uncle in the country, where she learns to drive and repair cars, and becomes a delivery driver for a Prohibition-era smuggler. She yearns to fly, and gets her wish when she catches the eye of the area’s top smuggler. Their relationship keeps her grounded, though, so she eventually frees herself. Then follow years of self-sufficiency in Alaska until World War II, when she is recruited to a women’s auxiliary flying force, delivering planes so pilots can do the more important work of fighting. It is here that she discovers love, and a goal: to complete a great circle, flying around the globe from pole to pole.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interspersed with Marian’s story is that of Hadley, a young actress with a tumultuous career who will be playing Marian in a film of the pilot’s life. Hadley’s story shows that even in the twenty-first century, women still face the frustrating limitations of living in a man’s world. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love this book because it is made up of stories of women who subvert the male agenda for their own personal desire. These two very human women, and the characters around them, live out their interesting lives not always aware of how their fierce independence sets them apart: they are just being themselves. This soaring book provides a panoramic view of several decades of American history, with side jaunts into wilderness tracking, the art world, airplane maintenance, and going incognito by changing gender. As thrilling to read as watching a young woman in an open cockpit turn her biplane in loop-de-loops.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The Fortune Men</i>, by Nadifa Mohamed</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mahmood Mattan was a Somali immigrant in Cardiff in the early 50s, convicted and hanged for a murder he did not commit. This novel is based on the true story of the first execution that the British justice system later overturned as wrongful. Mahmood’s story reminds me of Marian’s in some ways: the youngest of several brothers, he found the only way to see the world was to leave home as a merchant marine. He sails away from hot, dry Somaliland to the cold and damp British Isles, where he falls in love with a Welsh woman who bears him three boys. It’s hard for Black men to find work, so Mahmood turns to gambling and shoplifting. But he did not wield the razor that killed the Jewish shopkeeper. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a sad, sad tale, even sadder knowing it’s true. The author has not tried to make Mahmood into an unrealistic hero. He moves through the various phases of grief in reaction to the charge and conviction, staying a long time in denial, then becoming more religious, then hoping to find the actual murderer. At times I was reminded of the fatalistic futility of Camus’ <i>The Stranger</i>, set in about the same time period. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mohamed imagines the lives of our hero, the victim, and their families with compassion. I am glad to have learned of this landmark case, even though it broke my heart.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>A Passage North</i>, by Anuk Arudpragasam</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is another book that reminded me of <i>The Stranger</i>. Krishan learns that Rani, a woman who used to take care of his aging grandmother, has died. Rani was traumatized by the death of her two sons during Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, and found some measure of healing by taking care of an old woman far from the scenes of carnage. Krishan travels north to that former battleground for the funeral, and the novel is mostly his reminiscences during the long voyage: about Rani and his grandmother; about the war, which he avoided by studying in India; and about a brief romance he had with an activist for women’s and workers’ rights. Krishan recounts every moment of the funeral ceremony, including a long walk in dry heat to the cremation grounds. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book is full of slow, meditative passages on love and the approach of death. It’s only my second glimpse into this small country’s bloody past; my first was Michael Ondaatje’s <i>Anil’s Ghost</i>. It’s a philosophical reflection on the constant struggle between the urgency to create a better world, and the necessity of just getting by. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-84770470118285708672021-10-17T12:28:00.004-07:002021-10-18T16:26:28.385-07:00Short Takes on the Short List, 2021<p> I've read three of the six on the Booker short list for 2021, and here's what I think: </p><p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. <b>Patricia Lockwood, <i>No One is Talking About This</i>.</b> </span><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first half is about the kind of fifteen minutes of fame that the Internet makes possible. </span><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second half is about the eternal (or perhaps soon to be solved?) problem of a problem pregnancy. </span><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's an interesting book, but I think it will have a short shelf life, due to the ephemerality of part one. Does that make it more or less likely to win? Should the prize be awarded to a book that captures the time, or will outlive the time? <b>4 stars. </b></span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. <b><i>The Promise</i> by Damon Galgut.</b> Another South African saga (the winners' list is peppered with them) about the transition from white to black power, and the guilt, or lack thereof, that whites take on. A seamless marvel of stream of consciousness. <b>5 stars.</b> </span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. <b>Richard Powers' <i>Bewilderment</i>.</b> Another tour de force from Powers. Like <i>The Echo Maker</i>, this one marries the environmental themes of his masterpiece <i>The Overstory</i> with the curiosity about the human mind at the center of <i>Generosity</i> and <i>Galatea 2.0.</i> It's a beautiful book about a year in the life of a single father trying to help his neuro-atypical son, who is worried about the world. <b>5 stars.</b></span></p><p><br /></p>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-35718418325373869222020-03-28T11:05:00.001-07:002020-03-28T15:24:36.903-07:00Reading Kevin Wilson – Something to See Here<br />
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Kevin Wilson has written five books, of which I have read
three recently.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>The Family Fang</i> (2011)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Nothing to See Here</i> (2019)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Perfect Little World</i> (2017)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mfxEPudYyidKEn612b9TrhSY_pDeEe0b8zg1C7TlR9Fp3EmKuTABbsQZHj8p_qRswEvclOaVI6aFh8FVAboJGZycqsPt9OWo8w5JxqDGbPtWg3FkY6hqYCfDINkGIbqAFTv3NEA6BpU/s1600/family+fang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mfxEPudYyidKEn612b9TrhSY_pDeEe0b8zg1C7TlR9Fp3EmKuTABbsQZHj8p_qRswEvclOaVI6aFh8FVAboJGZycqsPt9OWo8w5JxqDGbPtWg3FkY6hqYCfDINkGIbqAFTv3NEA6BpU/s200/family+fang.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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My first exposure to Kevin Wilson was <i>The Family Fang</i>,
which tells of a very strange family, indeed. Mom and dad are performance artists,
and their kids are the stars of the show. Their “pieces” usually include
putting the kids into really awkward, sometimes dangerous, situations and seeing how unwitting
bystanders react. As you can imagine, these kids grow up with a lot of baggage. </div>
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Annie (known in her parents’ work as “Child A”) uses her childhood training
to become a successful actress. Buster (“Child B”) turns his weird childhood
into writing. When both adult children encounter a low point in their careers,
they return home – and soon after, mom and dad go missing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Are they really dead, as the police believe? Or is this just
another one of their stunts? Annie and Buster partner up to find out. I
basically read this whole book with wide eyes and dropped jaw, waiting to see
what would happen next. I doubt you’ll see the final resolution coming, so just
wait for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Nothing to See Here</i> is not exactly a sequel but more
like a spin-off of <i>The Family Fang</i>. Remember how Annie Fang channeled
her childhood suffering into an acting career? <i>Nothing to See Here</i> is
the story of one of the films she stars in. </div>
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Lillian is an overachiever turned
loser. Despite her impoverished childhood, she earns a scholarship to a
fancy boarding school, where she meets Madison, the ultimate rich daddy’s girl.
When Madison is caught with cocaine, Madison’s daddy offers Lillian’s mom a lot
of money for Lillian to take the fall. Lillian is kicked out, and that’s pretty
much the end of her ambitions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And now Madison’s in trouble again. Her rich senator
husband’s ex-wife has died, leaving him in charge of his two children by that
first marriage. Who catch fire. Yes, you read that right: the senator’s
children catch fire. It doesn’t hurt them, but boy, is it inconvenient. So Madison
calls on Lillian to come take care of these two little firebrands – and keep
them out of sight – while their senator daddy is being vetted for Secretary of
State.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The greatest strength of <i>The Family Fang</i> and <i>Nothing
to See Here</i> is the outrageous premise, and the growth that comes out of
these horrible situations. However, they also both share some really weak
characters. In both novels, the parents (Mr. and Mrs. Fang, Madison and her
senator hubby) are two-dimensional bad guys. I just hated them all, because
they had no redeeming qualities and showed no growth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-YNzuBOIUOwOESCrvt0efrCosdFVYRu8Asv0iakGjV_bNVQQ3IyIbDbU3pVjpJ0WI2jXc-B58Hl9fDcsx6sE7f31xjHWDcBjH3w3DDfYnTNRkcbo9gvBSp5GWzKr3P2OwOiBVYWsW_U/s1600/perfect+little+world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="332" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-YNzuBOIUOwOESCrvt0efrCosdFVYRu8Asv0iakGjV_bNVQQ3IyIbDbU3pVjpJ0WI2jXc-B58Hl9fDcsx6sE7f31xjHWDcBjH3w3DDfYnTNRkcbo9gvBSp5GWzKr3P2OwOiBVYWsW_U/s200/perfect+little+world.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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<i>Perfect Little World</i>, however, I found to be a lot
more complex. It does have a two-dimensional bad guy, but she plays a much
smaller role. <i>Perfect Little World</i> also begins with another outrageous
premise to do with parenting: a social scientist and a wealthy businesswoman team
up to create a utopian commune for raising children cooperatively. Single mom
Izzy joins up. She’s the analog to Lillian in <i>Nothing to See</i> <i>Here</i>:
a weird young woman thrust into taking care of weird children in a weird situation,
and pulling it off. Perhaps due to the larger cast – the other parents and their
children – this novel is more nuanced. We see the inevitable adult drama (and
cheating) that would occur in such an experiment. We see kids forming
unexpected alliances. Though some of the characters simply never get developed,
I see the interactions between them as more realistic and relatable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-79112834924730014302020-03-28T10:31:00.000-07:002020-03-28T15:32:25.205-07:00Three Modern Takes on Slavery<br />
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<i>The Water Dancer</i>, Ta-Nehisi Coates<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Underground Airlines</i>, Ben Winters<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Underground Railroad</i>, Colson Whitehead<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some really interesting takes on slavery have come out
recently. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISqjxtz1_ofQXaUuGd9GQkrZWexM389qg09jKVIDebsapBPumXvZX32nqTZDW_dq5NF7dWF2WKH4bGkRvq1UXR5rbROLBDBwU8LaBPZ_655OIk6b1s6kgsCLYcXERq-lSe6D1Pf6uihU/s1600/water+dancer+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="313" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISqjxtz1_ofQXaUuGd9GQkrZWexM389qg09jKVIDebsapBPumXvZX32nqTZDW_dq5NF7dWF2WKH4bGkRvq1UXR5rbROLBDBwU8LaBPZ_655OIk6b1s6kgsCLYcXERq-lSe6D1Pf6uihU/s200/water+dancer+cover.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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Of these three novels,<i> The Water Dancer</i> by Ta-Nehisi
Coates is probably getting the most press, thanks to Oprah’s Book Club. I first
heard it described as science-fiction, but as a big sci-fi fan myself, I would
classify it as fantasy. Hiram is a slave, whose mother has been sold away by
his father and master. Hiram’s “task” is to mind his white half-brother, Hiram’s
opposite in every way: slothful, disrespectful, but heir to the estate. One
late night, Hiram is driving his brother home, and their carriage goes off a
bridge. The heir drowns, but Hiram somehow survives. Hiram’s miraculous survival brings
him to the attention of the Underground.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It turns out Hiram has inherited an unusual ability,
Conducting, by which the conductor (such as Harriet Tubman) uses memory to
build a bridge across distances, and lead slaves away from “the Task.” That is
the part that qualifies this book as fantasy, rather than science fiction,
which would have a somewhat more rigorous explanation for this magical power.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Genre nitpicking aside, it’s a compelling read. Hiram is a
realistic character, a young man who makes mistakes of passion, and learns from
those around him, particularly women. The heartbreak of slavery and the
shakiness of freedom are portrayed in vivid colors. I have not read any of
Coates’ other books, but I understand this is his first foray into fiction.
Bravo! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<i>Underground Railroad</i> by Colson Whitehead has also
gotten a lot of press. Its format is closer to a picaresque (think <i>Gulliver’s
Travels</i> or <i>Candide</i>), a series of vignettes that answer the question “what
if?” in different ways. What if former slaves were “allowed” to live and work in
relative freedom – provided they agreed to be sterilized? What if all-white
communities thrived by using lynchings as theater? et cetera. The surreal element
to this book is the existence of a literal underground railroad, tunnels and
tracks leading to the different regions Whitehead describes. As long as you can
suspend disbelief about this implausible infrastructure, it’s another
interesting read, but personally my least favorite of these three.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRCOC4hn7iNzxXnV2EeCRZUBMEgEQJHKYx3RVmuUg7VZSImEyvAFCmG1hShbQZbvt4gUwDulL7fjq-jBelPhe40J-tNOsQbg_unc3Pb6Ths5MNp0Pe039M7ELJbmqxHZIQLvmmlaKRA0/s1600/Underground_Airlines_%25282016_cover%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMRCOC4hn7iNzxXnV2EeCRZUBMEgEQJHKYx3RVmuUg7VZSImEyvAFCmG1hShbQZbvt4gUwDulL7fjq-jBelPhe40J-tNOsQbg_unc3Pb6Ths5MNp0Pe039M7ELJbmqxHZIQLvmmlaKRA0/s200/Underground_Airlines_%25282016_cover%2529.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Finally, Ben Winters is probably the least known to the
general public, but my favorite of the three, because of his amazing
speculative fiction. His <i>Last Policeman</i> series is a thrilling trilogy
about social collapse pending the arrival of a killer asteroid. <i>Golden State</i>
is even further out there, a twist on the ideas of <i>Minority Report</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Underground Airlines</i> is impressive on at least two levels.
First, Winters constructs a plausible alternate reality in which the Civil War
did not happen, and four states continue to allow and encourage slavery in the
twenty-first century. Now, of course, the slaves work in giant prison-like factory
complexes, rather than on plantations. The most impressive part of this
alternate reality, to me, was the careful thought that Winters put into the economic
and diplomatic aspects of this cowardly new world: who would ally with the
southern states? Who would sell them their cars? And in the north, where would people
import their slave-free cotton and cigarettes from? The details are dropped casually
but expand one’s view of the consequences of slavery on the global economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, the novel’s plot stands alone as a strong mystery
thriller. An investigator has been hired to track down a runaway slave. The twist
is that the investigator himself is a failed runaway, coerced into serving his
own trackers. The pursuit is heightened therefore by the pursuer’s inner
conflict, and the many twists and turns it takes will keep you reading to the
end. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-42474868744693399022020-03-18T13:40:00.001-07:002022-01-08T07:50:16.446-08:00Reading in the Time of Corona<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Reading in the Time of Corona</span></div>
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<div>(My apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez for mangling his title. By the way, I went to my local library’s online catalog to check out <i>Love in the Time of Cholera</i>, after seeing it referenced in <i>American Dirt</i>. There was a waitlist for this book, which is not exactly a new release. Is it really that popular, still? Or are other readers interested for the same reason I am?)</div><div><br /></div><div>So, COVID-19 is upon us. I am a teacher, and while I’m currently on spring break, </div><div>I’ll be teaching remotely when it’s over, via a teleconference app called Zoom. I’ve </div><div>got a green sheet hanging behind my desk to act as a green screen, so I can show background pictures from all over France. </div><div><br /></div><div>But our online teaching day will end at 2, and my evening activities are canceled: yoga class, dog training, therapy, etc. What to do but read? I already read about 100 books a year, but I expect my number to be even higher this year. Here’s a picture of my to-read shelf from the beginning of the voluntary self-isolation period.</div><div><br /></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I was really excited about reading <i>Queen of America</i>, by Luis Alberto Urrea, the sequel to his heartbreaking novel, <i>The Hummingbird’s Daughter</i>, about a young woman who becomes a saint to the oppressed people of Mexico, in the late 1800s. I am typically more likely to cry at a movie than a book, but I shed tears at least twice during that first novel. However, having just completed <i>American Dirt</i> with my new book club, I am unwilling to take on another book about Mexican suffering at this time. I know, first world problems. I am truly grateful I am only reading about it, not living it.</div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">So my first pick off the shelf will be <i>Generosity</i>, by Richard Powers, author of the life-changing book <i>The Overstory</i>. If you haven't read <i>The Overstory</i>, just read it. It's about trees and people, and how the way we treat trees is killing our environment -- which will kill us. After reading <i>The Overstory</i>, I read his novel about AI (artificial intelligence), <i>Galatea 2.2</i>, which was just not as compelling for me. I hope <i>Generosity</i> is more like <i>The Overstory</i>.</div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">That’s it for now. Let me know what you’re looking forward to reading in the comments!</div></div>
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Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-64541536884472709562020-03-12T17:38:00.000-07:002020-03-12T17:39:15.625-07:00Booker Book-Ends, 2019Even though the committee expressly made a rule forbidding this the last time it happened, it has happened again: two books shared the Booker Prize this year.<br />
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<i>Girl, Woman, Other</i>, by Bernardine Evaristo<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">This book is a symphony, or a patchwork quilt, or an epic poem, or a kaleidoscope, of the many different lives and identities of black British women. There are lesbians and straight women, cisgender and transgender, women who embrace their African ancestry and women who try to pass. They are bankers, artists, housewives, and students of life, and they are all interconnected. An eye-opener for this white woman, a reminder of how different and yet how alike we all are.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">This was the pithy review I posted on Goodreads. My views on <i>The Testaments</i>, by Margaret Atwood, are somewhat more conflicted, and require a longer post. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> is a classic of speculative fiction, a must-read, a book I have taught to high-schoolers. It's not just a chillingly plausible story about how a right-wing religious group takes over the government and steals women's rights to do or own anything, down to their names. It's also a carefully constructed dystopian world in the not-too-distant future, that has inspired a hit TV show (which I can't watch, because it will necessarily deviate from the book, and that will just annoy me). On top of all that, it's full of clever word play, and includes two characters who play Scrabble. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">So I was very excited when I heard that Atwood had finally written a sequel, and was happy to return to the world of Gilead -- as a reading visitor, of course, not a resident {shudder}. We learn what happened to Baby Nicole, the child that was taken from protagonist Offred. And we meet other young women in Gilead who would be about her age, and through them, we learn much more about the educational system (what little there is) for girls in Gilead. Most are married off, of course, but some become missionaries, and some of the smarter ones join the Aunts.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Speaking of Aunts, the biggest shocker, I think, is what we learn about Aunt Lydia (SPOILER ALERT!!! - skip this paragraph if you don't want to know.) Aunt Lydia is actually a subversive, destroying the system from within, sending out spies disguised as missionaries. This is the part of the book that I'm conflicted about: Lydia was just a mean old bitch in the first book. Reframing her as a "good guy" is a big pill to swallow, and I'm afraid it might just be a bit too facile.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">On the whole, this book suffers from the problems many sequels do: the excitement of the first book is in the world-building and the conflict between character and society; here, in book two, those are a bit stale. I am grateful for the sequel, but not convinced it's worthy of book one. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">So if you loved <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> and want more of Atwood's frighteningly plausible speculative fiction, I would highly recommend the MaddAddam series, starting with <i>Oryx and Crake</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-41225760331397723642019-01-22T18:30:00.000-08:002019-06-13T08:03:36.244-07:00What the Hell Happened, 2004 edition<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Take a look at the Booker Prize short
list from 2004:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Achmat Dangor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bitter Fruit</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sarah Hall, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Electric Michelangelo <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alan Hollinghurst, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Line of Beauty</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">David Mitchell, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud Atlas</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Colm Tóibín, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Master</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Gerard Woodward, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I'll go to Bed at Noon <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">I’ve only read two of these: the winner, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Line of Beauty</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud Atlas</i>. And I have to say that,
hands down, no contest, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud Atlas</i>
was the better of the two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Why? Hollinghurst’s book is good, <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/10/booker-book-39-line-of-beauty-by-alan.html" target="_blank">as I wrote in my review</a>. But it’s a book about one era, and its limited set of problems: Thatcher’s
England, and class and sexuality therein. It’s an interesting topic, and Hollinghurst’s
take on it is worthy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud
Atlas</i> is simply revolutionary, in both the literal and figurative senses. Figuratively
first, its structure and plot are completely original: five stories are cut off
halfway through, then found by the next character. That is, the first half of
Adam’s journal in Part 1 is found by composer Robert in part 2. Luisa finds
half of Robert’s letters in part 3, and so on, until the crux of the novel,
part 6. Then part 5 concludes, part 4, part 3, all the way back down to one. It’s
a risky but thoroughly virtuoso performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Second, its message is literally revolutionary.
Each section is the story of an underdog, and the group he or she represents,
rising up to claim his or her due from the ruling class. We have a slave sailor
who frees himself, a reporter trying to blow the whistle on corrupt power plant
owners, a clone ascending above her virtual servitude, and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">It’s a masterful, compelling, creative
book, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cloud Atlas</i> should have won
the prize. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-60564722196353869132018-12-26T19:52:00.000-08:002020-03-12T17:39:35.380-07:00What next?So now that I'm done with the Booker prize reading project, what am I up to next? Here is a picture of my to-read shelf, which has been gradually filling up over the past year. Right now I'm pulling out the shortest books so that I can read as many books as possible before the end of the year. My first book club read of the year will be <i>Sisters in Law</i>, about Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7xrowzXfiSJPpACdQu1x0KsDNmqiU17AO5DjczaQD215DCwHOMS8xwwZVqtn2qxx2JRmrQeo6bqPqZipB3_Rk5NLIZt_GsyfRLRZHkxXTRUca4K-lowSACE14Vs9gCq3zzy5L6BtGl8/s1600/IMG_20181224_103141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7xrowzXfiSJPpACdQu1x0KsDNmqiU17AO5DjczaQD215DCwHOMS8xwwZVqtn2qxx2JRmrQeo6bqPqZipB3_Rk5NLIZt_GsyfRLRZHkxXTRUca4K-lowSACE14Vs9gCq3zzy5L6BtGl8/s640/IMG_20181224_103141.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-7184558657292915342018-12-25T12:33:00.001-08:002018-12-25T12:35:58.297-08:00My Best of the Bookers<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Between February and December 2018, I read all 53 books that have won the Man Booker prize since its inception in 1968. Here are my personal favorites. Click on links for my reviews.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Booker winners that I marked <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5 stars</b> on my Goodreads account:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/09/booker-book-35-blind-assassin-by.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The Blind Assassin</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, Margaret Atwood</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/07/booker-book-25-english-patient-best-of.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The English Patient</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, Michael Ondaatje</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/06/back-to-bookers-remains-of-day-by-kazuo.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The Remains of the Day</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/07/booker-book-24-possession-by-s-byatt.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Possession</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, A.S. Byatt</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/07/booker-book-27-sacred-hunger-by-barry.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Sacred Hunger</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, Barry Unsworth</span></a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/08/the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy.html" target="_blank">The God of Small Things</a></span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/08/the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy.html" target="_blank">, Arundhati Roy</a></span></div>
<i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://g./">G.</a></span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/02/g-by-john-berger-its-keeper.html" target="_blank">, John Berger</a></span><br />
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/08/booker-book-33-amsterdam-by-ian-mcewan.html" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a></span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/08/booker-book-33-amsterdam-by-ian-mcewan.html" target="_blank">, Ian McEwan</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/09/vernon-god-little-big-little-book-by.html" target="_blank">Vernon God Little</a></span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/09/vernon-god-little-big-little-book-by.html" target="_blank">, D.B.C. Pierre</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/booker-book-47-bring-up-bodies-hilary.html" target="_blank">Bring Up the Bodies</a></span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/booker-book-47-bring-up-bodies-hilary.html" target="_blank">, Hilary Mantel</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/the-luminaries-eleanor-catton.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The Luminaries</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, Eleanor Catton</span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Best Plot</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/the-luminaries-eleanor-catton.html" target="_blank">The Luminaries</a></i>. Staggeringly complex plot that ties together nearly
20 main characters. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Runner-up</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/08/booker-book-33-amsterdam-by-ian-mcewan.html" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a></i>, an incredibly satisfying tale
of comeuppance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Best Historical Novel</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/07/booker-book-27-sacred-hunger-by-barry.html" target="_blank">Sacred Hunger</a></i>. A must-read for anyone
interested in the impact of the slave trade on people of all colors. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Runner-up</b>: <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/11/booker-book-44-wolf-hall-by-hilary.html" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wolf Hall</i> </a>and its sequel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/booker-book-47-bring-up-bodies-hilary.html" target="_blank">Bring Up the Bodies</a></i>, that place you in the cunning mind of Thomas Cromwell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Best Twist at the End</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">: <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/10/booker-book-37-life-of-pi-by-yann.html" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life of Pi</i>. </a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Most Original Narration</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/12/booker-book-52-lincoln-in-bardo-by.html" target="_blank">Lincoln in the Bardo</a></i>, a compilation of the
words of ghosts and quotations from historical sources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Authors I’m Most Glad I Discovered</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">: <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/05/booker-book-18-hotel-du-lac-by-anita.html" target="_blank">Anita Brookner</a>, <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/07/booker-book-24-possession-by-s-byatt.html" target="_blank">A.S. Byatt</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/11/what-hell-happened-in-2005.html" target="_blank">Best Also-Rans that Should Have Won</a></span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/11/what-hell-happened-in-2005.html" target="_blank">: Kazuo Ishiguro, <i>Never Let Me Go</i>; Ali Smith, <i>The Accidental</i>.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-90725030251004214882018-12-24T10:46:00.003-08:002018-12-24T10:46:52.407-08:002018 Man Booker Prize Winner: Milkman, by Anna Burns<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Anna Burns’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Milkman</i>, the 2018 winner of the Man Booker prize, hooked me at
first with its language: stilted and formal, hinting at a post-apocalyptic near
future reminiscent of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1984</i>, where
everyone checks for bugs in their phones and is not surprised to be
photographed while jogging in the park. Most characters are stripped of names and
are known only by epithets, such as “the man who didn't love anybody” or “Somebody
McSomebody” or “maybe-boyfriend.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Middle sister, our nameless narrator, is
being approached by the milkman. But he’s not really a milkman, he’s a renouncer
of the state, and quite high up in the paramilitary pecking order. Anna Burns’
great achievement is recreating the psychological tension of the unwanted
attention that without words or violence still constitutes harassment. See the
progression in this string of quotes I highlighted from early in the book to
almost the end:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">“I couldn’t be rude because he wasn’t
being rude … Why was he presuming I didn’t mind him beside me when I did mind
him beside me? ... I did not know intuition and repugnance counted, did not
know I had a right not to like, not to have to put up with, anybody and
everybody coming near … So shiny was bad, and ‘too sad’ was bad, and ‘too joyous’
was bad, which meant you had to go around not being anything … I came to
understand how much I’d been closed down, how much I’d been thwarted into a
carefully constructed nothingness by that man.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The sad parallel that Burns draws is between
the one-on-one intimidation of a woman by a man, and the similar constant
harrying of a terrorist state (presumably Ireland in the 1970s), in which the
citizens become used to unspoken rules, constant surveillance, and an ever-present
threat of violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The comparison, and its conveyance through
nameless characters in absurd situations, is brilliant. Nonetheless, the plot
started to lag about halfway through, and I had to push through to the end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Now I have read every single Man Booker
prize winner since its inception fifty years ago in 1968. My future goal is to read
the winner every year, and perhaps the shortlisted books as well. Next post: my
personal Booker favorites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-22881943327188517562018-12-22T13:11:00.002-08:002018-12-22T13:50:53.668-08:00Now reading the Man Booker prize winner of 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhdkLPGLqh8hBr1g4RgKTRNU5Rk9kgPJg8E6RQiPiSRoFx0nm3b_8D7t9S-JesPvcFhB7MprbK3WikjZVuaWIyRqsS1RHssxiFkSoO1X-Nq6gU-o2_qO37W6sbZwZtA88q8KExeyNudU/s1600/IMG_20181222_144914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhdkLPGLqh8hBr1g4RgKTRNU5Rk9kgPJg8E6RQiPiSRoFx0nm3b_8D7t9S-JesPvcFhB7MprbK3WikjZVuaWIyRqsS1RHssxiFkSoO1X-Nq6gU-o2_qO37W6sbZwZtA88q8KExeyNudU/s640/IMG_20181222_144914.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-46709820072252707742018-12-21T20:17:00.001-08:002018-12-21T20:17:27.503-08:00Booker Book #52: Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">I have loved the writing of George
Saunders ever since I was introduced to him by a former colleague, who used his
story “The Falls” in a high-school American lit class. Each of his short
stories is unique and thought-provoking, sort of a hybrid of Raymond Carver’s bluntness
and David Foster Wallace’s intricacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Lincoln in the Bardo</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;"> is one of the most
original novels I have ever read. It is mostly told in two alternating forms:
historical narrative composed of an accretion of related quotations from
presumably historical sources, and narrative spoken by ghosts in a graveyard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Here’s the premise: During the early years
of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, one of the Lincolns’ sons,
Willie, got sick and died. He is taken to a Washington, D.C., cemetery for interment.
There we meet several dead-but-not-departed, who linger between this world and
the next. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">The novel focuses on the ghosts’ attempts
to help Willie move on the next world, as awful things happen to child spirits
who linger. The result is a fascinating peek into the Great Emancipator’s mind.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">It’s a quick and easy read, shorter than
your typical 343-page book, because of the space between the quotations, reminiscent
of the spaces between graves in a graveyard. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">And with that, I have finished the Booker
Project! I still have ten days left in 2018, so look for my review of this year’s
winner, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Milkman</i>, as well as my
personal favorites recap before year’s end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-80648266724540323502018-12-20T19:45:00.002-08:002018-12-20T19:49:06.155-08:00Now reading the LAST Booker Book! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFXk6tkn5tYofL8vmKVBQ88kT4zmBHC2GcMxC0qZwy9jOLVRpbPL5-R6zvWTdbatlBgm3DoUa-hT5hI0y1o74Q2o_1qBxILT3qcnt1S-0SDY7IslZz-z6rNzJCZf2Jj3rRe_ps9HJ0Tzg/s1600/IMG_20181220_194553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFXk6tkn5tYofL8vmKVBQ88kT4zmBHC2GcMxC0qZwy9jOLVRpbPL5-R6zvWTdbatlBgm3DoUa-hT5hI0y1o74Q2o_1qBxILT3qcnt1S-0SDY7IslZz-z6rNzJCZf2Jj3rRe_ps9HJ0Tzg/s640/IMG_20181220_194553.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-63305342311081248622018-12-20T16:29:00.002-08:002018-12-20T19:49:38.249-08:00Booker Book #50: A long, drawn-out history of a bunch of killingsWell, the book is actually called A Brief History of Seven Killings, but my title is more realistic. <span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parts of James Marlon's book are excellent (for example, the chilling chapter told from the point of view of a man being buried alive), but I would not have missed parts of it at all.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story is at first about an attempt on Bob Marley's life, which left him wounded but not dead on the eve of a peace concert; the narrative then expands to include drug gangs that made crack into big business in the US. The story is told from the points of view of myriad characters: not just the would-be killers and other gangsters, but also CIA agents in Jamaica, one of their Jamaican girlfriends, an American journalist, and even a ghost. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps as a woman I'm biased, but my favorite character is the girlfriend, who also once slept with The Singer, as he is known. She witnessed the attempt on him and spends the rest of the book fleeing and using false names. I like her persistence and cunning in the face of violence. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, many of the other characters began to blur together for me. Nonetheless, I'm glad I finished the book, as some loose pieces came together at the end. And I learned a lot of Jamaican slang, in which the worst curse word is a term for menstrual pad! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three little quotations: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Jail is the ghetto man university."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Peace can't happen when too much to gain in war."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"...the quickest way to not live at all is to take one day at a time."</span><br />
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Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-806707492836500492018-12-11T17:53:00.000-08:002018-12-11T17:53:03.586-08:00Booker Book #47: Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Bring Up the Bodies</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;"> is the sequel to <a href="http://www.methodtohermadness.com/2018/11/booker-book-44-wolf-hall-by-hilary.html" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wolf Hall</i>,</a> the 2009 Booker prize winner
by Hilary Mantel. The first book tells of the rise of Anne Boleyn, as she eclipses
Catherine of Aragon. This is the beginning of Henry VIII's Reformation, which gives birth to the Church of England. But what goes up must come down, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bring Up the Bodies</i> describes the other side
of that meteoric climb: Anne’s fall from grace as she is eclipsed in turn by
Jane Seymour, because Anne could not deliver a son and heir. Ironically, it is
her child Elizabeth who will eventually claim the throne, but that is not part
of this story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">I haven't mentioned the hero of both
books yet, but it is not any royal personage; it is Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell
is the instrument of the King’s desires, but also an able and subtle influencer
with a Midas touch. When the king wishes to put Catherine aside and bring Anne
up, Cromwell makes it so. And when the king tires of Anne and wishes to put her
aside, again it is Cromwell to the rescue. Despite this description he is no ruthless
brute, but a modern man who favors education for women, among other causes, and
I grew to like him very much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Two technical comments. First, I have to wonder if Hilary Mantel heard
many complaints about her overuse of an ambiguous “he” in the first book,
because here she often (over?) clarifies with a “he, Cromwell,” as in “he said, he,
Cromwell....” Second, the title phrase does not refer to digging up dead bodies, but to bringing forth prisoners from the Tower for trial. Yes, they may likely be dead soon, but they're <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A" target="_blank">not dead yet.</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">At any rate, the story is told in
exquisite historical detail and yet in a present tense that keeps the reader in
the moment, and almost always in suspense. I found both books to be enthralling
masterworks of historical fiction.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-68420199747162212202018-12-08T10:55:00.002-08:002018-12-08T10:55:31.355-08:00Starting penultimate book of the project: Booker Book #50!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There were 52 books when I started, and now there are 53. I read #51 with my book club. Reading #53 this year is not part of the original project, but it would be icing on the cake. :)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2_sNqUdt8sMkd-LxpCMciWahE_2l_W4ymJ7CWS6x4xzwIbcwKVCgBrSVwaah4duyI-SUw37xM4z9uA2yzQT2NrMWJc8vujhWXwYvu_lhRNdy4LuNSHp7_I1PZZ0HbVMoJlQc20k34Yw/s1600/IMG_20181208_114957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2_sNqUdt8sMkd-LxpCMciWahE_2l_W4ymJ7CWS6x4xzwIbcwKVCgBrSVwaah4duyI-SUw37xM4z9uA2yzQT2NrMWJc8vujhWXwYvu_lhRNdy4LuNSHp7_I1PZZ0HbVMoJlQc20k34Yw/s640/IMG_20181208_114957.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-65996857688397914932018-12-07T20:30:00.001-08:002018-12-07T20:30:17.607-08:00Booker Book #49: The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How to find words dark enough to describe
a book like this? Harrowing and blood-curdling feel like clichés. </span><i style="color: #202124; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The Narrow Road to the Deep North</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> is the
tragic -- and new to me -- story of the soldiers who slaved in forced labor
camps for the Japanese during World War II.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">Much like their Jewish counterparts in
Europe, these thousands of men, mostly Australian, were fed the absolute minimum,
denied basic sanitation or medical care, and worked to death in the cholera-infested
jungles of what would become Thailand. The stories of the beatings and vivisections
are heartbreaking; this is not a book for the faint of heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">But it is an honest and sobering exploration
of war and what it does. Some of the characters whitewash their memories; for
others, the war becomes the only memory. One of the Japanese officers turns his
life around. Some are punished for war crimes, some escape. The world moves on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; letter-spacing: .1pt;">“…the world organises its affairs so that
civilisation every day commits crimes for which any individual would be imprisoned
for life…You are never free of the world; to share life is to share guilt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-31694567397179338782018-12-05T08:45:00.001-08:002018-12-05T08:45:18.593-08:00Now reading Booker Book #49 of 52!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy91pQMqy6E_eTMVTD_gzk6GZ214VqlhmNuQtP7VzXwfVpMyUJ6tM10jxKqD2wG9royufoSc5mamzAYCUa_Rfb_gzyG5MoZlwgwMuTMPb_VtTEzY959qxOvOW7NieroRYnV1RrLE9ut5w/s1600/IMG_20181204_083227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy91pQMqy6E_eTMVTD_gzk6GZ214VqlhmNuQtP7VzXwfVpMyUJ6tM10jxKqD2wG9royufoSc5mamzAYCUa_Rfb_gzyG5MoZlwgwMuTMPb_VtTEzY959qxOvOW7NieroRYnV1RrLE9ut5w/s640/IMG_20181204_083227.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2885652644348853157.post-35912293043857005842018-12-04T07:23:00.002-08:002018-12-04T07:34:34.906-08:00Booker Book #48: The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">This is an extraordinary book, a tour de
force. So many superlatives: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li> <span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">It definitely wins my Booker
Prize for most intricately plotted.</span></li>
<li> <span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Catton was the youngest
author to win the Man Booker, at 28.</span></li>
<li> <span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">At 800+ pages, it is the
longest book to win the prize.</span></li>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The Luminaries</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> begins in a New Zealand
goldrush town in 1865, where a secret council of twelve men is interrupted by a
thirteenth accidental arrival. This is a tried but true narrative device: the
council of twelve must explain their business to the newcomer, and what a mysterious
business it is!</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The council is assembled to unravel a
tangled web of murder, love and betrayal; gold and opium, lost and found;
infidelity and bastards. Parallels and doubling abound. The story is explicitly
arranged like a zodiac, but implicitly in a spiral, that archetypal shape of
New Zealand symbology: the first section is the longest, and each successive
section is shorter and shorter, until we are rushing headlong down a vortex to the
dizzying center. Catton highlights the technique with humor: the italicized
summaries at the beginning of each chapter, relics of a previous literary era, grow
and grow until they are longer and more informative than the chapters
themselves. So much subtle cleverness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">I hope Catton publishes again soon. She
is at the top of my list of Booker winners to watch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephanie Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02914503846164073469noreply@blogger.com2