I think this would be a fabulous common reading book for first year college students. It is quick but wonderfully uncomfortable to read. McEwan allows readers to learn the thoughts not communicated between sexual partners.
The surface story is about two newlyweds negotiating how they will consummate their marriage. However, the two main characters are really negotiating much more about relationship roles and control. Florence and Edward are finally free from young adulthood, but McEwan highlights norms that keep them constrained. They eat dinner because it is dinnertime and it is a logical thing to do. Similarly, they move towards the four-poster bed after dinner because it is that time of their marriage, and it is the logical next step. Even Florence follows the guidebooks of how she should act during sex, and Edward has prepared for a week to be the best husband he can be.
Perhaps the best part is McEwan's ability to show the complex nature of Florence and Edward's emotions throughout the entire episode. They love each other, but in the act, they question their freedom as a married couple, the revolting nature of specified gender roles in sexual relationships, and begin to discover a positive sexual partner relationship. This book exposes negative sexual relationships in a safe and uncomfortably funny story, and it offers the opportunity to think and discover what a positive sexual relationship could look like.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Song Yet Sung, James McBride
I thought I might counter the book group discussion from Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants with my own review of James McBride’s Song Yet Sung. The book is a fictional account of the underground railroad, and McBride, similar to Gruen, did his research. His very inspiration was a visit to the Chesapeake, and more specifically, Harriet Tubman’s birthplace. In many ways his story gives life to realities of a significant time and place, and he expertly allows his reader to connect with this setting. It is truly McBride’s mid nineteenth century Chesapeake that allows his question of freedom, among slaves and freemen, black and white, to flourish.
Rather than inviting his readers into the climate and landscape of Maryland’s shore, McBride forces readers to understand the harsh environmental surroundings. McBride writes that the watermen harvest oysters in every month with the letter R, and, in the other months, they farm. He leaves the reader to act on the information. Certainly his characters create conflict with each other, but McBride allows the landscape to challenge each individual, and in fact the majority of conflict in the story is directly caused by the landscape and climate. The land is jutted imperfectly against the ocean, so that no one truly knows it perfectly. Swamp land rises in and out of firm land and it can never be predicted when and where horses and humans will need to struggle to get through. The ocean itself adds additional complexity to the surroundings and narrative.
This same land and water, where McBride characters survive, is less than 100 miles to the state border and freedom. Though the story explains that freedom at the state line is hardly a reality, with noted slave catchers traveling to the Canadian border to find runaways, McBride highlights this landmark purposefully in character conversations. His characters ask whether this line, made by the men who allow slavery existence, is truly where everyone can be free. Does that border to Canada hold the same freedom? If we do everything we are told, not just from our government or slave holders, but if we behave as Christians, students or mothers or daughters, will our future hold freedom?
Library Journal is correct to attribute flat characters to this story, but the story is not about the characters. It is about the question freedom and land.
Rather than inviting his readers into the climate and landscape of Maryland’s shore, McBride forces readers to understand the harsh environmental surroundings. McBride writes that the watermen harvest oysters in every month with the letter R, and, in the other months, they farm. He leaves the reader to act on the information. Certainly his characters create conflict with each other, but McBride allows the landscape to challenge each individual, and in fact the majority of conflict in the story is directly caused by the landscape and climate. The land is jutted imperfectly against the ocean, so that no one truly knows it perfectly. Swamp land rises in and out of firm land and it can never be predicted when and where horses and humans will need to struggle to get through. The ocean itself adds additional complexity to the surroundings and narrative.
This same land and water, where McBride characters survive, is less than 100 miles to the state border and freedom. Though the story explains that freedom at the state line is hardly a reality, with noted slave catchers traveling to the Canadian border to find runaways, McBride highlights this landmark purposefully in character conversations. His characters ask whether this line, made by the men who allow slavery existence, is truly where everyone can be free. Does that border to Canada hold the same freedom? If we do everything we are told, not just from our government or slave holders, but if we behave as Christians, students or mothers or daughters, will our future hold freedom?
Library Journal is correct to attribute flat characters to this story, but the story is not about the characters. It is about the question freedom and land.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Current Suggested Reads
When The Emperor Was Divine, Julie Otsuka, November Meeting Book
Julie Otsuka's commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination--both physical and emotional--of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view--the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity--she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
True Believer, Virginia Euwer Wolff
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
The Weight of All Things, Sandra BenÃtez
Sandra Benitez received international acclaim for her first two novels: A Place Where the Sea Remembers and Bitter Grounds. Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador. The Weight of All Things, like Kosinskis The Painted Bird, illuminates and makes particular the horrors that people at war can inflict on a young boy. More than any report of events in El Salvador, the story of Nicolas Veras and his terrible odyssey in a war torn country will stay with you.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
New Suggestions
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay, December Meeting Book
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
Hidden in Plain View, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard
"There are five square knots on the quilt every two inches apart. They escaped on the fifth knot on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada. The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads--" And so begins the fascinating story that was passed down from generation to generation in the family of Ozella McDaniel Williams. But what appears to be a simple story that was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter is actually much, much more than that. In fact, it is a coded message steeped in African textile traditions that provides a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad. In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help provide the historical context behind what Williams was describing. Now, based on Williams's story and their own research, Tobin and Dobard, in what they call "Ozella's Underground Railroad Quilt Code," offer proof that some slaves were involved in a sophisticated network that melded African textile traditions with American quilt practices and created a potent result: African American quilts with patterns that conveyed messages that were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad.
Untold Story, Monica Ali
"What if Princess Diana hadn't died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity. After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered. But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed? Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame." --Provided by publisher.
Influenza 1918, Lynette Lezzoni
Influenza 1918 is the true story of the worst epidemic the United States has ever known -- a deadly virus that made its silent appearance 80 years ago at the start of World War I and went on to take the lives of over 600,000 Americans. In one month alone, October 1918, over 195,000 Americans were stricken with the disease and died. In Philadelphia, the city could not cope -- the dead were left in gutters and stacked in caskets on front porches. People hid indoors, afraid to interact with their friends and neighbors. "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration", warned the Surgeon General, "civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks".
New York, Edward Rutherfurd
A tale set against a backdrop of New York City's history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city's emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.
Everything Beautiful Began After, Simon Van Booy
While in Athens, Rebecca--young, beautiful and lost--finds a confidant in George, a translator whose closest friends are Aristophanes and Jack Daniels, but their blossoming relationship becomes complicated when they meet Henry, a happy-go-lucky archaeologist who changes their lives forever.
You Know When the Men are Gone, Siobhan Fallon
A collection of interconnected stories relate the experiences of Fort Hood military wives who share a poignant vigil during which they raise children while waiting for their husbands to return.
All summaries quoted from the Hennepin County Library Catalog.
Julie Otsuka's commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination--both physical and emotional--of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view--the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity--she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
True Believer, Virginia Euwer Wolff
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
The Weight of All Things, Sandra BenÃtez
Sandra Benitez received international acclaim for her first two novels: A Place Where the Sea Remembers and Bitter Grounds. Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador. The Weight of All Things, like Kosinskis The Painted Bird, illuminates and makes particular the horrors that people at war can inflict on a young boy. More than any report of events in El Salvador, the story of Nicolas Veras and his terrible odyssey in a war torn country will stay with you.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
New Suggestions
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay, December Meeting Book
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
Hidden in Plain View, Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard
"There are five square knots on the quilt every two inches apart. They escaped on the fifth knot on the tenth pattern and went to Ontario, Canada. The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward Canada on a bear's paw trail to the crossroads--" And so begins the fascinating story that was passed down from generation to generation in the family of Ozella McDaniel Williams. But what appears to be a simple story that was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter is actually much, much more than that. In fact, it is a coded message steeped in African textile traditions that provides a link between slave-made quilts and the Underground Railroad. In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help provide the historical context behind what Williams was describing. Now, based on Williams's story and their own research, Tobin and Dobard, in what they call "Ozella's Underground Railroad Quilt Code," offer proof that some slaves were involved in a sophisticated network that melded African textile traditions with American quilt practices and created a potent result: African American quilts with patterns that conveyed messages that were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad.
Untold Story, Monica Ali
"What if Princess Diana hadn't died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity. After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered. But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed? Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame." --Provided by publisher.
Influenza 1918, Lynette Lezzoni
Influenza 1918 is the true story of the worst epidemic the United States has ever known -- a deadly virus that made its silent appearance 80 years ago at the start of World War I and went on to take the lives of over 600,000 Americans. In one month alone, October 1918, over 195,000 Americans were stricken with the disease and died. In Philadelphia, the city could not cope -- the dead were left in gutters and stacked in caskets on front porches. People hid indoors, afraid to interact with their friends and neighbors. "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration", warned the Surgeon General, "civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks".
New York, Edward Rutherfurd
A tale set against a backdrop of New York City's history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city's emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.
Everything Beautiful Began After, Simon Van Booy
While in Athens, Rebecca--young, beautiful and lost--finds a confidant in George, a translator whose closest friends are Aristophanes and Jack Daniels, but their blossoming relationship becomes complicated when they meet Henry, a happy-go-lucky archaeologist who changes their lives forever.
You Know When the Men are Gone, Siobhan Fallon
A collection of interconnected stories relate the experiences of Fort Hood military wives who share a poignant vigil during which they raise children while waiting for their husbands to return.
All summaries quoted from the Hennepin County Library Catalog.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Book club kit for November meeting.
Please note there is no book club kit for the October meeting. We will be using a library kit for the November meeting. Please pick up your copy at the October meeting from Caroline.
Borrowed books must be turned in at the November meeting, and the library will charge for missing books.
Borrowed books must be turned in at the November meeting, and the library will charge for missing books.
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
If you are looking to relax and find early twentieth century circus culture, horses, elephants and love stories exciting, this is your book for a rainy day.
Consensus from the club says that this book is a good read simply because it is a story. Gruen sets up a fabulous scene whenever the big top is up, uses true historical events to create the story, introduces the story through the eyes of a tired, old man and shows compassion for the show animals. If anything her success in writing a thoughtful and interesting story, should be appreciated.
It is frustrating to think that the bones of this project deserved to be so much more. Though the magic of the big top is powerful when risen and first described, Gruen’s story seems to ignore the larger backdrop of the depression, and the constant sadness, loneliness and hardness of circus and traveling show culture of the early twentieth century. Gruen depends on her characters and narrator to tell readers about character narratives and the show. She is limited in almost only visual imagery. She writes on about the piles of delicious food available to circus performers and workers, but she forgets to juxtapose the abundance with the hunger of the circus audience. She shows the wonder and mystical nature of a show as it is performed, but she fails to describe all the truly terrible, and often disgusting, smells and sounds of the show on the train or behind the curtains. It seems that Gruen is focused only on placing history and hardship to the narrative, as opposed to finding a narrative in the history and hardship.
The characters, human and animal, added a second disappointment to the book. Each character was absolutely flat and, at times, unforgivably so. Main character, Jacob, loses his parents and seems forget all about them. Within a hot minute he has run off thinking of his college lust, Catherine, only to join a circus and find his new object of lust. Very soon after, he loses his virginity in unnecessarily disgusting acts, but Gruen keeps him focused on his own involvement and remorse rather than ever allowing him to admit or show vulnerability. Similarly, the older Jacob, looking back on his life from a nursing home, never admits faults or mistakes in his younger self.
Like Jacob, each character seems to have his defined role within the story, including the animals. Actually, the only character these strict definitions seem to fit well is Uncle Al, owner and producer of the Benzini Bros. Circus. His flat character complements the idea and magic of the show. Uncle Al is larger than life. His story is almost always told through his acts: redlighting or docking pay or through stories from other men. He is larger than life, and he is supposed to be.
Like Uncle Al, you never see a full picture in Water for Elephants. You will always see the show. And really, that is part of what makes this book such a fun and relaxing read. It is a show. If you have no other expectation, you will love reading this story.
Consensus from the club says that this book is a good read simply because it is a story. Gruen sets up a fabulous scene whenever the big top is up, uses true historical events to create the story, introduces the story through the eyes of a tired, old man and shows compassion for the show animals. If anything her success in writing a thoughtful and interesting story, should be appreciated.
It is frustrating to think that the bones of this project deserved to be so much more. Though the magic of the big top is powerful when risen and first described, Gruen’s story seems to ignore the larger backdrop of the depression, and the constant sadness, loneliness and hardness of circus and traveling show culture of the early twentieth century. Gruen depends on her characters and narrator to tell readers about character narratives and the show. She is limited in almost only visual imagery. She writes on about the piles of delicious food available to circus performers and workers, but she forgets to juxtapose the abundance with the hunger of the circus audience. She shows the wonder and mystical nature of a show as it is performed, but she fails to describe all the truly terrible, and often disgusting, smells and sounds of the show on the train or behind the curtains. It seems that Gruen is focused only on placing history and hardship to the narrative, as opposed to finding a narrative in the history and hardship.
The characters, human and animal, added a second disappointment to the book. Each character was absolutely flat and, at times, unforgivably so. Main character, Jacob, loses his parents and seems forget all about them. Within a hot minute he has run off thinking of his college lust, Catherine, only to join a circus and find his new object of lust. Very soon after, he loses his virginity in unnecessarily disgusting acts, but Gruen keeps him focused on his own involvement and remorse rather than ever allowing him to admit or show vulnerability. Similarly, the older Jacob, looking back on his life from a nursing home, never admits faults or mistakes in his younger self.
Like Jacob, each character seems to have his defined role within the story, including the animals. Actually, the only character these strict definitions seem to fit well is Uncle Al, owner and producer of the Benzini Bros. Circus. His flat character complements the idea and magic of the show. Uncle Al is larger than life. His story is almost always told through his acts: redlighting or docking pay or through stories from other men. He is larger than life, and he is supposed to be.
Like Uncle Al, you never see a full picture in Water for Elephants. You will always see the show. And really, that is part of what makes this book such a fun and relaxing read. It is a show. If you have no other expectation, you will love reading this story.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
First book club meeting
Hi all!
I would love to start a book club with you over the next year. I'm quite free in the next few weeks, and since I began knitting I stopped reading. Please post the books you are interested in reading and times you would be available to meet. Please leave in the comment section!
Caroline
I would love to start a book club with you over the next year. I'm quite free in the next few weeks, and since I began knitting I stopped reading. Please post the books you are interested in reading and times you would be available to meet. Please leave in the comment section!
Caroline
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