New Century Reading

Whereas

Wow. Where to begin? Layli Long Soldier's Whereas is a collection of poetry that explores the personal and the political, but the latter from a deeply personal perspective, all the while looking at how language is used and abused and restructured and changed. It's a book in which poems take many forms: prose poems, simple lined poems, poems where the word placement on the page is every bit as important as each word itself. The language itself is often deceptively simple, but devastating. The title comes from a section of the book, Whereas, which is a response to the Congressional Resolution of Apology to Native Americans signed by President Obama. True to the book's direct look at literature itself, each part of this section opens as if it were some kind of governmental proclamation: "Whereas"...

"WHEREAS a woman I know says she watched a new program a reporter detailed the fire a house in which five children burned perhaps their father too she doesn't recall exactly but remembers the camera on the mother's face the mother's blubbering her hiccupping and wail she leans to me she says she never knew then in those times that year this country the northern state she grew up in she was so young you see she'd never seen it before nobody talked about them she means Indians she tells me and so on and so on but that moment in front of the TV she says was like opening a box left at her door opening to see the thing inside whereas to say she learned through that mother's face can you believe it and I let her finish wanting someone to say it but she hated saying it or so she said admitting how she never knew until then they could feel."

I fully admit there were sections I didn't understand. But I think this is a book that bears multiple readings. There is a repeated motif of grasses which is explained later in the book, and just having that info will give a different reading the next time around. And isn't that poetry--the ability to find new things, learn new things, see new things, with repeated visits? Highly recommended. 

Four Souls

I read this book right after reading Tracks for my book club. I had read Tracks before but didn't like it quite as much on the re-read; I hadn't read Four Souls before and wasn't sure what to expect, given how I felt about Tracks.

Turns out I loved Four Souls, and I think pairing it with Tracks is the best way to read it. Technically, it's a stand-alone book, but so much of what happens in Four Souls comes from Tracks that Souls is a deeper read when you're familiar with the earlier book.

In Tracks, we saw what happened to Fleur Pillager and her quest to keep her land. In Four Souls, she's out for revenge against the white man who took everything from her: lumber baron John James Mauser. Her method of revenge is novel: She arrives at his St. Paul mansion and asks for work. From her lowly position as a household servant, she has time to plan and plot how she can take him down. But first, she realizes, there's another step; Mauser is in physically terrible shape after a stint in WWI. Fleur doesn't want to kill a man who's already miserable--so she nurses him back to health.

But Mauser, whose wife is not exactly mentally competent and who withholds sex, falls in love with Fleur and soon manages to get rid of his wife so he can marry Fleur. And Fleur becomes pregnant, which changes the game.

Like Tracks, we only get Fleur's story from a distance, told in alternating chapters by Nanapush and Polly Elizabeth, Mauser's first wife's sister. Later we also hear from Nanapush's common-law wife, Margaret. Along the way, we learn about all of their lives too, in a most entertaining and electrifying set of narratives. Unlike Tracks, where I found Pauline's narrative distracting, here all the stories combined into a larger narrative that gripped me.

So while you don't technically need to read Tracks to read Four Souls, I'd strongly recommend reading them together.

Tracks

My long-time book club has decided that November is Louise Erdrich month. Given how many novels she's written, that'll keep us going for several years, as opposed to when November used to be Bronte month; I mean, those Brontes were great authors, but all died far too young and didn't produce that many books. Last year we read Love Medicine, and this year we're reading two books: Tracks and Four Souls, which together form a loose trilogy.

I just finished Tracks, a book I read many years ago. It's the story of the intense, strange, mystifying Fleur Pillager and tribal elder Nanapush. Set in the late WWI years, it's also the story of how Native Americans lost their crumbling foothold on pieces of land, bit by agonizing bit.

Erdrich is an amazing writer, there's no question, even going way back in her body of work. There's magical realism here, and more than a little bit of eroticism. There are fascinating, flawed characters, and a strong story line that builds up to a menacing future.

But on this re-read, I also found the first half to be overly slow. The story is told mostly from the points of view of Nanapush and Pauline Puyat, a young Native woman who slowly becomes obsessed with religious self-flagellation. Fleur is seen through their eyes. I see what Erdrich was doing: Pauline and Nanapush have very different viewpoints on Fleur and her actions. But honestly, even though Pauline's story is strange and downright frightening, she felt more like a distraction to me; I was far more interested in Nanapush and Fleur.

There were parts of this book that I'd give 4 stars, but other parts I'd give 2, so when I rated it on Goodreads, I gave it a 3. That said, I'm still anxious to approach Four Souls, which stars Fleur again, and I think it's one of the few Erdrich books I haven't read.

 

The Power

The Power is a bit of an "it" book at the moment, and no wonder: The premise is that teenage girls worldwide suddenly develop a new physical attribute: a "skein" across their collarbones that allows them to harness and control electromagnetic energy. So with just their fingers, they can send devastating electrical jolts to various targets, including other people. And the teenage girls can share this power with their older female counterparts.

That's a very interesting idea, especially in this gender political age. What would happen if women suddenly became more physically powerful than men? If the tables were turned that way? What if men had to be afraid to go out after dark, or find themselves alone with the wrong woman?

Great concept, but the execution is a sore disappointment. There were a number of problems with the book. It's framed as a historical document written 5,000 years after the event, and the beginning and end of the book are letters between historian Neil and his editor Naomi Alderman (yup, the name of the author). I didn't see any particular value in this bookending at all.

Second, there are multiple points of view, which on the one hand makes sense--we can see how different people in different parts of the world handle this new development. But there are so many points of view that several are very thinly sketched, including the sole male POV, who's a journalist traveling around the world documenting the fallout. But we don't get to know him as much more than a guy taking photos and writing stories, so why do we care? He's just a method for exploring different places.

Further, the author takes the easy way out in several cases rather than really deeply exploring. In Saudi Arabia, women rise up universally once they realize their power. I find it hard to believe that all women, to a one, would cast off decades of a culture so quickly. I would expect there would be dissension among them, but we don't see that at all.

Then there's one of the main characters who, slight spoiler but this happens early on, hears voices she interprets as being from a female God. Now why do we need something like this? The reality of what would happen in this event is interesting enough without adding a supernatural element.

The character I found myself most interested in was a teenage girl whose power comes in unevenly, making her a bit of an outcast among her peers. But she's a secondary character that the author doesn't spend much time with.

To her credit, Alderman doesn't take the stance that woman would run the world in a much more humane, loving way than men do. That would be unrealistic. Women are just as subject to corruption by power as men are. But in this case, they're even worse in a scorched-earth kind of way that to me is not only necessarily realistic, it's not even interesting.

I thought this would be more of a psychological/political study, but it's basically a bombastic sci fi book with minimal characterization. An It book, yes, but not for me.

The Best We Could Do

Wow. I hardly know where to start with how much I loved this book. I read it in one sitting--not difficult for a graphic memoir, granted, but it's very compelling. 

This is the story of Thi Bui's family, who escaped Vietnam by boat in the 1970s and became refugees in Malaysia before making their way to America. That right there is plenty to chew on; witnessing the horrors of the Vietnam war firsthand, taking on a dangerous escape because there was no other choice--they were likely to die or "disappear" if they didn't--and going through the miseries of the refugee life, then the poverty-stricken immigrant life in a country where many resented them because of their roots in Vietnam.

But it's more than that. It's also the story of Thi Bui's parents, who at first seem like run-of-the-mill stereotypical dysfunctional parents. But the author took on the task of trying to understand them, what made them the way they are, and she dug deep. Certainly life in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s played a huge role, but that wasn't all. And who her parents were had an effect on who the author became--as is true for all of us.

Bui frames the book around the birth of her child, which could have been hokey, but by using it as the jumping-off point to exploring her parents, she manages to avoid becoming trite. Instead, this is a heartfelt look at her parents and her relationship with them, with all its faults and unfulfilled hopes. And isn't that something nearly all of us can understand, even if we didn't become Vietnamese refugees in the 70s?

The illustrations are beautiful too. The drawings are founded in black-and-white drawings, with gentle shadings of color. It's hard to imagine this book having the emotional impact it does without them. 

Five stars.

Stay with Me

Stay with Me is a slow-burner of a first novel, one that I almost quit about 50 pages in, but decided to keep going, and boy, am I ever glad I did. It's the story of a Nigerian couple, Yejide and Akin, who meet at university and get married, agreeing to buck Nigerian tradition and remain monogamous; Akin won't take additional wives.

That's all well and good until four years go by and Yejide isn't pregnant. Akin's family continues to pressure him to take another wife so that he can have children. Yejide is opposed, but one day, family members arrive at the door with a young woman they introduce as being Akin's second wife.

Not surprisingly, Yejide feel very betrayed. But she's also worried that if the second wife gets pregnant first, Yejide will lose her marriage to a man she truly loves. 

This is where the story started to both ripen and darken. What Yejide goes through to try and become pregnant is astonishing. But beyond that, there's a plot twist that I saw coming a mile away, but I ended up not caring, because by the time it was revealed, I was fully invested in this couple and how they were trying to maintain what had started out as a strong marriage, but which is disintegrating under pressure from family who insist on traditional Nigerian practices.

It could be said, somewhat fairly, that this book has a bit of a soap opera vibe. But I think the author mostly kept away from that. To me, it felt almost like an allegory on several levels, including politically, as some critical points in the book take place in 1993, when Nigeria was undergoing some major political changes. The author smartly doesn't go too deep into the weeds here, but layers enough in that we understand there's turmoil, and that the turmoil mirrors and affects the personal distress of the characters.

Overall, I'd say it's an excellent debut, and I can't wait to see what author Ayobami Adebayo does next.

Northanger Abbey (and a recipe)

As Jane Austen's books go, this is neither my favorite nor my most hated. I suspect I'd have enjoyed it more if I was familiar with The Mysteries of Udolpho, the book which I believe Austen was parodying in Northanger Abbey. As it is, I did get some of the humor, but I'm sure I missed a great deal. The book itself isn't as strong as other Austen works; the pacing is off--it's painfully slow in the beginning, then very rushed at the end. It also has some curious aspects not seen in her other works, especially that she leaves several secondary characters hanging at the end, rather than providing readers with information as to what happened to them. 

That said, it was a quick read, and since Udolpho looks like a perfect October read, I'll hang onto my copy of Abbey; maybe next year I'll read them back to back, and get more out of the latter.

In the meantime, onto our last Austen book--Persuasion--and as usual, here's a Northanger Abbey-inspired recipe from Dinner with Mr. Darcy.  

Sally Lunns

1/4 ounce active dried yeast
2 tbsp superfine (caster) sugar
2 eggs plus optional extra egg white for glazing
Generous 1 1/4 cups cream or milk
1 pound strong bread flour
1 tsp salt (optional--not in original, but we find yeast buns very bland without it)
Butter or clotted cream, to serve

1. Blend the yeast with the sugar and beat it thoroughly with the eggs and cream. Sift in the flour and salt (if using) to make a dough that is smooth, but not sticky (add a little milk if it feels too dry).
2. Knead it on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until it feels elastic. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours.
3. Punch the air out of the dough and divide it into 6 cakes (you may find it helpful to flour your hands). Lay the cakes on a greased baking sheet.
4. Cover and let them rise again until double in size--30 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 400F. Glaze the cakes with egg white or milk if you fancy it, and bake for 12-15 minutes.
6. Serve with butter or clotted cream.

The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 2

I loved the first volume of Virginia Woolf's diaries, and volume two did not disappoint. After surviving a breakdown in volume one, this volume finds Woolf growing in strength and health, as well as gaining mastery and confidence in her writing. This is the period during which she wrote the ever-wonderful Mrs. Dalloway, and the diary entries around that offer so much to readers of that book. She had more confidence in Dalloway than in previous novels, even while doubting that the public or critics would be as enamored by it.

There is still the endless rounds of gossip, some of it very mean-spirited, and also her coming to terms with the death of her frenemy, Katherine Mansfield. 

But there's also her battle with Leonard, who'd moved her out to the suburbs after her breakdown because he felt that London took too much of a toll on her. Regaining her health, she pushes back, and ultimately they return to London, which is a situation for pure delight for Virginia. She often goes days and days without writing in her diary, which is frustrating to the reader, except for the knowledge that this was a rich period for her; being able to easily explore London and see people, while watching the Hogarth Press grow in prestige and sales, and seeing her own work blossom. 

She also tosses off little gems like: "Pure honesty is a doubtful quality; it often means lack of imagination."

And it appears she was an early practitioner of a fiction-writing technique in which, when it's time to revise, authors retype from the very beginning rather than just notating in the margins (or, in today's world, beginning an entirely new file rather than just editing within an existing document): 

"I am now galloping over Mrs Dalloway, re-typing it entirely from the start, which is more or less what I did with the [Voyage Out] a good method, I believe, as thus one works with a wet brush over the whole, & joins parts separately composed & gone dry."

Very excited for volume three.