Cariola's 2010 Reading List

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Cariola's 2010 Reading List

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1Cariola
Redigerat: jan 1, 2010, 12:51 pm

Hello, everyone, and Happy New Year! I hope the year is filled with many memorable reading experiences for us all.

I'm in the midst of an LT ER book, The Wives of Henry Oades, which will be my first book read in 2010.

Just so that anyone new can get an idea of the books I like to read, here is my top ten list for 2009:

1. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway.
2. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys.
3. The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt.
4. Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.
5. After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell.
6. The Autobiography of Henry VIII, with Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George.
7. Regeneration by Pat Barker.
8. No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym.
9. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson.
10. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

2kiwiflowa
jan 1, 2010, 3:55 pm

Yay found you and starred again. Happy New Year to you too!

3rainpebble
jan 1, 2010, 4:44 pm

Hi Cariola;
Nice to see you here and I have you starred. This is a new home for me so it is great to see some familiar names and be able to settle in comfortably for a year of great reads with all of you.
Happy New Year and hugs,
belva

4SqueakyChu
jan 1, 2010, 6:37 pm

Starred!

Have a great 2010!

5kidzdoc
jan 1, 2010, 8:53 pm

Starred, and looking forward to your 2010 reads!

6Cariola
jan 5, 2010, 10:22 am



1. The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran.

This novel had a lot of promise but left me feeling not entirely satisfied--perhaps, in part, because I had just finished Kate Grenville's The Secret River, a much better written and more detailed account of white settlers' conflicts with "the blacks" in the same part of the world (Australia, as opposed to New Zealand). I found the chapters focusing on Margaret and Henry's life in NZ much more interesting than the "American" part of the story (although, as others have said, the depiction of the Maoris was oversmiplified and one-sided). For one thing, Henry didn't really seem to fall in love with Nancy, he just took pity on her because they had both lost a spouse and decided out of the blue to propose to her. Oddly, his love for her seemed to blaze into a passion after his first wife showed up. For another thing, the moral outrage of the Oadeses' neighbors was just too pat. I know that people may have been more religious, self-righteous, and judgmental in 1899, but surely some folks would have recognized that the family was facing a real dilemma and hadn't consciously decided to wallow in sin (which they weren't, in any case, doing).

Most disturbing was that we never got a sense of what the community or the law expected the Oadses to do, as they first screamed for the banishment of Margaret and her children and then for the "salvation" of Nancy--and, in both cases, the imprisonment of Henry, the supposed bigamist. Nor was it ever made quite clear what message we were supposed to take away from the book. That this was a unique case of "accidental bigamy" and a private matter? That polygamous families can work for the benefit of all? While the Oadses may have worked it out for themselves, I was left feeling unsatisfied with yet another novel in which the women are called upon to make all the sacrifices and make them willingly.

7Cariola
Redigerat: jan 12, 2010, 3:54 pm

A Concise ChineseEnglish Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo.



I chose to take this book with me while London, and, as someone said below, the short chapters made it a good traveller's read; also, because it was set in London, many of the places mentioned in the book were right in front of me. I've had this book for awhile and had high hopes for it, but, for many reasons, I found it quite disappointing. First, the "cuteness" of Z's misunderstanding of English words and phrases began to get tedious after the first 100 pages. Second, I have no idea whatsoever why this young girl became so pathetically attracted to a 42-year old loser. Yes, she was in a strange country alone and he was kind to her at first; yes, she thought he was handsome; yes, he became her first lover; yes, he has a house. Is that reason enough to give up your whole personality as well as your time, money, culture, and emotional energy? I don't think so, not even for a somewhat vulnerable girl like Z. The man in the story was a failed sculptor who had run out of ideas (after all, how many penises can you scupt before running out of ideas?), whose job was making random deliveries in a battered van, and who told her outright that for the past 20 years, his lovers had all been men. It doesn't take a genius to read the flashing red sign on his forehead: "LOSER--RUN!!!" Third, certain events in the story were just unbelievable to me. Even a 23-year old from China would figure out pretty quickly that it isn't appropriate for young women to buy porn and read it openly in tea shops, watch peep shows designed for male customers, or attend live sex shows (let alone saying to a guy you met half an hour ago, "I want have sex with you" and stripping off your pants in a natural but public setting).

The author expects us to buy all this naivete simply because Z is a lonely girl away from home for the first time, but it just doesn't work. Writing all this down makes me recall how impatient I was to finish this book (which I left in the hotel because it wasn't worth carrying back). As soon as I post this review, I'm changing my 3 stars to 1.5, giving it a little credit for the original if overwrought idea and some humorous wordplay.

(For some reason, the touchstone only works without the hyphen between "Chinese-English.")

8kiwiflowa
jan 12, 2010, 1:42 pm

It's frustrating reading a disappointing book all the way to end just in case something happens towards the end to redeem itself. Thanks for the review. This is a book that has piqued my interest in book shops and I had toyed buying a few times. Now I won't make that mistake - it sounds like a book I would hate.

9Cariola
jan 16, 2010, 7:03 pm



In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan.

This is an early (1978) collection of seven short stories, most of them with a psychosexual twist. While I can't say that I really liked the collection, it was interesting to see McEwan's style emerging. His mastery of characters' inner dialogue is beginning to show here.

10Nickelini
jan 16, 2010, 8:34 pm

That's a McEwan that I've never even heard of, but I'll look out for it.

11Cariola
Redigerat: jan 30, 2010, 9:29 pm



The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.

This was a fairly typical Hardy novel: misplaced affections, broken hearts, overindulgent parents, class divisions, long lost lovers reunited, hints of scandal, etc. There's a bit of Gabriel Oak in Giles Winterborne (and, for that matter, a bit of Bathsheba Everdene in Grace Melbury). Still, I enjoyed the novel, which I listened to on audio, read by the wonderful Samuel West. The secondary female characters--particularly the spunky and loyal Marty South, but also Felice Charmond and Suke Damson--give the novel an added charm, but the conflicted, rather immature, manipulating and rather easily manipulated Grace Melbury really just needed a good smack.

12Nickelini
jan 30, 2010, 9:38 pm

but the conflicted, rather immature, manipulating and rather easily manipulated Grace Melbury really just needed a good smack.

what is it about Hardy novels that makes us otherwise peaceful people want to resort to violence? I felt the same way about Tess.

13kiwidoc
jan 31, 2010, 7:53 am

Perhaps because they stir up the base emotions that we face through life - I am a great fan of Hardy - even more a fan of his poetry. But, as you know, I am a fan of dark literature. Books that stir up reader emotions are a success in my view.

14Cariola
Redigerat: feb 7, 2010, 9:44 am

The Drowning Room by Michael Pye.



Set in 18th century Amsterdam and New Amsterdam, The Drowning Room is the story of a woman who uses her wits, her wiles, and her body to survive. Gretje tells us early on that she killed her mother--but we never get any details of how or why, and we later learn the she left her mother under a bush, unsure if she was dead or alive. She finds a job as a maid, but an unfortunate mistake causes a disaster that leaves her on the run. We learn bits and pieces of what has happened to Gretje since as she tells her story to a strange boy who has appeared on her doorstep shortly after her husband's death. As much as the novel focuses on Gretje's past, it also focuses on the mystery of this angelic-looking boy from whom she can't shake free.

I can't exactly say that I was blown over by this novel, but Pye does a fine job of creating and sustaining an eerie mood that kept me reading on.

15Cariola
feb 14, 2010, 3:52 pm

The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain.



If you think of Rose Tremain as mainly a writer of historical novels, this one will surprise you as much as it did me. In fact, I kept forgetting that I wasn't reading a novel by Ian McEwan. It's a mystery of sorts, involving a 13-year old English boy and a 40-ish Russian medieval romance writer. Lewis Little is spending the summer in France while his mother, a Scottish beauty, translates Valentina's latest work. He becomes obsessed with Valentina--an obsession whose depiction seemed very McEwanesque to me. Then, suddenly, Valentina disappears, and Lewis, not willing to leave matters to the police, determines to find her . . .

I certainly didn't enjoy this as much as Tremain's historical novels like Music and Silence, and I'm not much of a one for mysteries/crime novels. But overall, it kept my interest and was a pretty good read.

16Cariola
feb 24, 2010, 1:49 pm

Flash Fiction ed. by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka.



As one might expect, a collection of stories by 72 different authors is rather a mixed bag, but Flash Fiction has something for everyone. And because the stories are so short (none longer than four pages), it was a great way to get introduced to some styles and writers that I otherwise might never have read. A few familiar, regularly anthologized stories are included, like Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and Julia Alvarez's "Snow." But I also enjoyed "Mandy Shupe," Kristin Andrychuk's tale of a Mennonite girl gone bad, Pamela Painter's quirky "I Get Smart," about a woman who gets three "new" cats by renaming the ones she already has, and Mary Morris's melancholy "The Haircut," in which a wife finds evidence that her husband is cheating again. Overall, an interesting collection, and I found some authors whose longer works of fiction I will be seeking out.

17Cariola
feb 24, 2010, 2:15 pm

Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories edited by James Thomas & Robert Shapard.



A second helping from the editors of Flash Fiction. Again, it includes several regularly anthologized works, like Dave Eggers's "Accident," but also some quirky stories by lesser-known writers. How can you not love a story titled "My Date with Neanderthal Woman?"

18Cariola
feb 25, 2010, 7:02 pm

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.



I read this novel when it first came out but reread it again as I taught it in a class. Sadly, my students did not love it as much as I do (but then, this is a general education course, and most of them hate to read anything other than Twilight or graphic novels). Cold Mountain is a beautifully written, beautifully structured, and beautifully imagined novel about two people struggling to survive the Civil War, hoping to reunite and make some kind of a future for themselves despite the many hardships they have faced and the damage done by the war.

The narrative alternates between Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, and Ada Monroe, the bright, pampered daughter of an unconventional preacher who has decided to settle on a farm near Cold Mountain. Having had enough of killing and realizing the folly of the reasons for war, Inman becomes an outlier--a deserter--as he sets out for home, believing that Ada is his future and his redemption. When her father dies, Ada, who never felt fully at home in the salons of Charleston, refuses to return to the city and determines to make a life for herself in Black Cove. With the help and instruction of Ruby Thewes, she begins to understand the ways of the land and to recognize her place within it. Inman's road home is not an easy one. Pursued by the Home Guard, a vigilante-type posse intent on hunting down outliers, weakened by wounds that won't heal, exposed to the elements, and betrayed by his fellow man, he somehow manages to retain a sense of human decency. His dreams of Ada and of home keep him moving forward, despite seemingly impossible odds.

Cold Mountain is a love story, an anti-war story, a story man's place within the natural world, a little piece of history, a tale of human endurance. Frazier has done a remarkable job of writing the land in a way that is not only visual but atmospheric. All the elements of good prose come together in this moving, unforgettable novel.

19janeajones
feb 25, 2010, 7:19 pm

It's a lovely book -- and I think all the Odyssey allusions are fascinating too.

Do you like the film? While I thought there were some really good things about ir (especially Renee Zellweger's and Eileen Atkins' performances) -- I had a really hard time with Jude Law as Inman -- I thought the role need someone more "mountain man"ish.

20urania1
feb 25, 2010, 9:10 pm

I wish I could say I found Cold Mountain gripping, but I did not. And I so wanted to like it. I guess I am on the side of your students :-(

21janemarieprice
feb 25, 2010, 9:40 pm

18 - I read Cold Mountain for a class in college and liked it a lot. Sorry to hear your students weren't as into it.

19 - Agreed about Jude Law.

22Cariola
feb 25, 2010, 10:58 pm

19> Yes, I agree that Jude is a little too fragile and pretty. The movie had its moments but changed an awful lot, including some really basic things, like Ada as a dark-haired woman (a motif that runs throughout the novel), and the first meeting of Ada and Inman.

I tried to read Frazier's long-awaited second novel but was not captivated.

23nobooksnolife
Redigerat: feb 26, 2010, 6:04 pm

>18 Cariola: "...but then, this is a general education course, and most of them hate to read anything other than Twilight or graphic novels"

I wonder what this foretells of the future of teaching/education in the US. Sounds bleak to me.

Great review! I also read Cold Mountain when it first came out and loved it. I particularly agree with your comment about 'man's place within the natural world' and 'atmospheric writing'. Throughout this novel I felt the physical pains and struggles of the characters.

24Cariola
feb 26, 2010, 7:23 pm

23> Sadly, the future is bleak, I'm afraid. I just resigned as advisor to the campus film series--something I have really enjoyed doing for the past few years. Why? Because after meeting with a student to choose films yesterday and hassling via emails today about the six films to be chosen, I came to realize that things have changed, and not in a good way. In the past, a student and I would sit down and share suggestions, make some compromises, and come up with a pretty good and diversified series of six films, two or three of them foreign language films and many of them pre-releases. I met with a new student yesterday who knew nothing about film and brought dismal suggestions (films several years old, sappy pop flicks, no foreign films, and a few we had shown within the last two years). Instead of compromising or advising, I was told that her "committee" (meaning a number of her friends) was going to vote on the final decision; I really had no say. The committee found all the foreign language films "weird" and they don't like to read subtitles. They threw out an excellent Chinese epic movie with extraordinary cinematography to include a mediocre American-made tearjerker, and the only foreign-language film will be that Coco Chanel biopic with Audrey Tatou.

I am SO ready to retire, but, unfortunately, I have a good number of years left.

25arubabookwoman
feb 27, 2010, 3:59 pm

Cariola--it's so sad that college students (at least some of them) aren't willing to open themselves to new cultural experiences. I wish that student would have listened, or at least compromised--you can see the latest Adam Sandler movie anywhere. Anyway, I'm sorry you can't retire as soon as you'd like, but I hope you'll still keep trying to influence the students in your classes.

26urania1
feb 27, 2010, 7:24 pm

Cariola,

I thought the whole purpose of film series was to introduce students to films not readily available. Do you have any leeway to discuss with this student the ignorance and sheer narrow mindedness of this approach. Moreover, I have never heard of film committees for which the advisor did not have powerful sway. Usually film committees are appointed with an eye to the expertise of the students and/or the breadth of their experience - at least that is how it has always worked where I have taught. Do you have enough students interested in good film to organize boycotts of mediocre films?

27Cariola
feb 27, 2010, 8:26 pm

The new director of the Activites Program Board is all about being popular with the students, and giving them the power to make all the decisions is part of that. He encouraged the student I met with to not compromise with me but to appoint a committee of her equally ignorant friends to make the final decision. In short, I have been forced out of being the faculty advisor because they don't think they need one, and they have the backing of the director. The conversation with the student rep was all about "we want" and "we don't want," as if that was the only criteria--as she had been told by the director it was.

Yes, the original intent was to expand the students' horizons by exposing them to innovative films in different genres and from different cultures. And I've always tried to get several pre-release films; there will be none this time. But today the university is nothing but a profit-making business selling degrees, and the customer is always right. So they will simply be maintaining the ignorance with which they entered as freshmen, because that is what they want.

I resigned because I do not want my name attached to the list of films they selected when the complaints form other faculty start coming in. Only two are worthy of being part of the series (An Education and A Single Man), and these are both English-language films. In fact, ALL of the films could be described as tearjerker "girly flicks" or a love story of sorts; there is no variation, but "that's what we want."

No, there won't be a boycott beacuse the film series is generally poorly attended. That's one reason they want to make it just another entertainment night.

I can't tell you how much I wish I could retire . . .

28Cariola
feb 28, 2010, 8:29 am

Conceit by Mary Novik.



Conceit is the story of Pegge, daughter of the poet John Donne, a woman obsessed with the desire to understand and experience true passion--the kind of passion expressed in the erotic poems her father penned in his youth. Pegge barely remembers her mother, who died giving birth to her twelfth child, and her father, now Dean of St. Paul's, has striven to suppress both his poems and his passion as he approaches death.

While there is much to admire in Conceit, it is not without its flaws. Mary Novik has obviously conducted extensive research into seventeenth-century London, including its architecture, history, society, family life, and literature. For the most part, these details are effortlessly woven into her fine prose. Oddly, in a book featuring John Donne, Isaak Walton, and Samuel Pepys, the literary allusions themselves seem stilted. One example: when Pegge's husband William shares a cup of sack with Pepys, the latter's conversation is peppered with the coded sexual language familiar to readers of his diary. While I haven't read a biography of Pepys, I doubt that he used this code in conversation with persons who would not have understood it all; and in flirting with a tavern maid, he certainly would have expressed his desires in more forthright terms. It came across to me rather like a rap on the head (as if to say, "It's Pepys, you know? The sex-crazed guy who wrote about his adventure in a coded diary"). Since Pepys is one of our greatest sources of the details of London life in his day, including the Great Fire that launches Conceit, he might have been put to better use. Lines from Donne's poetry, of course, are central to the story, but they sometimes came up at odd moments and, again, tended to distract the reader. But since Pegge's obsessions are the novel's focus, this is more forgiveable.

Overall, the characters and relationships are certainly original, engaging, and well-developed. Pegge's love/hate relationship with her father, who she nurses towards death while still a teenager, haunts the rest of her life. A physical late-bloomer, she obsesses over her "fleurs" (menstruation), a habit that curiously continues through her childbearing years and on into menopause. When she marries William Bowles, she brings with her the bed in which her parents made love and in which her father died. Her own efforts at penning passion are scrawled across the pages of her father's biography, pompously written by Isaak Walton, the object of her own first (and perhaps undying) love. As Pegge's behavior becomes more and more strange, her memories of Donne border on the incestuous and become confused in her mind with her marital relationship. Pegge's rivalry with her sister Con, her obsession with Walton, and her husband's gentle, loving concern are all brilliantly rendered here.

I have to admit that I was rather offput by seeing my beloved Donne presented as a self-centered hypochondriac; I am not sure if this is Novik's invention or recorded fact. However, the chapters that flash back to his courtship of and early marriage to Ann More redeem him. Structurally, the novel moves back and forth through time--a ragged structure but one appropriate to Pegge's thought processes. We even hear the voice of Ann Donne, come from the grave to accuse her husband of abandoning his promises.

On the whole, Conceit fully engaged me in Pegge's world, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves historical novels that are intellectually challenging. It's also a wonderful study of the complexities of the father-daughter relationship. As has been mentioned by others, it is hard to get ahold of a copy in the US, although the book was critically acclaimed and a strong seller in Canada. I had to wait a long time before I found a copy. It was worth the wait.

29nobooksnolife
feb 28, 2010, 9:10 am

Lovely review of Conceit--moves me to want to read something that is so far away from my usual radar that I would never have noticed it without your review. *blip* ping!* (sound of radar).

30Cariola
Redigerat: feb 28, 2010, 2:22 pm

Drake's Bay by T. A. Roberts



To be fair, I'm not going to rate this book because it just wasn't my cup of tea. I don't usually read mysteries, but the historical angle and the academic context caught my attention; that is why I requested the ARC. Unfortunately, the characters were stereotypes, and they didn't interest me at all. I found the plot predictable and the dialogue artificial. I was looking for something along the lines of Possession, but this was more like The DaVinci Code (or, like someone else said, a Harrison Ford action flick, and I don't much enjoy those either).

31janeajones
feb 28, 2010, 4:32 pm

Conceit sounds fascinating -- I shall keep a look out for it. I once spent a month listening to Kenneth Branagh reading Pepys on my commute to work -- what a trip (or rather many trips...).

32Cariola
feb 28, 2010, 8:24 pm

31> Ah, I have the audiobook but haven't gotten around to it yet. Better get to it while my Walkman (yes, Walkman--it's on cassettes) still works!

33Cariola
feb 28, 2010, 8:25 pm

Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres by Ruth Brandon.



A rather uneven, if generally interesting, work on the lives of governesses in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. Brandon includes letters and diary entries in individual chapters on a number of well-known governesses (including Claire Clairmont, Everina Wollstonecraft, Anna Leonowens). One thing soon becomes clear: Jane Eyre was definitely an exception to the norm. Most young women did not, in the end, fare so well.

34detailmuse
mar 2, 2010, 10:42 am

>24 Cariola:, 27
These would be perfect to submit to Rate Your Students -- a very snarky blog where you will commiserate with college-faculty colleagues … and maybe get some helpful feedback. The archives might buoy you and confirm you aren't alone.

35urania1
mar 2, 2010, 11:04 am

Cariola,

So sad. Colleges have become marketing institutions rather than institutions of higher learning. Some of my colleagues have written grants to bring in foreign films or controversial films. Additionally, some groups run by faculty have brought in controversial films. Do you have any outlets like that at your school? By the way Conceit sounds interesting; however, I think I will wait until it appears at my local library. It seems like the sort of thing that might.

36avaland
mar 2, 2010, 2:52 pm

>17 Cariola:, 16 I really enjoyed the 2nd volume Flash Fiction Forward, but have not been able to get into the earlier volume which I picked up after reading the 2nd. Maybe it had just run it's course with me.

37Cariola
mar 2, 2010, 4:18 pm

36> Truthfully, I only went through them both that quickly because I was looking for stories for a class assignment. It was one way to find stories for them to write on that won't be dissected on the web.

38Cariola
Redigerat: mar 2, 2010, 6:42 pm

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin.



How convenient that I finished this novel just as Tim Burton's new version of Alice in Wonderland is sweeping the country! The narrator is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, once the little girl for whom Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodson wrote the famous tale. It begins and ends with Alice, age 80, wrapping up a tour of America and relates the details of her relationship with Dodson. Was it an innocent friendship, an impossible love affair, or something more sinister? Alice keeps us guessing up until the end, dropping tantalizing tidbits along the way that, I confess, sometimes made me cringe a bit. The repeated motif is "that day on the train"--a day that Alice claims to have little recollection of but which resulted in the Liddells cutting off all contact with Mr. Dodson.

Even more fascinating than her relationship with Mr. Dodson are those with her mother and her older sister Ina--but I won't give anything away here for those who might want to read about it for themselves. The remainder of Alice's life is a fairly typical Victorian portrait of a woman who marries a nice man who is not the first or even second love of her life but rather her ticket out of an unpleasant home life and a spinster's future. Years later, like so many women of her era, she has to face the trauma of watching her sons going off to the battlefields of World War I.

My overall reaction to the book is mixed. At times, I was captivated, but at other times, the novel seemed rather a dull and conventional, like something I must have read many times before. Worth reading, in other words, but not exceptional.

39Cariola
Redigerat: mar 14, 2010, 1:22 am

The Awakening by Kate Chopin.



Reread for a course I'm teaching (I'm about to get 50 papers on it!). Since I've read this classic novel of a woman's confused longing for selfhood many times, I found myself focusing on Chopin's style this time. She has such a marvelous way of using description to convey characters' emotional or mental states. And once you've read it a few times, you start to recognize the subtle effect of pattern and repetition; it's beautifully structured.

This is a wonderful edition that includes cultural context materials (ads for corsets and skin creams, advice for the housewife, etc.) and several fine critical essays, each preceded by an explanation and history of the critical mode (feminisim, psychoanalytic theory, etc.). Highly recommended not just for scholars but for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of the novel, it's reception, and it's significance.

40janeajones
Redigerat: mar 7, 2010, 7:11 pm

I've used The Awakening for my Women and Lit class for a number of years, and it's always one of the students' favorites. There are so many angles to attack it from -- rather like Woolf's To the Lighthouse. And they're both so gorgeously written. I don't have this edition -- must look it up.

41Cariola
Redigerat: mar 8, 2010, 1:53 am

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.



Well, let me start with something positive: This was a very short book and a quick read, good for kicking off Spring Break. And the author writes dialogue that, for the most part, really sounds like conversation.

I had been looking forward to reading One Amazing Thing, but, overall, I was sorely disappointed. The first third of the book left me feeling like I was trapped in a B-rated '70s film--namely, 'The Poseidon Adventure.' Every disaster film cliché imaginable was resurrected in this story of nine people trapped in a passpport office in the wake of an earthquake. The roster of stereotypical characters include a goth Chinese-American teenager and her grandma, who is wiser than she seems; a take-charge African-American Vietnam vet (his take-charginess somewhat softened by his asthma attacks); an Indian boss and his assistant (and yes, they are having an affair that they have been trying to keep hidden because, of course, he is married); an older couple growing estranged from one another (he's the cranky character, the one whose smoking habit threatens to blow them all up due to a gas leak, and she's the one hooked on tranquilizers); an angry young Muslim man (the one who freaks out in the beginning and endangers everyone by trying to force open a door); and an Indian-American college girl. As the water level continues to mount, all that was missing was Shelley Winters.

Once we're introduced to the characters and everybody calms down a bit, Uma, the college girl (who just happens to have been reading The Canterbury Tales), proposes that they keep busy and relieve their stress by each telling a story from their lives (just like the people under pressure do in 'The Poseidon Adventure'). Every story is about the person either being terribly hurt, terribly hurting someone else, or both; I guess you've got regret on your mind when you might be facing death. And of course, there are some confessions that made me scratch my head, wondering why a person would want to inflict pain on a family member at just that particular moment. Only in Jiang's story did something "amazing" figure (unless you count the aurora borealis that turned out to be a gas fire).

I don't necessarily need a novel to wrap up neatly, but I have to agree with other reviewers here who complained that the conclusion leaves much to be desired. We could have had an explosion, perhaps a rescuer's voice was heard or his shadow fell through the breach in the ceiling, but no, we're not given even a hint as to whether these folks, in whom we're supposed to have an emotional investment by now, survive or not.

I've enjoyed several of Divakaruni's novels and short stories. Although the cover blurbs from other respected authors are full of praise for this book's originality, I found it facile and derivative.

42avaland
mar 8, 2010, 12:45 pm

>41 Cariola: I have enjoyed quite a bit of Divakaruni's previous work also; this sounds indeed disappointing.

43Cariola
mar 10, 2010, 5:52 pm

Realms of Gold: Letters and Poems of John Keats.



I just spent a lovely afternoon listening to Samuel West and Michael Marsh read this collection of selected poems and letters by John Keats. The letters are arranged chronologically, and the poems interspersed were written at the same time, often even mentioned in the letters. Keats was the first poet I fell in love with at the age of about 14, and I fell in love with him all over again after listening to this fine and beautifully read collection.

44theaelizabet
Redigerat: mar 13, 2010, 5:44 pm

Oh, Cariola, you are so right! This is such a lovely CD, and beautifully read, yes.

45Mr.Durick
mar 13, 2010, 7:18 pm

I want to comment, but I don't have much to say. Your link to The Awakening is the wrong one. I wondered specifically whether you were referring to this one. When Borders first came to this area it was before the great glut of books available on line, and this was a treasure, I thought, that became one of the first books I bought at Borders. I haven't read it yet. I want a book that has comments, notes, and contextualization, and if you have found another I would like to know about it.

Of Divakaruni I have read only Palace of Illusions. I liked that only insofar as it contributed to my reading of the Mahabharata. I wouldn't expect much from her.

Robert

46Cariola
mar 14, 2010, 1:28 am

45> I corrected the touchstone. I was referring to Chopin's novella, but the edition I read was the Bedford/St. Martin's, not the Norton. Both are good, but for the class I am teaching (the entry-level course for English majors), the Bedford is better because it gives an overview of each critical theory before launching into a specific article on The Awakening.

One Amazing Thing was truly a disappointment. I still remember her wonderful story about Mrs. Dutta. This can't compare.

47Cariola
Redigerat: mar 21, 2010, 4:36 pm

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson



This book is a bit lighter than my usual fare, but I was absolutely charmed by it. If I lived in Edgcumbe-St.-Mary, I think I'd be in love with the major, too. It's the gentle tale of a widowed retired major who is grieving for his recently-deceased brother when friendship blooms with Mrs. Ali, the widow of a Pakistani shopkeeper. Friendship inevitably turns into stronger affection--but what will the members of the club say (let alone the major's son, a broker schmoozing his way up the corporate ladder)? And will the major ever succeed in reuniting a pair of Churchill shooters given to his father by a maharaja and divided between his sons at his death? Much of the novel centers on conflicts between the "older generation" values of the major and the new values of "progress." Mrs. Ali, too, has conflicts with her own beliefs and the traditional Islamic values of her husband's family. But all is not so serious--particulary due to Major Pettigrew's wonderful wit (which often goes over the heads of others) and some delightfully comic scenes.

48Nickelini
mar 21, 2010, 4:41 pm

It's great to hear that you liked Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. For some reason the publisher sent me a free copy, and although I thought it sounded good, I had my doubts. But I agree with your take on books more often then I don't, so I'll look forward to this one.

49juliette07
Redigerat: mar 23, 2010, 2:26 pm

Have I missed your thoughts on Cutting for Stone? I would be really interested in reading your thoughts before I invest time in the book!

50Cariola
mar 23, 2010, 7:16 pm

Julie, I read this one in December 2008. I posted my review on your profile page.

51juliette07
mar 26, 2010, 6:02 pm

Thanks Deborah - been without internet connection and only just got back online. Thank you for posting for me.

52Cariola
mar 28, 2010, 10:56 am



Romancing Miss Bronte by Juliet Gael.

About 250 fifty pages into this 400-page book, I asked myself, "Who is romancing Miss Bronte?" At this point, Arthur Bell Nicholls had JUST admitted to himself his attraction to Charlotte but had not yet spoken of his feelings, so I could only conclude that it was the author, Juliet Gael, who was "romancing" her in a different way, by trying to turn her into a romanticized heroine admirable not for her beauty but for other, more endearing qualities. The real romance is Charlotte's life: her endurance in spite of personal and professional rejections, her devotion to a demanding family, the sacrificing of her own needs and desires to fulfill those of others, and her dedication to her own work. The book, then, is not quite what the title suggests--which is probably a good thing in my case, since I am not a reader of conventional romance novels. Although the writing does get bogged down in unnecessary details at times, overall, Gael creates a lively portrait of one of the great women writers of the 19th century. The inclusion of a number of the literati of the day (Lewes, Thackeray, etc.) and their reception of both Bronte and her successful novel Jane Eyre make for interesting reading. The complex relationships among the Bronte sisters is also carefully and believably drawn.

53Cariola
mar 28, 2010, 10:58 am



The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster.

Reread for a class I am teaching. This is one of my all-time favorite Jacobean tragedies. Forbidden passions, secret marriages, spies, incestuous feelings, political machinations, a malcontent, lycanthropy, and murder--and on top of it all, excellent writing. What more can you ask? I love teaching this play because it touches on all the aspects of the genre and of early modern court society that are so significant to understanding the period. Daniel de Bosola is my second all-time favorite villain (the first being Edmund in King Lear); I had the good chance of seeing him played by Ian McKellan at the National in 1985.

Ferdinand: Women love that part that hath not a bone in it.
Duchess: Fie, fie, sir!
Ferdinand: I mean the tongue.

How can you not love it? I just wish there was a DVD version. Back in the 1970s I saw a television production starring Vanessa Redgrave, but so far, it is not available. I'm waiting for one of those BBC collections--"Vanessa Redgrave at the BBC"--to come out. They've done them on Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith, and the series is wonderful; that's how I've gotten ahold of some of the classic plays that I teach ('Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Country Wife, etc.). But so far, the students have been enjoying reading scenes aloud.

54Cariola
apr 7, 2010, 7:09 pm



Solar by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan does it again! Solar is a hilarious, intellectual romp for our times. It's a satire that aims its shots in many directions: at the narrow worlds of academia and scientific research; at the New Age/hug-a-tree/love-can-save-the-world philosophy; at the idealism of the young and the cynicism of their elders; at the wheeling and dealing behind corporate American enterprise; at the inexplicable nature of love and its counterpart, lust.

Michael Beard, a Nobel prize-winning physicist, has been sitting on his laurels for years, working half-heartedly for a British energy center that sees wind energy as the future, spending more time mocking the "ponytails" (the young post-grad physicists who work under him) than developing new theories or resources. In his spare time, Beard has lumbered his way through five marriages and numerous affairs, and his penchant for alcohol, beef, pancakes, and crisps have added more weight to his physical profile than his professional one.

But then things start to happen--call them accidents or fate or coincidences, or just plain old opportunities. And Michael Beard is there to pick up the pieces and use them to his best advantage.

A few of the reviews already posted tell, I think, way too much and spoil the surprises to come for future readers. I'll only say that I knew how dark McEwan could be, but I had no idea that he could be quite so funny. Several of the scenes, including the one on the Paddington train alluded to by others, had me actually laughing out loud.

I listened to the audiobook and was delighted to find an interview of McEwan by his editor at the end. In it, he discussed his research process (which included not only reading about global warming and renewable energy but an extended stay in New Mexico and an arctic trip with a group of artists and scientists) and the fact that he has already been approached by a number of physicists who claim they know upon whom he based the character of Beard (he claims it was his own creation, but that it's probably a "good thing" there are so many likely Beards out there rather than just one).

Overall, Solar is a smart, funny, and perceptive novel about our times, and I highly recommend it. Don't expect it to be another Atonement or On Chesil Beach; McEwan is attempting something entirely different here, and you will have to be willing to take it on its own terms.

55Nickelini
apr 7, 2010, 7:35 pm

Great review, Deborah! If you liked it, I know I will too. Thanks.

56Cariola
Redigerat: apr 8, 2010, 12:08 pm



The True Story of Hansel and Gretel.

I feel a bit guilty in not giving a higher rating to The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, just because it is a story about the horrors of the Nazi regime and the suffering of children, and because it attempts to do something original--namely, mingling the classic fairy tale with two Jewish children's struggle for survival in war-torn Poland. While there is much to admire here, at times I felt let down by the writing itself, and some of the situations and characters in the novel were just too predictable: the psychotic SS officer, the weasly mayor, etc. On the other hand, Murphy brings the magic of Bialoweiza Forest to life--a magical place inhabited by wild ponies and bison and primeval trees. And she create some wonderful characters in Magda (the witch), her brother Piotr (a priest), her grandniece Nelka, and Nelka's lover, Telek. She also focuses on some of the war's victims and heroes that have been more or less forgotten, including the Poles, who suffered under both the Nazi and Russian occupations; the Jews who survived the holocaust by living in the forest; and the partisans who resisted the Nazis with guerilla warfare tactics and punished collaborators. And in many ways, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a powerful tale of love, hope, and redemption. As you can see, my feelings about the book are mixed. While I certainly would encourage anyone interested to give it a go, I can only give it 3.5 stars.

57Nickelini
apr 8, 2010, 10:25 am

Are you sorry you picked this one to teach, Deborah?

58urania1
apr 8, 2010, 2:14 pm

Cariola,

I agree with your assessment of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel. It was a book I read and recycled.

59urania1
apr 8, 2010, 2:22 pm

Alas Cariola,

I have succumbed to your recommendations one again. I cannot resist novels about academia and the evil but seductive Baron von Kindle has Solar in his library.

60Cariola
Redigerat: apr 8, 2010, 6:01 pm

57> It went OK with the students. But, that said, I wouldn't teach it again. It was a leap of faith, but at least I made it to the other side! We start Q & A (Slumdog Millionaire) next week. That worked fairly well last time.

58> Thanks for assuaging my guilt, urania1!

61Cait86
apr 11, 2010, 8:51 am

Your review of Solar is so tempting - the first really positive one I've read here on LT. I was disappointed by McEwan a bit last year, and was beginning to think that I wasn't going to give him another shot...but I think you have convinced me otherwise!

62Cariola
Redigerat: apr 11, 2010, 9:53 am

61> I just read the review in TLS, which concluded by saying that those who wondered what the heck had happened to McEwan when they read Saturday and On Chesil Beach will likely be pleased with Solar. So hopefully you'll be among those readers!

(I loved those books, too, but I do see the difference between them and his earlier books and Solar. The biting wit, for one thing.)

63Cariola
Redigerat: apr 13, 2010, 7:06 pm



The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connnor McNees.

Well, I made it 2/3 of the way through this rather tedious novel before giving up on it. It read to me like a really bad YA romance that dragged on way too long. The dialogue was stilted, the characters bland and stereotypical, and the writing full of clichés. I learned nothing that I didn't already know about the Alcottts, having read American Bloomsbury a few years ago (even though that wasn't exactly a stellar book either). Louisa May Alcott comes off here as a cranky young woman with a superiority complex and her sisters as silly 'little women' trying to find husbands. I really did try to finish it and feel a bit guilty not doing so, but I'm pretty sure there were no surprises in store had I continued, and there are so many other promising books languishing on my shelves . . .

64avaland
apr 16, 2010, 2:28 pm

>63 Cariola: Really. Why finish something you feel is substandard when there are so "many other promising books languishing" out there!

65Cariola
apr 16, 2010, 5:17 pm

64> And I didn't even mention the ridiculous sex scene that had me groaning!

66Cariola
apr 16, 2010, 6:19 pm



A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks.

I have a particular fascination with books that move among multiple points of view, interweaving the characters' mini-plots into one well-crafted whole. Overall, Sebastian Faulks's latest novel, A Week in December, successfully does just that. With tongue firmly in cheek, but also with a good amount of affection for all of his characters, Faulks gives us a well-rounded but satirical view of contemporary London society: the good, the bad, the ugly, the charming, and the misguided.

As others have mentioned, two potentially disaster-creating characters--hedge fund owner John Veals and would-be terrorist Hassan al-Rashid--take center stage, and while their stories are indeed fascinating, they push the others' (some of which I found much more interesting) into the background. If the novel has one fault, it may be that there are a few too many threads in the plot, and, as a result, some characters get shorted. I wanted to know more about Jenni Fortune, the book-loving tube conductor who is addicted to an online role-playing game, and her blooming romance with barrister Gabriel Northwood; I wanted to learn more about Gabriel's schizophrenic brother Adam; about the senior al-Rashids; about Spike, the Polish soccer player, and his girlfriend, Olya, who poses for online porn.

The novel also runs the reader through the full emotional gamut. Perhaps the most satisfying moments for me were those that reflect on books, reading, academia, and the world of competitive literary prizes. Faulks is at his satirical best here. As an educator, I was particularly amused by a small incident, the book reviewer R. Tantor being hired (undercover, of course) by a school to write comments on students' papers, a way of appeasing the parents who complained that the teachers themselves couldn't even spell. And I was highly amused by Trantor's observation that technology has managed to make ignorance not only acceptable but an asset. He's a cranky old bird who gets his comeuppance in the end, but his perceptions are often right on target.

A Week in December is sharp, entertaining, and complex. It's one of those rare books that I will likely read again one day because I have the feeling that I might have missed something.

4 out of 5 stars.

67janeajones
apr 16, 2010, 7:20 pm

Ah -- this one sounds interesting -- it's going on the wishlist (I daren't move it up much further as my husband has just commented that we seem to be receiving a book a day in the mail -- and I can't read THAT fast.)

68SqueakyChu
apr 16, 2010, 7:55 pm

we seem to be receiving a book a day in the mail

Er, it seems that way in my house as well. :/

69Cariola
apr 21, 2010, 9:43 pm



She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith.

Reread for a class that I am teaching. Goldsmith's aim was to knock the popular sentimental comedy off the stage and replace it with what he called "laughing comedy"--and he did it resoundingly with She Stoops to Conquer. The play features a cast of characters who, though flawed, are all likeable and human. Old-fashioned Mr. Hardcastle loves the simple country life, but his wife and daughter long for London. To appease him, daughter Kate has agreed to wear a plain housedress in the evenings if he will allow her to wear the latest fashions during the day. Hardcastle announces that the man he has chosen for Kate's husband is on his way to visit. Marlow sounds like the man of her dreams--rich, generous, well respected, young, and handsome--but he has one flaw that she can't abide: he gets tongue-tied and "reserved" in the company of respectable ladies of his class.

Along the way, Goldsmith delights us with the antics of Kate's half-brother, the oafish and prank-loving Tony Lumpkin (who turns out to be a lot smarter than he seems) and a second pair of lovers, Marlowe's friend Hastings and Constance Neville, Mrs. Hardcastle's niece and ward. Not to mention a whole crew of hilarious servants!

This has been one of the most popular plays in the English language since its debut in 1773, and it's easy to understand just why.

70kiwiflowa
apr 22, 2010, 2:43 am

I have a particular fascination with books that move among multiple points of view, interweaving the characters' mini-plots into one well-crafted whole.

Have you read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann? Because it's exactly that. I think you would enjoy it :)

71Cariola
apr 22, 2010, 8:39 am

It's on my shelf--thanks for the suggestion!

72Cariola
Redigerat: apr 25, 2010, 2:06 pm



Love and Summer by William Trevor.

While Trevor has crafted a story of some emotional depth here, it left me unsatisfied, and I'm not sure exactly why. It may be in part that the characters all have a strong measure of reserve about them; I never really felt that I knew them very well, or even that they would allow themselves to have any kind of inner emotional lives. Ellie seems to have drifted through her life until she falls for Florian; her character is defined mainly by the phrase "I don't mind." This makes what Ellie seems to believe is love but Florian refers to as "friendship" awkward and passive (and even a bit irritating). There are other characters in the novel as well about whom I would have liked to know more (Ellie's husband, the Connulties, Orpen Wren, etc.), but they, too, come off as distant or just strange. Perhaps this is the atmosphere Trevor wanted to convey: a place so overpowered by tradition and constrained by secrets that no one feels comfortable revealing an inner life. The result is a kind of flatness, and the novel, while well written, didn't leave much of an impression on me in the end.

Edited to correct typo.

73Cariola
apr 25, 2010, 11:58 am



One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds.

I've been reading some collections of poetry--partly because April is Poetry Month, partly to find new poems for a class assignment, and partly for inspiration and motivation to get back to writing myself. I can't say that I enjoyed One Secret Thing. There were some startling images, particularly in a section of poems describing war. But Olds tends to be a confessional poet, and I am not fond of people putting their personal therapy into published poems. It just seems rather self-indulgent to me.

74Cait86
apr 25, 2010, 1:57 pm

#72 - I totally agree with your thoughts on Love and Summer. Trevor can certainly write, but the plot and characters were lacking depth. I never really understood why Ellie fell in love with Florian - I never felt a connection, or saw anything worthwhile in his personality. Plus, the novel had so many sub-plots and minor characters that I felt like Trevor needed to hone his overall vision or meaning behind the book. It lacked cohesion - what were we supposed to take from it? I was shocked it was Longlisted for the Booker last year, though maybe the committee was merely recognizing the author over the actual novel in question.

75Cariola
apr 25, 2010, 2:11 pm

#74. Exactly. I read it because it was on the Booker Long List, and it certainly didn't compare to the other Booker nominees that I've read. The only thing I got from Florian was that he was someone who was pretty much devoid of any emotion--a real cold fish and, in the case of Ellie, a bit of a user.

76avaland
apr 30, 2010, 10:49 am

>73 Cariola: I was once an Olds fan but found myself over-saturated after The Father and stopped there. I appreciate her skill as a poet but I think she read better in the confessional era of the 90s.

77urania1
maj 5, 2010, 9:55 pm

Cariola,

I'm with you: She Stoops to Conquer is hysterically funny. I have seen one old (probably 1970's) film version of the play, which had me peeing in my pants. Apparently quite a few other versions are available on film. Are you familiar with them? If so, any suggestions about which are the best versions?

78Cariola
Redigerat: maj 6, 2010, 12:22 am

I shared a 2008 Brit TV version with my class, and they loved it. It was 100% faithful to the text, which I also appreciated. Here is the Amazon link, which has more info and include a short clip. Enjoy!

(I've seen the play on stage at least twice, and it was hysterically funny!)

79urania1
maj 6, 2010, 12:57 am

Thank you!!!

80janeajones
maj 6, 2010, 3:51 pm

Thanks, Cariola -- I may pick that one up for my English Lit class in the fall. I think one needs to see Restoration Comedy to enjoy it!

81Cariola
maj 9, 2010, 12:09 pm



Chef by Jaspreet Singh.

My reaction to Chef is rather mixed. It's a very melancholy novel--as one would expect, since it consists of the memories of Kirpal Singh, a man who has just learned that he has an incurable brain tumor. "Kip," a former military chef, is on his way to Kashmir to prepare the wedding feast for the daughter of his former general. Along the way, he relates his experiences years earlier as a young chef-in-training with the Indian army. Kip had joined the army in honor of his father, an officer who had died while serving in Kashmir, and one of his hopes is to fill in the somewhat sketchy details regarding his father's death. His reminiscences also include his training under the master chef, Kishan, with whom he forms a surrogate father-son relationship, and his fascination--call it love, if you will--for Irem, a young prisoner suspected of being a terrorist.

As a Sikh, Kip is a uniquely placed observer of both sides of the Kashmiri conflict. While he serves in the primarily Hindu Indian army, he develops an affection for the devastatingly beautiful but spare landscape, the city of Kashmir, and the Kashmiri people--who are mostly Muslims. The descriptions of life on the Siachen glacier are compelling, and the author's sadness over the damage done by years of warfare is everpresent. While Kip's reminiscences hold moments of joy, these are few; they are primarily focused on sorrow and regret.

The story floats back and forth through time--much as the reminiscing mind itself works. But at times, the novel gets bogged down in detail, or in what may be the author's attempts to create an original voice. As the title suggests, Kip's culinary skills are the scaffolding that holds the plot together--sometimes not strongly enough, and at other times a bit too calculatedly. Still, it's a worthwhile, if not outstanding, read.

82Cariola
maj 13, 2010, 10:39 am



The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller.

A rather dry feminist-historical account of the lives and "afterlives" of the Brontes. Miller recounts the siblings' break into publication under male pseudonyms and the public's flurry to learn more about the authors of these passionate novels. Once their gender and reclusive lives were revealed, even more speculation followed. Was Bramwell the inspiration for Heathcliffe, and what was his relationship with Emily really like? Was Charlotte a sainted daughter for devoting so many years to caring for ill siblings and a demanding father? Who she really like Jane Eyre, and if so, who was the great love that inspired Rochester? Was Emily a "mystic" of sorts--one with a death wish? A lot of familiar territory and a bit of the unfamiliar are covered here, and it may be of interest to Bronte fans who want to know more about the reception of the novels and perceptions of their authors.

83Cariola
maj 15, 2010, 9:30 am



The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

As I'm not a fan of fantasy or magical realism, this book did little for me--except bore me to tears. The writing itself is fine, and I enjoyed reading the introduction, but that's about all. (Oh, I love the cover--which was painted by the author.)

84Cariola
Redigerat: maj 15, 2010, 7:32 pm



In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

This intriguing collection of eight interconnected short stories by Pakistani writer Mueenuddin provides insight into the lives and minds of a variety of characters, all of them somehow connected to K. K. Harouni, a wealthy landowner in Lahore. Here, it seems that everyone is struggling to get ahead, to get a life that just is a little better, or simply to stay afloat. A cook leaves her drug-addicted husband to become the second wife of the upper cook--who never tells his family of their marriage. An aging farmer buys a bride (a beautiful but mentally challenged young woman who can cook), only to find her disappear one night. A modern, Princeton-educated young woman, tiring of her fast life in the city and looking for meaning after surviving an automobile accident, marries a man devoted to the family farm. For these characters and others, every step forward inevitably ends in a step or two backwards. Mueenuddin's stories show a culture in conflict, rapidly moving into the 20th century while bound to the traditions of a feudal past. Cruelty and corruption abound, with women getting the short end of an already short stick. But there are also moments of love, of joy, of hope. Mueenuddin captures the atmosphere of modern-day Pakistan through his characters, each carefully drawn, and his sensitive writing enables us to see into their hearts and minds. Overall, a lovely, if not exactly uplifting, collection.

85Cariola
maj 17, 2010, 4:06 pm



The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

I was rather underwhelmed by this memoir of Hanff's first visit to London. If you've read her better-known first book, 84 Charing Cross Road, you'll know that she is a dyed-in-the-wool Anglophile and passionate booklover. There, the New Yorker charted her long correspondence-cum-friendship with British bookseller Frank Doel. Once the book starts bringing in royalties as well as more paying work, Hanff decides to fly to London for the book's English launch. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, written in diary form, charts not only the places she visits but the people she meets, including the now-deceased Frank's wife and daughter. I had hoped that it might stir my own fond memories of earlier visits, and at times, it did. But Hanff spends more time describing and criticizing the various people she meets--most of whom are trying to show her a good time or who are expressing their delight in her book--than detailing her first impressions of all the sites of London that she has longed to see. She comes off, I think, as a rather self-obsessed and cranky woman and, oddly, while she seems a bit of a misanthrope, she apparently delights in listing all of her invitations and acquaintances--complaining all the while. After awhile I found myself skimming the pages for the "good stuff" and ignoring the rest. Overall, not a bad read for a single afternoon.

86Cariola
Redigerat: maj 18, 2010, 11:22 pm



The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir.

In The Lady in the Tower, Alison Weir presents an exhaustive study of the downfall of Anne Boleyn, Henry VII's second queen. Unlike many books that begin at the beginning and trace the king's courtship of Anne and her strategies of resistance, this one begins when the marriage is already in trouble: Anne had experienced several miscarriages (at least two of the fetuses were identified as male and the last reported to be severely deformed), and Henry, desirous of a male heir, already had his eye on Jane Seymour. Weir details the last four months of her life, from Henry's growing distance to the last miscarriage, from his efforts to have their marriage annulled to her trial, imprisonment, and execution, and even beyond to the various legends of ghostly apparitions. Although obviously biased in favor of Anne's innocence of the adultery/treason charges, Weir presents strong evidence to back up her opinions. If the book has a dominant flaw, it is its repetitiveness. The author returns to the same points again and again, sometimes with additional evidence (and sometimes not), and the effect is rather tedious at times. (I actually put the book away for a few weeks, unsure if I would return to finish it.) Overall, I did not learn much about Anne or her last days that wasn't already familiar, but I did learn a bit more about the five men alleged to have been her lovers.

87Cariola
Redigerat: maj 23, 2010, 10:34 pm



Hester: The Missing Years of The Scarlet Letter by Paula Read.

Historical fiction is just that: fiction. Readers know that the author is deviating from fact to create a good story. But good writers also know that these deviations must seem plausible if readers aren't to shake their heads or snort with derision.

That said, Paula Reed's Hester: The Missing Years of The Scarlet Letter relies on a series of unlikely premises:

1) Hester's husband Roger Chillingworth makes Pearl (the result of Hester's adultery with the Rev. Dimmesdale, a child that he has only met once) his heir. So this man who changed his name to avoid being known as a cuckold presumably has no concern whatsoever for the scandal that this action will cause after his death?
2) As soon as the cash falls their way, Hester opts to return to England, supposedly so that Pearl can make a good marriage. Are we truly to believe that no one wrote back home about Hester's notoriety and that she can start over with a clean slate in Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth? Apparently so.
3) Hester, we now learn, was a baron's daughter. However, she had no idea that her father was dead, nor that his estate has been either abandoned or seized. But her improved status provides her with a childhood friend in the upper class, one willing to take in Hester and Pearl and introduce them to society.
4) Hester's experience with her scarlet "A" has given her a keen understanding of sin that manifests itself in a paranormal ability: she sees sin surrounding others like a cloak, much as modern-day psychics claim to read auras. (Of course, the one man whose aura she can't see clearly is the one with whom she falls in love.)
5) Oliver Cromwell, uber-Puritan, supposedly believes that Hester's ability is not due to witchcraft or the devil but is a gift from God, sent to protect his government; he uses her as a sort of litmus test when questioning suspected traitors. (Who knew that Oliver Cromwell was a New Ager? I thought he was a religious zealot and a misogynist.)

Putting all that aside (is it possible?), well, this is still not a particularly engaging novel. I will give Reed credit for taking on a period in English history that is often overlooked as dull, and she does a reasonably good job of depicting the daily lives of the upper class and the anxiety rampant under Cromwell's Protectorate. That alone makes the book worth reading. But the plot gets bogged down at times (e.g., lengthy dissertations about philosophy) and the writing itself is uneven. The dialogue is generally stilted, yet at other times the author falls into melodramatic schlock:

"He understood so entirely; it was as if we were two halves of the same soul, two halves drawn inexorably together towards completion. Once released, the passion was far from spent. It intensified and distilled into an elixir, infusing itself into the blood of the child it had produced."

Add to this a flat, predictable ending, and you'll understand why Hester earned only 2.5 stars from me (which may have been a bit on the generous side).

88Cariola
jun 3, 2010, 12:12 am



Keats (Poetic Lives) by Robert Mighall

This is a brief but very dense literary biography structured around the development of Keats's verse and short career. Although a bit short on biography, the author does a fine job of integrating short poems and excerpt of longer ones with events in the poet's life. The purpose is to show not only how what was happening in Keats's life--his abandonment of a medical career, his brother's death, his various friendships, his own illness--influenced what he wrote at the time. but also to trace his intellectual and artistic development.

This is a lovely little book in shape, size, and design. It's the kind of book you'll want to keep on your shelf for quick reference, or for a quick dose of Keats.

Further Recommendation: Realms of Gold, an audio CD that similarly integrates biography and poems, read by the wonderful Samuel West.

89Cariola
jun 3, 2010, 12:17 am



35. Don't Cry by Mary Gaitskill

A stunning short story collection. I don't want to say more as I am reviewing it for Belletrista.

90theaelizabet
jun 3, 2010, 6:37 am

Oooh, Cariola, yet another Keats book to add to my library!

91Cariola
jun 3, 2010, 8:46 pm



The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

Well, I gave up on this one after about 75 pages; it's just not my kind of book. The McKotches are a snobbish family that is dysfunctional in all of the most stereotypical ways: sexually repressed mother from an "old money" family, father with a roving eye who worked his way out of the wrong side of town, handsome but obviously gay teenaged son, hyperactive nine-year old son (acting out in response to family problems, of course). The exception is 12-year old Gwen; although she is the one who has "the condition" that keeps her from physically maturing, she's the sanest of the lot. When Gwen is diagnosed, the family falls apart--although it is clear that it has barely held together for years. Truth to tell, I just didn't care about any of these people. Haigh's writing is good enough, but this is a story that felt like I had read it a hundred times before. Maybe it gets better . . . but I skimmed the last few chapters, so I'm pretty sure I haven't missed much by putting this book on the swapping block.

92rebeccanyc
jun 3, 2010, 10:10 pm

Just goes to show how different people like different books. I loved The Condition and it was one of my favorite books of the year that I read it. I did think it started a little slowly, but it got more interesting and compelling for me as the characters came alive (and as it jumped from the time of Gwen's diagnosis to the present), and I thought it was a moving exploration of complex family relationships (and that the "condition" is a lot more than a medical condition).

But, one of the things I love about LT is that we all have our likes and dislikes -- there wouldn't be much to talk about otherwise.

93Cariola
jun 4, 2010, 11:16 am

92> I seem to be in the minority on this one. Maybe I just wasn't in a dysfunctional family mood!

94Cariola
jun 9, 2010, 6:55 pm



The Wig My Father Wore by Anne Enright.

Don't ask me what this book was about. I have no idea, really, but it's something like this: A horny angel moves in with a young woman who works for a TV show similar to The Dating Game. He keeps dying again. Her father has always worn a ratty wig. He has Alzheimer's. Pretty soon all the hair falls off the woman's body, and when the angel touches her breast, her nipple disappears. He becomes a contestant on the game show and gets blown into the airways. The end.

Either the author was trying to be weird for the sake of being weird, or she thought she was writing something smart and avant garde. Whatever. At least it was short.

95kiwiflowa
jun 9, 2010, 7:44 pm

Cariola re: The Wig My Father Wore OMG! I would have shredded a book that put me through such an experience!

96Nickelini
jun 9, 2010, 7:47 pm

Yeah, sounds like papier mache material to me too!

97Cariola
jun 9, 2010, 8:33 pm

Fortunately for me, a swapper wants it. I almost feel guilty sending it . . . .

98kiwiflowa
jun 9, 2010, 11:21 pm

add a chocolate bar - chocolate always helps.

99Cariola
jun 10, 2010, 11:23 am



The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace.

While this isn't a novel that I can rave about, I did enjoy it and recommend it as a quick and light summer read. One of its strong points is Wallace's fine development of atmosphere. There's a dreamy, sensual quality about her descriptions that perfectly fits the story of a young contessa adapting to losing her eyesight and dreaming her way back to beloved familiar places and exciting new places that she will never see in person. The reader can see the beauty of the contessa's lake and and smell her lush gardens, hear the sad music of the cello and the joyful song of her caged bird, feel the heat of the candle wax and the thick velvet of her robe. The romance is satisfying without going over the top. I did, however, feel a bit sorry for the contessa's husband, whose worst crime seemed to be that he wasn't the other man; although he made a few thoughtless statements, he did seem to be trying to do the right thing. If I could change one thing about this book, it would be the title, which probably won't catch the attention of readers who would potentially enjoy the novel. "The Blind Contessa" suggests an older woman, not a vibrant young bride; and "the new machine" plays only a secondary (yet important) role and doesn't appear until the last third of the book. (This is not really the story of the invention of the typewriter, as the cover blurb suggests!)

100Cariola
jun 12, 2010, 1:05 am



39. No Time to Wave Goodbye by Jacqueline Mitchard.

I remembered reading and enjoying Mitchard's first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, when it came out many years ago. My reading tastes have changed considerably since then, but I was tempted to pick up this sequel about what had happened to the Cappadora family.

Big mistake. This was a truly dreadful piece of drek. It begins at the premiere of a documentary made by Vincent, the eldest and up to now loser son. The film is about missing children and focuses on several families; it also retells the story of Ben/Sam, the brother who was kidnapped but restored in the first novel. It's so good it ends up getting nominated for an Oscar.

At this point, the novel wallows in several nauseating chapters about the mother and other family members getting glammed up for the ceremony, stashing away gift items, ogling Kate Winslet's butt (yes, poor Kate has her butt dragged into this mess!), and ostentaciously name-dropping (Kate gets joined by Morgan Freeman, Ellen De Generis, Sissy Spacek, Michael Moore and others; even Angelina Jolie gets mentioned as NOT staying at their hotel).

Just as Vincent accepts his award, a hysterical phone call comes in: Ben's baby daughter has been kidnapped. Yes, she actually makes another kidnapping--the kidnapping of the kidnapped kid's kid--the central plot. Of course, the police are too useless to figure out the culprit, so Vincent, motivated by guilt because he's convinced that his movie provoked someone to take revenge on his family, has to do it. We have to go through all the tear-jerking scenes we saw in the first novel. And then he hires a female tracker with a big dog to find the baby. And of course, against her better judgement, she allows the two greenhorns, Vincent and Ben, to accompany her into the icy wilderness mountains because they won't take no for an answer. And yes, one of them faces a life-threatening situation and is saved by the other. And as soon as they recover the baby, there is a big snowstorm during which communications get cut off, food and fuel and almost gone, and they have to separate to be saved--as of course they are. Happy, happy ending. And even happier, another missing kid is about to be found because of Vincent's movie.

I can't recommend this poorly conceived and not very well written book to anyone with a brain and a sense of what makes a good novel. Was The Deep End of the Ocean this bad, too? I'll never know, because I sure don't want to reread it after this one.

101Cariola
jun 12, 2010, 1:12 am



In the City by Joan Silber.

One of my all-time favorite books is Joan Silber's Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories. I've been reading other works by this author, but none of them matches that one. In the City is a rather conventional coming-of-age novel set in 1920s New York. The main character gets swept up in a bohemian lifestyle but later comes to see that it may be more seedy than glamorous. Not a bad book, but nothing to write home about.

102Cariola
Redigerat: jun 12, 2010, 1:25 am



Taking Pictures by Anne Enright.

I'm beginning to think that I'm just not a fan of Anne Enright and that I should probably give up on her at this point. I thought the writing was fine in her most successful book, The Gathering, but I wasn't exactly enamoured with the overall story. This one, a collection of short stories, was a mixed bag, but I really only enjoyed two of them. A lot of unlikeable characters (many of them drunnk) in unrealistic situations.

I gave it a generous 1.5 stars out of 5, simply because it wasn't as bad as The Wig My Father Wore.

103Cariola
Redigerat: jun 14, 2010, 11:04 pm



Like Life by Lorrie Moore.

Lorrie Moore is a unique and wonderful writer. I was absolutely blown away by the first of her short stories that I read about 10 years ago, "How to Talk to Your Mother." It's so different from anything else written that I always include it in my Intro to Fiction courses. I also enjoyed her collection Birds of America, so I was eager to read Like Life. It didn't disappoint.

The eight stories in the collection feature characters that are at the same time ordinary and distinctive. Many of them are lonely and/or somewhat desperate to find romance. One of Moore's finest techniques is the way she uses small details in the setting or secondary events to create a mood that suits her main character's emotional state. In "Two Boys," for example, Mary has moved to a new and very dull town following the breakup of a bad romance. We know by this description that that the move was probably not her best choice:

"She lived in a small room above a meat company--Alexander Hamilton Pork--and in front, daily, they wheeled in the pale, fatty carcasses, hooked and naked, uncut, unhooved. She tried not to let the refrigerated smell follow her in the door, up the stairs, the vague shame and hamburger death of it, though sometimes it did. Every day she tried not to step in the blood that ran off the sidewalk and collected in the gutter, dark and alive. At five-thirty she approached her own building in a halting tiptoe and held her breath. The trucks out front pulled away to go home, and the Hamilton Pork butchers, in their red-stained doctor's coats and badges printed from ten-dollar bills, hosed down the sidewalk, leaving the block glistening like a canal. The squeegee kid at the corner would smile at Mary and then, low on water, rush to dip into the puddles and smear their squeegees, watery pink, across the windshields of cars stopped for the light."

The little details say it all. Mary has been sending post cards to friends bragging that, for the first time in her life, she is dating two men at the same time--but neither one is the man of her dreams. The description above parallels the reader's perception that something isn't quite right in her life, no matter how hard she smiles, no matter how fast she tried to run upstairs, no matter how much water pours over the sidewalk. It's an image that recurs throughout the story.

Small but odd events take on significant meaning in the lives of Moore's characters. "Joy" revolves around a woman taking her cat to the vet for a flea bath; in "You're Ugly, Too," Zoe attends a Halloween party dressed as a bonehead and is set up with a man dressed as a naked woman. Mary ("Two Boys"), sitting in a park, is spat upon by a llittle girl dressed way beyond her years.

This may all sound rather depressing, but the amazing thing is that it isn't. Moore writes with humor and with affection for her characters, most of whom just pick up and keep on trying.

Moore's first novel, A Gate to the Stairs, has gotten mixed reviews, but it was a finalist for the 2010 Orange Prize. It's sitting on my TBR shelf, and I look forward to reading it soon. She is an extraordinary short story writer; hopefully I will be able to say that she is an extraordinary novelist as well.

104Nickelini
jun 14, 2010, 11:35 pm

Okay, now I NEED a copy of "How to Talk to Your Mother"! I can't see one on the internet--can you name a collection that it's in?

105bonniebooks
jun 14, 2010, 11:52 pm

Very tempting, Cariola! Birds of America was one of my favorite collections of short stories by a single author, but I'd just rather read a novel, so I think I'm going to try a Gate to the Stairs instead--especially since it's on the Orange Prize list. Are you going to read it for Orange July?

106kidzdoc
jun 15, 2010, 8:29 am

Great review of Like Life, Deborah! I'll add this to my wish list. The Guardian's Sarah Crown made a similar comment on a recent Guardian Books podcast, that Moore's short stories were much better than A Gate at the Stairs, although she did like the novel.

107dchaikin
jun 15, 2010, 9:25 am

Cariola - I've been trying to catch-up here, slowly. I'm up to post #86... Lots of great stuff here. Somehow your review of Chef (post #81) makes the book sound fascinating.

108Cariola
jun 15, 2010, 9:58 am

104> It's in Self-Help. The story is written chronologically backwards, so the reader only gradually learns what has happened in the mother-daughter relationship. It's also written as "advice," addressed to "you" instead of in the voice of a first or third person narrator.

105> Yes, I'll probably read A Gate at the Stairs in July.

106> That's what I've read in several reviews of the novel, but one of the Guardian's reviewers raved about it in that post-Orange podcast.

107> Chef wasn't bad, but something was missing. I just read the NYT's review, and I think they were right that there isn't a strong sense of the main character and that the connection with food, which should figure so highly in a novel with this title, is also missing.

109Cariola
jun 19, 2010, 11:36 am



Wideacre by Philippa Gregory.

I probably shouldn't count this as a whole book read, because I stopped about 100 pages in. While I enjoyed the first few books by Gregory that I read, I pretty much gave up on her after Earthly Joys and The Constant Princess: too much history spinning for my taste, and too many anachronisms. But I've been going through stacks of TBRs and found that I had all three volumes of her Wideacre series, so I gave the first one a try. Well, the LT reviewers were right. The main character is wholly unlikeable, bent on gaining and retaining control of the family estate, even if it means relying on an incestuous relationship with the heir--her brother. I guess she is supposed to be some kind of feminist for bucking the system, which didn't allow women to own/inherit property; but she just came off as selfish, obsessed, and rotten to the core.

I sent off all three volumes to a happy Book Moocher yesterday.

110Cariola
jun 19, 2010, 11:57 am



44. All the World's a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare by John Reed.

Reid had an interesting idea, even if the end result is a bit silly. He has composed a "new" play made up entirely of passages from Shakespeare's originals. The "All-Star Cast" will give you an inkling of what is to come:

HAMLET as the Prince of Bohemia
JULIET as the Princess of Aquitaine
IAGO as lieutenant to the prince
ROMEO as general to the prince
MACBETH as lover to the queen (and soon to be king)
THE QUEEN as wife to Old Hamlet, king of Bohemia
KING LEAR as king of Aquitaine and father to Juliet

With special appearances by:
Old Hamlet and his Ghost
Three weird sisters
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
The senators of Bohemia
Polonius, speaker for the senate
A local pastor
Two armies of soldiers
The herald of Aquitaine
A troups of actors
King Lear's cook
The queen's doctor

Well, you get the drift. Hamlet, with a lot of lines lifted from Henry V, wages war on Aquitaine in hopes of marrying the princess, Juliet. Upon his return, he finds that his mother has murdered his father and married . . . Macbeth! Iago is there to spur Hamlet's jealousy (a la Othello) to the brink of madness. It's all in good fun, even if it is touted as a tragedy. But you'd better know your Shakespeare, since half the fun is in identifying the lines and plotlines lifted directly from the original plays.

111Cariola
jun 21, 2010, 12:46 pm



Amandine by Marlena De Blasi.

It's 1931, and the 17-year old daughter of a Polish countess has given birth to a daughter, the result of an affair with her cousin's schoolmate. What is worse, her mother discovers that the boy is the brother of the mistress that her husband murdered, in whose arms he shot himself. In addition, the baby has a heart defect and is not expected to live long. The countess decides that the best thing to do is to tell her daughter that she is taking the baby to Switzerland for surgery, then report that the baby has died. Instead, she arranges to leave the child and a devoted nursemaid at a convent, paying for her to stay until her anticipated death.

All this happens in the first few pages, so there aren't any spoilers here; and it sets up what began as a very intriguing novel. But about 150 pages in, I started to get bored. It was just too precious, the plot just too pat. The baby, named Amandine by her nanny, is adored by the sisters--except for the stereotypical 'bad nun,' the cruel Mater Paul. And of course, she is beautiful, loving, insightful, and intelligent. Other stereotypes abound: the lustful bishop, the kindly priest, the tormented mother, etc. I stuck it out to the end, but I have to admit that I found myself skimming the last 100 pages.

112Cariola
jun 21, 2010, 12:53 pm



Field Study by Rachel Seiffert.

Seiffert's beautiful novel Afterwards was one of my top reads a few years ago, and I have gradually been catching up on her earlier books. This short story collection relies heavily on her cool, understated style--but it often comes off more as disengaged than objective. The best was "The Late Spring," the story of an elderly beekeeper, isolated from the village, who finds an ailing child on his doorstep. I also enjoyed "The Crossing," the story of a mother and her three children fleeing the Nazis who must trust a stranger in order to cross a river; and "Dog-Leg Lane," in which a little boy becomes hysterical at the prospect of moving house.

This was just an OK read for me. It says something that only a few days after finishing the book, I had to look back at most of the stories to remember what they were about. They just didn't leave much of an impression upon me.

113Cariola
Redigerat: jun 21, 2010, 7:13 pm



Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada.

Written in 1947, this novel is based on the true story of a working class couple who left anonymous post cards in and around Berlin during the Nazi regime. The subversive cards encouraged people to sabotage the Nazi war effort by slowing down work in any way possible. The real-life couple, as well as the novel's main characters, Otto and Anna Krungl, were eventually captured and executed. There are also several subplots involving neighbors and relatives of the Krungls, including an elderly Jewish woman whose husband was taken away by the Nazis, an SS officer, a young thug making his way up the ranks of the Hitler youth, a female postal worker and her long-philandering husband, and others. Like most stories about Nazi Germany, this is the story of common people struggling just to survive and, sometimes, taking extraordinary risks along the way.

I found Every Man Dies Alone difficult to read because of its relentless tension and the relentless cruelty and manipulations of the Nazis and their sympathizers. I'm sure that is exactly the effect that the author had hoped for, but: 1) I felt that I had suffered through similar books before, so there were few surprises; and 2) I just kept wishing that it would be over, since the unhappy ending was inevitable. These comments aren't meant to be disparaging; they just express the emotional impact that the book had on me personally. Would I recommend it? Yes, with the caution that it is far from a light summer read. If you appreciated (I can't say enjoyed) books like Night or Schindler's List, you might want to put Every Man Dies Alone on your wish list--but don't expect heroism, suffering, and endurance to be rewarded here, nor the evil to be punished.

114Nickelini
jun 21, 2010, 7:55 pm

You've really been clipping through the book stacks lately! Well done (says the woman who can't seem to read anything lately. Including the Newsweek article that has taken me all afternoon). Every Man Dies Alone sounds interesting, but I'll skip it for now. I'm pretty maxed out on WWII.

115Cariola
jun 21, 2010, 8:42 pm

114> It's summer, and reading is one way to forget thqat I will have to go back to work in the fall. I've also been trying to clear out some of my TBRs so that I can see the floor again!

116rebeccanyc
jun 22, 2010, 7:34 am

i can well understand that reaction to Every Man Dies Alone,as it was certainly grim, but for me one of the interesting things about it was that it was written by a German who lived through the Nazi era (albeit much of it in a "mental hospital") and showed what life in Nazi Berlin was like for the Germans themselves. I saw it as a book about how people react to living under a totalitarian state, surrounded by horrors.

117Cariola
Redigerat: jun 22, 2010, 2:45 pm

I don't disagree with your assessment, and I didn't mean to imply that this is a book about the concentration camps. It's not. Interesting, yes, very. But it made me extremely anxious reading it, just as books like Night did--which, as I said, is probably what the author intended. I had a hard time dealing with 'investigators' who insisted that the truth was not the truth and that what they wanted to hear so that they could torture and kill their suspects was the truth. They were convicting innocent people of so-called crimes that they did not commit just to make their own lives easier--or for the sheer, sick pleasure of being brutal. Hence most of the citizens just kept their heads down, went along with whatever was required of them, and even turned in their friends and relatives to please the Nazis. I think I'd rather die than have to live under those conditions.

118Cariola
jun 22, 2010, 7:32 pm



Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey.

Over the past two years, I've collected about a dozen Persephone Classics, but this is the first one I've gotten around to reading. I can't say that I was very impressed. The novel, written in 1932, takes place on Dolly's wedding day--but we don't get to see the actual wedding. Dolly suspects that she may be marrying the wrong man and that she might even run off with Joseph if he confessed his love--but he doesn't, and she doesn't. This short book is mostly descriptions of the wedding preparations and the guests. While there are some amusing moments, I have to say that I was more bored than charmed.

119avaland
jun 24, 2010, 9:08 am

>118 Cariola: You've made me realize that I apparently did not write about this book when I read it earlier this year. It's a mystery. I could swear I did.

120Cariola
jun 24, 2010, 12:28 pm

119> Do you remember what you thought of it? It seems an odd one to be a love it/hate it book, but that's the way the reviews seem to go.

121rebeccanyc
jun 24, 2010, 4:41 pm

I enjoyed Cheerful Weather for the Wedding -- I didn't think it was particularly deep but I thought it had some wickedly observed characters and observations, although some were a bit on the obvious side.

122Cariola
jul 3, 2010, 2:25 pm



The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes.

This novel starts with an intriguing premise: the main narrator is Hamlet's loyal friend, Horatio, and the reader expects a retelling of Shakespeare's famous tragedy. But that's not quite what Myrlin Hermes offers. Instead, it begins as the story of their blossoming friendship/love in Wittenburg, its highs and lows, interspersed with the question of who was Will Shake-speare (in addition to who wrote the plays and sonnets). A mysterious dark lady, Adriane, plays a significant role as Horatio's patron and part of the famous Shakespearean love triangle, rendered here among Adriane, Horatio, and Hamlet. There are plenty of twists and turns to a story and a sonnet sequence that you thought you knew.

For a number of reasons, I almost gave up on this book about 40 pages in. Every page is dotted with quotes and near-quotes from Shakespeare's work, a strategy that I initially found irritating but eventually decided to treat as a game. (Thankfully, I didn't start counting the references, but in addition to Hamlet and the sonnets, Hermes draws on As You Like It, Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2), King Lear, Othello, Twelfth Night, etc.--even Macbeth's drunken Porter makes a brief appearance.) And then there is the scene of Horatio's first meeting with Hamlet. Walking alone by his favorite riverside retreat, Horatio comes across a beautiful, naked, weeping maiden--only it isn't a maiden, it's Hamlet, and he isn't weeping, he's masturbating. So--if that sort of thing bothers you, be forewarned that there are a lot of graphic sex scenes in this novel, both straight and gay. I read on a bit further, and the interesting development of the characters kept me involved (despite an occasion "ick!").

In the end, my reservations and the entertainment factor balanced out, and while I can't recommend The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet to everyone without reservations, overall, it's a jolly good read for those who like Shakespearean spin-offs.

123Cariola
jul 3, 2010, 7:06 pm



The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker.

My response to The Anthologist is a mixed one. Baker effectively replicates through his protagonist, Paul Chowder, the way the mind--or at least my mind--tends to work, fixating on one subject--poetry here--for long stretches of time, but fairly easily distracted by other, more personal, less philosophical, and more mundane things, like 'what is the meaning behind the fact that I now have three Band-aids on the same finger? there must be a meaning in this.' As a scholar and poet myself, one who tends to put off deadlines by finding infinite distractions, I recognized my own process of "head writing": letting things circulate until they seem to fall into place.

Well, it's rather charming for awhile, but I'm afraid that eventually I found all this a bit affected and tedious. And I found myself arguing back against many of Paul Chowder's claims about poetry, even as I agreed with others. It's true that the character's passion for poetry--preferably rhymed poetry with four beats per line--shines through; but I also felt that his views were rather narrow. There's some real junk being published as poetry today--but also some very fine unrhymed free verse. The kind that irks me most is poetry that just plays with sound for its own sake and to show off the poet's cleverness, poetry that has no meaning behind it and creates no images to stir the imagination or the senses. And, oddly, that is the same way that Baker's prose began to affect me. By page 160, I started to skim because I just wanted to be done with it.

So I'm giving The Anthologist 3.5 stars for its originality and some moments of brilliance, as well as for making me laugh a bit, but I can't recommend it more highly than that.

124Mr.Durick
jul 3, 2010, 7:56 pm

The Anthologist is now on my wishlist, and I think that if it were at any of my local stores, I would have gone out for it today.

I think that this is the first I have heard of it.

Robert

125Cariola
jul 3, 2010, 9:17 pm

124> Robert, if the book interests you, be sure to read some of the other reviews on LT and elsewhere. Many readers have been much more positive about The Anthologist than I was.

126avaland
jul 3, 2010, 10:02 pm

>124 Mr.Durick: I thought it terrific!

127Mr.Durick
jul 3, 2010, 10:56 pm

Cariola, your review prompted my interest, and I did look at other reviews before I clicked on 'get this book.' Then, before I added it to my wishlist, I read the reviews posted by Barny Noble. I think I want it.

Avaland's endorsement encourages me.

Robert

128Cariola
jul 5, 2010, 11:38 am



Enter Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse.

Having heard a lot of my fellow LTers rave about P. G. Wodehouse, I was eager to get to this collection of early Bertie and Jeeves stories. Maybe I was expecting too much. Like another reviewer, I found the stories to be very repetitive. Wodehouse creates two memorable characters who, by now, have become archetypes: the rather easily flustered but always conscious that he needs to keep his cool young British man of the upper class, and the wise, all-knowing "man" (butler) who solves his dilemmas. Apparently young artistocrats falling for vaudeville ingenues was a popular trope of the time, since it appears in more than half of the stories.

In short, this was a quick, light read with some clever insights into the facade of the British upper class, but I probably won't be seeking out more books by Wodehouse.

129Cariola
Redigerat: jul 8, 2010, 7:44 am

Here is a link to my Belletrista review of Don't Cry: Stories by Mary Gaitskill.

This is one of my top books so far this year. I didn't say much about it earlier because I had committed to review it for Belletrista. While you're there, take a look at some of the other wonderful reviews, many of them by LT friends.

130janeajones
jul 8, 2010, 10:43 am

Wonderfully written and evocative review, Deb.

131Cariola
Redigerat: jul 13, 2010, 1:39 pm



52. Oonagh by Mary Tilberg.

This book was a real disappointment. I generally love historical fiction, Irish stories, and immigration stories, so this novel about a young Irish girl who emigrates to Canada in the 1830s and falls in love with a runaway slave sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, I felt overwhelmed by its preachy-teachy approach to slavery. Now, don't get me wrong: I've read some fine novels about the evils of slavery, The Color Purple, and Beloved, among them. And I certainly think that slavery and racism are marks of the worst that is in us. But here, the author, who is Canadian, seems to want to hit us over the head with facts that we already know. This made me wonder if perhaps Canadians were less informed about the situation of slaves than Americans, but one of my Canadian LT friends confirmed that the history of slavery is indeed taught in schools. What could have been a good story about young Oonagh falling in love with Chauncey Taylor, a barber and runaway slave, gets bogged down in didacticism. Here's an example of their conversation, which rings like a catechism:

"I was born on a wagon on the move."
"A wagon! Oh, surely not on the move! They would have stopped for her sake, surely."
"Maybe . . . maybe not." He smiled at my indignation.
"Where was your poor mam travelling to?"
"She was being moved from a plantation down in North Carolina to the place in Virginia where they claim I was born. Place in the Carolinas been sold, so slaves was sold away. Lucky sold to Virginia instead of farther south."
"So close to her time?"
"All that bumping of the cart. See, she was lucky to get a wagon ride. Mostly the others walked. That was what the owners thought of my mama, they liked her that well. Let her have the wagon ride."
. . . "They made her work in the field three weeks after her confinement?"
"Three weeks after I was born. She made a little basket and hung me up in a tree so's the snakes wouldn't get me while she was hoeing."
"Did you cry for her?"
"I expect I did, sure. But slave babies learn early ain't much use to cry."

And another similar conversation:

"Ma'am, I was king of the egg theives when I wasn't more'n five years old . . . This was in Virginia. See, they's always some hens fly out of the coop, and I was supposed to follow, see where they laid their eggs. Collect them up for the kitchen. I followed alright, but I didn't collect all the eggs, just most of 'em. Then after dark I'd sneak out and collect the three or four I'd left for us . . . "
"You had to steal eggs? Didn't they keep enough eggs to provide for everyone?"
"Well, they sold a lot of eggs to town, as a matter of fact. But corn was what they provided for us, a measure of corn on Sunday to last all week.
"Corn? Cornmeal?"
"Dry corn on the ear, Miss Oonagh. Folks would have to grind it with a handmill after the workday for their supper and for next day's breakfast."
"What else did you eat with that?"
"Corn. That's it. Sometimes they'd throw in a bit of pork fat."
"What about vegetables? Didn't you have gardens?
"Gardens. Oh yes. Some of the older slaves, including my mama, work the vegetable patch. But none of that's for us."
"None of it?" I had a lump in my throat. "Couldn't you just take what you needed?"
He sighed deeply. "Naw, they always found out. They have someone watching that patchl like a hawk. And someone always has to pay. It's the old folks, too worn out for fieldwork, who work the vegetables. So it's them gets the floggings. No, it's an awful risk to steal even a carrot or a pea pod. You never know who's watching you or who would tell on you just for a bit of favour themselves, you know."

Oonagh sounds so naive that I wondered if this might be a YA book (the main character is 18), but the detailed sex and violence scenes probably rule that out. At one point, Oonagh worries that her family will be upset to learn of her engagement, not because Chauncey is a black runaway slave who might be grabbed any day by American bounty hunters, but because he isn't Catholic. Could she have really been that clueless?

In a note at the book's end, Tilberg reveals that the story is based on a brief reference in Susannah Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush, when a neighbor mentions a local barber, a runaway slave, who had the "presumption" to marry a young Irish girl and was dragged out of bed and killed by a mob on his wedding night. Tilberg couldn't find any facts about the pair in her research, so she decided to turn it into fiction. She really missed an opportunity to write a great story, even one that better conveys a message about the evils of slavery and racism. It might have been even more interesting NOT to include the wedding night death scene. She could have followed what happens to Oonagh and Chauncey and their future children and made more subtle points about prejudice and violence. As it was, she ended by tacking on a short chapter set 18 years later, in which Oonagh and her niece attend an abolitionist meeting in Toronto (Frederick Douglass is the speaker), and Oonagh speaks out against the clergy for not taking a stronger stand. That's followed by Oonagh's two-page summary of the anti-slavery laws enacted in the US and Canada. And more didacticism:

"And although it it grieves me deeply to acknowledge the race hatred that still exists among certain elements of Canadian society, the hatred that killed my own Chauncey, it is also abundantly clear that with our firm anti-slavery laws Canada stands as a beacon of hope to those so terribly oppressed south of our borders . . . "

"We cannot rest content in Canada knowing that we have enacted anti-slavery legislation yet not admit there are those in out own country who would treat persons of African origin as lesser citizens . . . Such racism diminishes us all."

Another problem is that the plot is rather bipolar, half conventional immigration narrative and half anti-slavery diatribe. Tilberg tries to depict Oonagh as a bit of a rebel in Ireland (probably to prepare us for her romance with a runaway slave): she doesn't believe in God, so some people call her a witch, and she spends a lot of time leaning against a curious ancient stone. But it never quite works, either to convince us that Oonagh is a rebel or to tie the two parts of the novel together. Although she says she never wants to marry, Oonagh spends a lot of time mooning over a past love, a young man who has gone to sea and who returns from time to time to renew the gossip about the two of them and to bring letters from her brother Michael, who emigrated to Canada. So much for the unconventional.

I simply never engaged with the overly naive Oonagh or the too-perfect-to-be-true Chauncey, probably because of Tilberg's heavy-handed and awkwardly managed didacticism.

I'm giving Oonagh two stars for the concept, even though poorly executed, and for some fine descriptions of the Canadian forest and newly settled town.

132Cariola
Redigerat: jul 12, 2010, 2:22 pm



East of the Sun by Julia Gregson,

Let me start by saying that it has taken me a long time to get around to writing this review because, although it was a May 2009 Early Review book, it didn't arrive in my mailbox until the end of April 2010. At that point, I put a number of other books ahead of it.

Overall, I enjoyed East of the Sun, although it was a bit romancey for my taste, and I've read a number of much better books about the British in India ca. the 1920s--one of them being, of course, A Passage to India. The young women here seem to echo Adela Quested in their ignorance of Indian culture and society, their hopes of marrying promising young men whom they barely know, and even their lack of self-knowlege. The characters are fairly well developed and the story generally engaging, if a bit longwinded.

If you are truly interested in life in the British Raj, you might be better off reading Forster's classic novel. Another recommendation is The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru, which still remains perhaps my all-time favorite contemporary novel; it's study of race, class, and identity is brilliant. Still, East of the Sun made good escapist reading for the summer.

133Cariola
jul 13, 2010, 2:57 pm

I added an expanded review of Oonagh two posts above.

134Nickelini
jul 13, 2010, 4:51 pm

Thanks for reviewing Oonagh. I've given you a thumbs up.

135Cariola
jul 13, 2010, 7:12 pm



The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra.

Yasmina Khadra creates a detailed, grim, and unfortunately realistic picture of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban and of how their fanatic rule affected both society and individuals. At the story's center are two men and their wives. Atiq, a jailer devoted to the tenets of fundamentalist Islam, begins to feel uneasy when he can't find help--medical or domestic--for his terminally ill wife. The best advice he can get is to divorce her and free himself from any responsibility. Mohsen, a former intellectual whose wife once campaigned for women's rights, becomes swept up in a frenzied crowd and, much to his later horror, takes part in stoning a condemned prostitute. Both men begin to question the society in which they have blindly participated.

I previously read Khadra's The Attack and can say that while The Swallows of Kabul is a much better book, I don't find Khadra to be a particularly compelling writer. Still, he (Khadra is a man who writes under a female pseudonym) conveys well the tension of life in this brutal and unfamiliar world.

136Cariola
Redigerat: jul 15, 2010, 2:44 pm



Goldengrove by Francine Prose.

In Judith Guest's Ordinary People, two siblings go out on the water but only one returns: the more promising, handsome, and popular brother drowns in a storm, and the rest of the book explores the family dealing with guilt and grief. In Francine Prose's Goldengrove, two siblings go out on the water but only one returns: the more promising, beautiful, and popular sister drowns, and the rest of the book explores the family dealing with guilt and grief.

So, am I saying been there, done that? Yes, but Goldengrove isn't a bad read, if you're in the mood for this sort of novel. For one thing, it has been over 20 years since Guest's book was first published, and society has changed quite a bit since then. For another, the focus is primarily on 13-year old Nico and her developing relationship with Aaron, her dead sister's boyfriend, who seems to be the only person who really understand how she feels. As in Ordinary People, Nico's parents prefer not to talk about Margaret's death, but instead of being upscale suburbia types, they are more along the hippie line; Dad runs a used book store called Goldengrove. People start to remark on how much Nico, who has lost considerable weight while grieving, is starting to look like Margaret--which gives an edge to Aaron's interest in her. The book is well written overall, and Prose gives believable voice to the fears and ponderings of a young girl going through the grieiving process at a critical point in her own development.

137Cariola
jul 16, 2010, 11:58 pm

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll.

As mentioned earlier, I'm trying to get rid of some books that have been in my TBR stacks for awhile, books that I suspect I won't like if I ever got around to them. I skim-read this one tonight. It's truly awful. Had I known it was initially self-published, I never would have gotten it. Who knew that Mr. Darcy was such a randy lad and that Elizabeth Bennett had the makings of a soft-porn queen? Or that Bingley had an illegitimate child because Jane couldn't satisfy his needs? Ick. Just ick.

No stars. And I'm not gonna post that cover on my thread!

138Cariola
Redigerat: jul 17, 2010, 9:48 pm



The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis.

Through his protagonist/narrator Keith Nearing, Amis explores the sexual revolution of the late 1960s. Ensconced for the summer in an Italian castle with his girlfriend, Lily; her friend, ridiculously named Scheherezade, and visited by a dwarf count; Gloria, a Scottish tease of a dominatrix with a religious bent; a gay couple; and various other characters, Keith learns what it means when the rules of the game are in flux.

Truthfully, after a short while, I got tired of hearing about Keith's maneuvering to get into Scheherezade's pants, his Victorian novel fantasies about Gloria, his boredom with the loving but obsessive Lily, and his concerns that someone else would get into Scheherezade's pants before he did. I lived through this period (although, admittedly, I didn't run in a similar crowd), yet I found the novel awfully tedious. There were moments of humor, but I suspect that The Pregnant Widow will most appeal to die-hard Amis fans.

139kidzdoc
jul 18, 2010, 1:40 pm

Thanks for reviewing The Pregnant Widow, which is getting some recommendations for inclusion in the upcoming Booker Prize longlist. I'll only read this if it makes the longlist, and maybe not even then.

140Cariola
jul 18, 2010, 2:21 pm

It's definitely NOT Booker-worthy! I think people are just excited that Amis turned out a new book. I'm not just basing my opinion solely on the subject matter; I'm one who, for instance, loved On Chesil Beach.

141urania1
jul 18, 2010, 2:45 pm

Both of the Amises should be tarred, feathered, and run out of publishing town on a rail.

142kidzdoc
jul 18, 2010, 2:51 pm

I haven't read anything by Martin Amis, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, from what I've heard about him and his novels. It wouldn't completely surprise me if it made the longlist, but I'm hoping that it doesn't; I didn't think that Me Cheeta (2009 longlist) or Child 44 (2008 longlist) were Booker worthy.

I'm with you; I loved On Chesil Beach. I'll pick up Solar from my parents' house this week, and probably read it in the next month or two.

143kidzdoc
jul 18, 2010, 2:55 pm

#141: Sounds good to me.

144Cariola
jul 18, 2010, 4:08 pm

I enjoyed Solar, too. I think McEwan did a much better job with dark humor than Amis.

The only other Martin Amis novel I've read is Time's Arrow, which I liked at the time (probably about 25 years ago). The bathroom scene is still lurking in my memory . . .

145avaland
Redigerat: jul 20, 2010, 5:32 pm

>138 Cariola: I posted elsewhere an absolutely hilarious blog post an LT friend sent me, related to this book called "Fond Memories of Vagina." Not for the faint of heart. (Along with the blogger, I have also grown weary of this particular "genre"). It might amuse you, it might not.

146Cariola
jul 20, 2010, 6:41 pm

145> Loved the blog, Lois--thanks!

I'm interested in taking a look at more reviews of The Pregnant Widow. So far, all the ones I've read have thought it brilliant and wistful--but they were all written by men. The protagonist in Amis's novel is decidedly NOT a success with women, so it's not quite the same kind of middle-aged fantasy as in some Mailer, Updike, etc. But because it focuses on the sexual revolution which supposedly gave women all the power, he is painted as an emasculated victim . . .

147Cariola
jul 24, 2010, 11:31 am



Sixpence House by Paul Collins.

Maybe I was expecting too much, having heard high praise for Sixpence House from a number of fellow readers that I generally trust. I imagined a sort of booklover's 'Doc Martin,' a charming town of quirky characters. But I found the book to be more of a rambling, rather disjointed personal essay. I'm not a regular reader of memoirs, so perhaps I'm just not used to the style and tone. I didn't feel that I got a very good picture of Hay or the locals or why, exactly, Paul had decided to move his family there in the first place. Because the residents seem to care more about books than Americans? (A rather lame reason, even for a book lover.)

148Cariola
aug 5, 2010, 9:28 pm



Small Wars by Sadie Jones

Sadie Jones uses a forgotten guerilla uprising, the Cypriot revolt against British rule, as a means to make a rather heavy-handed statement about war, the military machine, and colonialism that resounds in the "small wars" being fought today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots. Jones focuses on the isolation of and between a young couple, Clara and Hal Traherne, to make her points about the dehumanization wrought by the struggle for world power. Clara, a bit pampered yet willing to play the military wife and follow her husband first to Germany, then to Cyprus, seems completely unprepared for life in a war zone. Hal, on the other hand, acts around Clara as if everything is perfectly fine, unable or unwilling to share his experiences and discounting her fears. By the time a personal tragedy hits, their lives have already been changed and their marriage may be beyond repair (although Jones does hint at a reconciliation in the end).

While I enjoyed Small Wars, the characters here lacked the depth of those in her first novel, The Outcast. Several secondary characters, like the literature-loving translator with a inconvenient moral streak but not much backbone, and the shopaholic officer's wife who befriends Clara in Nicosia, are never fully realized, and even Hal and Clara are a bit flat. Perhaps Jones's obvious desire to send us an antiwar message overwhelmed some of the finer elements of plot and character here. Still, I'd recommend the book to anyone wanting to know more about life in the 1950s, particularly for a young military family in a "small war" zone.

149Cait86
aug 8, 2010, 1:18 pm

I bought Small Wars when it first came out, but for some reason I haven't read it yet... I was really excited that Jones had written a second novel too. I'm sorry to hear that it isn't as good as The Outcast, which I loved.

150Cariola
aug 12, 2010, 9:05 pm



The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn.

O'Flynn's latest novel, set in her native Birmingham, revolves around the themes of aging, memories, regrets, and forgiveness, particularly in the life of her main character, Frank Allcroft, co-anchor of a popular local TV chat/news show. Frank is questioning his decision to move his wife and daughter to a home in a small country town that has turned out to be rather bleak; and he is haunted by the hit-and-run death of his predecessor and mentor, Phil Smethway. Distressed by the planned demolition of the last of his architect father's buildings, Frank reminisces about their rather distant relationship. Even though he visits his mother three times weekly in her senior citizen residence, he can't shake the memories of her emotional withdrawal--a withdrawal she still maintains. And why is it that he feels such a responsibility to lonely people like Mike Church who end up in the news solely because they died alone and without being missed by anyone? Frank, in his late 40s, seems to be reassessing his own life as he hears the clock ticking behind his ear.

It's a little hard to pin this novel down. In part, it's a mystery about learning the truth of Phil's death (and the mystery of Mike Church as well). In part, it's a family drama. And in part, it's a book about a midlife crisis and a man coming to terms with his past. O'Flynn has structured the novel into short chapters, most of them about Frank but others focused on the other characters, and the chapters also shift in terms of their time frames. Overall, it's a solid but not outstanding book. I almost gave it four stars but cut back to 3.5, mainly because I felt that O'Flynn may have been trying to cover too much territory and as result sometimes lost focus.

151Cariola
aug 12, 2010, 10:18 pm



61. The Captive Queen by Alison Weir.

A few years ago, historian Alison Weir decided to move out of the nonfiction genre to write a novel imagining the life of the young Elizabeth Tudor. On the whole, The Lady Elizabeth was a delightful read, as was her second historical novel, Innocent Traitor.

Now, it seems, Weir has decided to move from the realm of the serious historical novel to that of romance. While The Captive Queen does indeed deal with two grand historical figures, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, it was a great disappointment to me, as a reader who has enjoyed both her many nonfiction works and her earlier novels. In fact, I would almost call it trashy. Don't believe me? Here's an example of the cheesey, clichéed Harlequin prose she subjects us to:

" . . . there could be no neat conclusion to Eleanor's inner turmoil. For this was to be the first time she had set eyes on Geoffrey since that blissful, sinful autumn in Poitou, five years before.
It had not been love, and it had not lasted. But she had never been able to erase from her mind the erotic memory of herself and Geoffrey coupling gloriously between silken sheets, the candlelight a golden glow on their entwined bodies. Their coming together had been a revelation after the fumbling embarrassment of the marriage bed and the crude awakening afforded her by Marcabru: she had never dreamed that a man could give her such prolonged pleasure. It had surged again and again until she cried out with the joy of it . . . "

I really snorted my way through this one (when I wasn't dozing). Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not a prude who has a problem with sex in novels, especially when it is an essential part of the characters and their story. But LOTS of sex combined with really, REALLY bad writing--that's something else. And, worst of all, Eleanor deserved so much better. She was a fascinating woman who, yes, had a rather colorful sex life--but her talents went far beyond the bedroom.

Add to all this a faulty sense of pacing and a mixed prose style. How strange that Weir, who has written so many historical texts, finds herself struggling so hard to find her voice as a fiction writer. Maybe part of the problem is that she has churned out three novels (plus several non-fiction histories) in only the past three years. Sounds like she has a bad case of Harold Bloom syndrome!

I think I'll go watch The Lion in Winter to get the sound and memory of The Captive Queen out of my head.

One measley star out of five.

152Nickelini
aug 13, 2010, 1:56 am

What is with those covers that show only the woman's bodice? I know The Other Boleyn Girl kinda made it a fashionable cover, but enough! It's been done to death, and it's starting to bug me. The other cover that I'm starting to dislike is the back of the woman's head. There's something going on here, and it's making me uncomfortable. Torsos, necks, ....what about faces and complete women?

153avaland
aug 13, 2010, 8:08 am

>152 Nickelini: here here! (off with her head!?) Honestly, send a note to the publisher; I've done it before.

>252 makes me wonder what Jane Stevenson is writing these days...

154Cariola
aug 13, 2010, 10:03 am

I have to agree with you both, I hate the headless woman covers. Maybe they think the reader will fantasize her own head on the character's body?

155Cariola
Redigerat: aug 16, 2010, 3:29 pm



Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

I picked this one up after reading a number of glowing reviews from LT readers I trust and seeing it's high rating. I had tried to read Eggers before but found his writing just too consciously clever (or attempting to be clever/avant garde) for my taste, but this book is a very straightforward, linear, nonfiction account of a family dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. I decided to use it in two of my classes, and I hope that it will appeal to the students. My freshman writers will be asked to come up with a research topic based on the book; I expect these to include government mismanagement of disasters, pollution, rebuilding a community, the Patriot Act, post-9/11 profiling, immigration, the American Dream, global warming, etc.--which should give you some idea of the scope of the book.

I finished Zeitoun the same night that I watched the film 'My Name Is Khan,' and there are a lot of similarities between them. Both are set in post-9/11 America, and the protagonists of both are good Muslim men who are trying to raise a family and help their fellow citizens in a crisis, and both become the victims of anti-Islamic prejudice. (I recommend the movie, BTW.) By letting us know Zeitoun's history, Eggers makes it clear that he has realized the immigrant's dream, a dream common to all immigrants: that hard work results in success. But the martial law in place as a result of the mismanaged evacuation of New Orleans, added to the suspicion of anyone of Middle Eastern origin, helps us to understand how a man with identification on him could be arrested in his own house for burglarizing himself and held in a high security prison without knowing the charges against him, not allowed to consult an attorney or even being allowed a phone call to his wife, who would have no idea where he was.

I listened to the book on audio, and it is hard to tell if the writing was rather flat or if this was due to the reader. I'm hoping it was the latter and that the story--definitely a good one--will appeal to my students. I'll be rereading the book in print along with them.

4 out of 5 stars.

P.S. I just found out that the university is sponsoring a Fall Break Service Learning project; the students will be participating in the gulf clean-up. If any of my students go, they should find some links between their experiences and Zeitoun, and I'll be letting them use their experiences in their research papers.

156Nickelini
aug 16, 2010, 4:42 pm

That actually sounds really interesting. I've never read him and I don't know anything about him, but if this comes across my path I think I'll give it a try.

157Cariola
aug 25, 2010, 6:37 pm



All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang.

All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost got off to a slow start. Having been through an English grad program in the 1980s and being quite familiar with the MFA/creative writer types, I was reminded of the more unpleasant aspects of the program, the students, and the professors: the competitiveness, the posturing, the cruelty, the affectations, the favoritism (call it "mentoring," if you will), the idolization of the instructor, and the penchant for creating a dramatic persona--supposedly an artistic mystique--that usually manifested itself in student/professor affairs and/or excessive drinking (in some cases, pot smoking). Frankly, it bored me then, and it bored me at the beginning of the book.

But then something happened. Miranda's little circle broke up as everyone graduated and went out into the real world. Roman Morris, the novel's focal character, has become a successful, prize-winning poet and writing professor, married to one of his former workshop colleagues. Even so, he is filled with paralyzing self-doubts about his talent and his manuscript-in-progress. As the facade fades at last, we learn that Roman is haunted by Miranda's comment that has no soul and puts nothing of himself into his work. The extended visit of his former classmate Bernard, who has been working on the same narrative poem for years while barely scraping by, spurs Roman to reassess his own work, his life, and his perhaps-missing soul.

Through Roman and Bernard, Chang explores the creative process and what defines a truly successful poet. Towards the end of the novel, Chang suggests a similar dichotomy between the main characters in Bernard's epic poem, the explorer Marquette and Father Joliet, both sent on missions by the King of France. I found myself thinking more and more about these comparisons (i.e., Roman being a renowned public figure like Marquette, Bernard not a failure but content in the knowledge that he has done good work, not needing the public accolades) and wishing that Chang had developed them further throughout the novel.

Overall, I found All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost to be thought-provoking, original, and finely written, if a little flawed.

158Cariola
sep 4, 2010, 3:11 pm



Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell.

Let me start by saying that I am not a big fan of mysteries, which probably counts for my giving this book a rating lower than did most other LT readers. I just don't care for formulaic plots. Caudwell's Hilary Tamer series had been recommended to me by a number of LT friends, so I decided to give the first one a try. Oxford don Hilary Tamar and a group of his/her former students, now solicitors, are stunned to learn that their colleague, the lovely and intelligent but charmingly spacey Julia, has been arrested for murder in Venice. Julia's vacation letters to Selena describe her fellow tour group members, helping to set the scene for the murder and prompting her colleagues towards unravelling the mystery.

The witty, often barbed conversation of the young solicitors was delightful, and Julia's letters even moreso (I'm a sucker for epistolary novels). Caudwell also creates an amusing, if stereotypical, cast of characters. But I have to admit that about 2/3 of the way through, I started to get rather bored with it all, and I was happy to reach the conclusion and move on to something more to my liking. I have the other three novels in the series on my shelf, but it may be awhile before I get around to them (if ever; I may just gift them to my brother, who likes mysteries). Since I'm not a regular reader of this genre, I can't compare Thus Was Adonis Murdered to anything else. I certainly wouldn't want to steer any mystery fans away from Caudwell.

159Cariola
Redigerat: sep 11, 2010, 1:02 pm



The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

If you've been tempted by this book, my best advice is: Jump in and go for the ride. Don't read the reviews in advance; they tend to give too much away and spoil the excitement and surprises that await you.

That said, what can I say that will intrigue you without violating my own warning. Maybe just the briefest sketch of a few characters and events.

Setting: the early 19th century, on the island of Dejima off the coast of Japan, which is rich with copper coveted by the Dutch traders.

Jacob de Zoet: young red-haired second officer, known for his honesty (which is at times an advantage, at other times, not so much). If he makes sufficient money in five years, he hopes to return to Domberger and marry his beloved Anna.

Orito Aibagawa: the brilliant, beautiful, but scarred daughter of a respected samurai doctor. Her indulgent father has allowed Orita to pursue the occupation of midwife and to train alongside the students of the local Dutch physician, the cynical Dr. Marinus.

Uzaemon Ogawa: friendly but humble interpreter. He keeps a lot to himself, and his gradual revelations will evoke your admiration.

Enimoto: sinister and powerful abott in charge of a secretive order of monks and nuns

Well, the novel really has a huge cast of characters, too many to detail here, but each of them unique and believable. Suffice it to say that Mitchell provides everything you'd want in a sweeping historical novel: adventure, intrigue, a colorful setting and exotic culture, romance, the unexpected, and more. (In my opinion, the Booker Prize judges made a huge mistake in NOT moving The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on to its long list; it did make the short list.)

Go ahead, take a chance! You won't regret the time you spend on this one.

160solla
sep 12, 2010, 6:06 pm

I've been seeing this title on a lot of threads, so you pushed me over the edge to putting it on hold at the library although I have plenty to get read. But as I am 377 of 377 holds on 77 copies, it will be awhile.

161Cariola
sep 18, 2010, 12:47 pm



65. Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson.

I got tired of waiting to find a reasonably priced Persephone edition of Miss Buncle's Book, about which I had heard so many raves, so I downloaded an audio version. Wonderfully read by Patricia Gallimore, it was a true delight!

As other LT reviewers have noted, Miss Buncle writes and publishes under the pseudonym of John Smith a book based on observations of her fellow villagers, and quite a hoopla erupts as they recognize themselves in 'Distruber of the Peace,' which soon becomes a best-seller. I'm not going to spoil the fun by adding any further details (and I strongly advise that you skip the longer LT reviews, which contain far too many spoilers). Suffice it to say that I'm on the prowl for more books by D. E. Stevenson; she was a real find for me!

I do want to comment on the cover illustration I've posted, which gives the impression that Miss Buncle is in her 50s (or even her 60s). Details in the novel reveal that she is still in her 20s. Of course, this illustration could be one of Stevenson's older characters--but one would expect the person featured on the cover of Miss Buncle's Book would be Miss Buncle herself! The same illustrator has done the cover for the sequel audiobook, and this time it is age-appropriate.

162Cariola
Redigerat: okt 1, 2010, 5:56 pm



Miss Buncle Married by D. E. Stevenson

Miss Buncle and her new husband, publisher Arthur Abbott, decide to move away from London and look for a home in the countryside. After a long search, Barbara fall in love with the Archway Cottage in the little town of Wandersby. As they settle in, whole new set of characters are introduced, and Barbara gets involved in all sorts of village and domestic affairs, from matchmaking to keeping secrets. And considering the title, you can imagine how it ends!

While I enjoyed this book, it wasn't nearly as fine as its predecessor, Miss Buncle's Book.

163Cariola
okt 3, 2010, 5:16 pm



Radiant Daughter by Patricia Grossman.

I don't want to say too much as I will be writing a review of this book for the next issue of Belletrista. The general story is about a Czech immigrant couple whose daughter suffers from bipolar disorder. I thought it was quite good.

164wandering_star
okt 6, 2010, 10:16 am

#161, 162: I recently read Mrs Tim Of The Regiment but it, too, was not a patch on Miss Buncle.

165Cariola
Redigerat: okt 23, 2010, 3:06 pm



Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon.

If you're looking for a book about Emily Dickinson's life, this may not be it: she dies about halfway through, and the rest of the book focuses on the bickering over who should edit her works and letters, who owns the copyrights, who should get the royalties, who knew her best and is therefore entitled to do lecture tours about her, where the archives should be housed, etc. Some of this is very interesting, some not so much.

Most of the quarrels and lawsuits involve Mabel Loomis Todd, who edited the first selection of Emily's work. This is not surprising, since Mabel was also the mistress of Emily's married brother, Austin Dickinson, and had never met or even seen Emily, although they did correspond. After Austin's death, Mabel and his widow, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, engaged in a series of legal and social battles. Susan had been a true friend to Emily, who had written many of her poems specifically for Sue's perusal and comments, and she contested Todd's right to edit (and profit from) the collected poems and letters. After Sue's death, Emily's sister Lavinia, who initially sided with Mabel, picked up the fight.

The feuds continued until the 1940s, eventually involving Emily's niece and great nephew and Mabel's legitimate daughter, Millicent Todd (who had a breakdown of sorts when she found letters that revealed the true nature of her mother's "friendship" with Austin Dickinson).

If you know nothing about Emily Dickinson's life (i.e., you haven't read one of the more authoritative biographies), you might find the first half of the book interesting--although much of it sets up the 'characters' in the family's feuds over her work. If you've read a good biography and are a Dickinson afficiando or scholar, you may find some intriguing information about the history of the promotion and publication of her work and letters and the creation of the image of the ethereal recluse in a white dress. I fall somehere in between.

166janeajones
okt 23, 2010, 5:08 pm

Sounds fascinating, if a bit arcane, cariola.

167Cariola
Redigerat: okt 28, 2010, 11:52 pm



The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith

This is one of those classics that I probably should have read years ago. It's the story of Mr. Primrose, a proud but good man, who suffers at the hands of both ill fortune and human malice. As the novel begins, Mr. Primrose seems to be the man who has everything: a good post in a friendly and peaceful town, a small but sufficient invested fortune, a loving wife whom he equally adores, two beautiful and refined daughters, two honest and hardworking elder sons, and two adorable little ones. But as one would expect from a sentimental novel, trials and tribulations soon begin, bringing him to debtor's prison and to the point of despair. But never fear: through a series of miraculous coincidences, all ends well.

Had The Vicar of Wakefield been written within the last 50 years, I would have dismissed it as little more than cliché and melodrama; but since it was written in 1761, I recognized it as the source of many clichés to follow and forgive it the excesses and improbabilities of its happy ending. Goldsmith presents a charming portrait of the Primrose family, full of the little details of life in the eighteenth century English countryside. The character of Deborah Primrose, the vicar's adored wife, is particularly well-drawn as a woman devoted to her husband but even more devoted to her ambitions for her daughters--with near-tragic results. While I enjoyed this brief, fast-paced novel, it wasn't exactly a stunner. But I'd recommend it especially to anyone with an interest in the history and development of the English novel.

168Cariola
okt 30, 2010, 11:47 pm



Serious Men by Manu Joseph

Serious Men is a hard book to categorize--and that's just fine with me. It's a comment on the caste system; it's a humorous novel; it's a family story; it's a modern-day Indian take on the trickster motif; it's a jab at the world of science, the business of science, and the competitive corporate mentality.

The novel's pacing, as others have mentioned, is initially slow, but it picks up at the midpoint, where the plot takes off. And Joseph's characters are wonderfully drawn individuals. There's Ayyan Mani, whose job at the Institute can best be described as office boy-cum-gatekeeper to the Director of the Institute of Theory and Research. A dalit who resents his Brahmin superiors, Ayyan uses his 'invisibility' to his best advantage, keeping his eyes and ears open, and he's clever enough to come up with (and continually revise as necessary) a scheme to promote his 11-year old son as a genius. The Director, Arvind Acharya, at first appears to be a one-note caricature of the arrogant boss, but the more I learned about him, the more I warmed to him. Oparna Goshmaulik, the Institute's first female scientist, is the perfect picture of the beautiful, ruthless woman who, having made it almost to the top, suddenly realizes that all she really wants is a man of her own, and when she can't have the one she wants, . . . well, I won't spoil it by telling you more. Even the lesser figures are sharply delineated ones-of-a-kind.

Best of all is Joseph's keen observations of human nature, added to his wry sense of humor. In the end, I was glad that I stuck with Serious Men, and I look forward to the author's second novel.

169Cariola
nov 2, 2010, 5:16 pm

Here's a link to my review of Radiant Daughter on Belletrista (see Message 163).

170Cariola
nov 6, 2010, 7:51 pm

Trespass by Rose Tremain.

I have long been a fan of Rose Tremain's historical novels, my favorites being Music and Silence and Restoration In her last two books, she has moved forward in time to the present. While Trespass certainly captured my interest, in my opinion, it can't hold a candle to her earlier novels.

Other reviewers have sketched the four main characters and outlined the basic plot, so I'll add my thoughts without covering the same ground once again. We're all familiar with the dysfunctional family novel. In Trespass, Tremain takes it a step further by showing us that the effects of neglect and abuse persist even into the later years of her two pairs of siblings, the Vereys and the Lunels, who are all in their 60s. Not one of them has been able to form an enduring, loving relationship with another human being. The closest thing to love might be Veronica's feelings for her brother Anthony, but these border on obsession and involve a history of trying to make up for her mother's extreme distnterest in her children. In short, each of these people has been trespassed against, and, in return, they trespass against others.

Tremain's usual fine writing is evident here, particularly in Audrun's descriptions of the natural world surrounding the mas Lunel, and she plays cleverly with the multiple meanings of the word "trespass" (as a sin, a violation, a crossing of private boundaries, etc.). Her sympathies clearly lie with the two sisters, who come across as more rounded, if still flawed, characters; their brothers, Anthony and Aramon, are depicted as one-dimensional (Anthony as selfish, Aramon as cruel). If you're a fan of Tremain's work, Trespass is definitely worth your time. It's always intersting to see a writer "trespassing" (if you will)--stretching beyond his or her usual boundaries. If you're new to her novels, I'd recommend starting with one of my favorites mentioned above.

171Cariola
nov 20, 2010, 2:57 pm



Before Lunch is another of Thirkell's charming novels set in the pre-war English countryside--Barsetshire, to be exact. Although the publisher's review states that Lilian Stoner is the novel's heroine, I didn't quite read it that way; in fact, I'm not sure I would say that any one character takes more focus than the others, but if one does, it's probably Katherine Middleton. She reminded me a lot of Miss Buncle in D. E. Stevenson's Miss Buncle Married. Katherine, too, is happily married to an older man who is finally fulfilling his dream of becoming a farmer of sorts--at least one who keeps a few cows and loves to putter around in the farm cart. The plot kicks off when her husband's sister, the aforementioned widowed Lilian Stoner, sends a letter announcing that she and her adult stepchildren, Dennis and Daphne, plan to come for a visit. As characters and relationships develop, Katherine, like Miss Buncle, tends to sit back and observe while keeping everything in good order.

The novel brims with the characters you'd expect to find in a Thirkell Barsetshire novel: the snooty Lady Bond, whose husband has a soft spot for Gilbert & Sullivan; the frail Dennis Stoner, who dreams of seeing the ballet he has written produced; the vivacious Daphne, who draws more than one admirer; Cyrel "CW" Bond, a charming young man about town; and many, many more.

Overall, I enjoyed Before Lunch, which presents an engaging and lighthearted look at pre-World War II England and the foibles of its various social classes.

172avaland
nov 27, 2010, 6:31 pm

Interesting books, Deborah!

173Cariola
nov 28, 2010, 12:21 pm



Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida.

Initially, it was the book's astonishing title that caught my attention. Although I think it was a bit of a cheat for Vida to borrow it from a Sami poet, it fit the novel perfectly. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name tracks Clarissa Iverton's search for her unknown biological father, the mother who abandoned her when she was 14, and, in the end, her own identity. Her quest takes her to the northermost parts of Lapland, where she encounters Sami culture, an elderly woman healer, and even a snow hotel.

In an interview in the back of the book, Vida says she was surprised that many readers disliked her main character. While I have to agree that her actions were impulsive, reckless, and selfish (and that I didn't find her funny, as Vida intended), Clarissa needed to be all of those things to make the necessary connection between her self and her parents. We are what we inherit, and we are what we experience--at least until we make a conscious decision to change.

I started the book while waiting for a flight and had almost finished it by the time I arrived at my destination about four hours later. (Having to wait to get to those last 25 pages was a killer!) It's fast-paced and engaging, and the structure (it's broken into short segments) pulls the reader along. While some readers have complained that they wanted more details, I felt that Vida's crisp, stark style perfectly reflected the strangeness of the landscape, which was bitterly cold, relentlessly dark despite the brilliance of the snow, and often threatening. It wouldn't have been the same book had it been filled with descriptive details; it was meant to focus on Clarissa's personal and emotional journey, and it did. My star rating was held down a bit by some illogical leaps in the plot, a few too many coincidences, and an ending that was a bit too neatly tied up. Still, I'd definitely recommend Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.

174Cariola
dec 1, 2010, 7:12 pm



Incendiary by Chris Cleave.

What would you expect from a book begins with the words "Dear Osama"? The narrator of Incendiary, a woman who lost her husband and four-year old son in a terrorist bombing of a new London soccer stadium, tells her story in a long letter to bin Laden, hoping to convince him to stop the madness. This is much more than a weepy sob story, however, and the narrator is much more than a sad victim. While her grief and despair are never far from the surface, she also experiences guilt, rage, recklessness, madness, and even moments of empathy for the terrorists. Her fate seems to be inextricably interwoven with that of Jasper Black, a journalist with whom she had a one-night (well, maybe two or three night in the end) stand and his posh fiancée, fashion columnist Petra Sutherland. The novel even comes close to being a whodunnit, but its real heart is the emotional journey of the unnamed narrator.

If you've seen the film version of Incendiary, you really don't know the book, because, aside from the basic plot and the two men with whom the widow gets involved, Jasper and Detective Butcher, there aren't a lot of similarities. The film excludes a lot and adds a lot more, and the endings are completely different.

I was impressed with Cleave's second novel, Little Bee, and wanted to experience his first book, Incendiary as well. I was not disappointed. Cleave is particularly skilled in creating interesting characters in pain who are on the way to being healed.

175Cariola
Redigerat: dec 10, 2010, 10:23 pm



All Passions Spent by Vita Sackville-West.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I really loved this book. After the death of her husband, 88-year old Lady Slane shocks her children by announcing that she plans to leave the family estate and rent a house in Hampstead Heath--a house that holds many fond memories of her younger days. Even more shocking, she dictates that none of her children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren may visit without an express appointment (and those are given infrequently). As a woman who has spent her entire life pleasing others and doing what they expected of her, she finally decides to live as pleases herself. She recalls her early dreams of becoming a painter, and how those dreams were squelched by a proposal that everyone else thought was a brilliant triumph--even though the 18-year old Deborah was not convinced that she was really in love or that she was ready to give up her own independence and aspirations. Looking back on her life, she recalls moments of happiness, moments when she did indeed love (or at least appreciate) her husband and felt fleeting moments of affection for the children who, for the most part, turned out to be disappointments. But as she moves towards death, Lady Slane decides that, while there is still a little time left, she need please no one but herself.

Lately, I've been thinking more and more about the time wasted in the past and the time that I have remaining to make something of my life, and, in that regard, this novel really touched home. I listened to it on audio, brilliantly read by Wendy Hiller, who played Lady Slane in the TV adaptation. It's a quiet, contemplative book, but one well worth one's time. Vita Sackville-West gives us a portrait of aging that goes far beyond the mourning the loss of youth and beauty to ask significant questions about selfhood and the meaning of life itself.

176fannyprice
dec 10, 2010, 10:15 pm

>175 Cariola:, Wonderful review, Cariola!

I've been trying to encourage my aging parents along a similar line - "please no one but yourselves!" They have spent a long time being completely unselfish in response to a host of unexpected events and now I wish they would just be a little less considerate of others! Maybe I'll gift this book as an additional hint. :)

177Cariola
Redigerat: dec 20, 2010, 11:25 am



Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

Rumika Vasi is a bright child and seems especially gifted at math--her father's academic specialty. But in the course of reading Gifted, I began to question whether Rumi was truly gifted or just pushed to extremes by her ambitious parents. Her father, Mahesh, determined that she would be the youngest child ever (at 15) to pass her A and O levels and enter university, schedules her every waking moment around studying for the exams. Rumi makes the grade, but neither she nor her family lives happily ever after.

While Gifted had its moments of originality, I think perhaps I have read one too many novels about the generational and cultural conflicts of Indian-born parents and their "modern" children, born after their immigration to the UK, the US, and Canada. Inevitably, the parents come off as rigid, isolated, overly ambitious, and judgmental, while the kids just want to be like the kids next door. After awhile, it becomes formulaic.

That's not to say that I wouldn't recommend Gifted to someone who hasn't overloaded on this type of story or who has a special interest in coming-of-age or immigrant stories. Lalwani's characters--particularly Shreene, the mother--are well drawn, and the novel takes some unexpected turns towards the end.

Edited to change the touchstone, which was showing an X-Men book!

178dchaikin
dec 22, 2010, 12:03 pm

Deborah - love your review of All Passions Spent! One side-note about Gifted, in case you didn't know, I'm pretty sure the idea of the novel came from a true story. (The novel is purely fiction, though).

179Cariola
dec 24, 2010, 5:28 pm



Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee.

Spare but nonetheless moving, Lee's collection of poems draw on his background as the child of immigrant parents, his curiosity about the past, the conflict between a desire to assilimlate and a struggle against it.

180Cariola
dec 27, 2010, 11:52 am



The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

I'm not quite sure yet what to think of The Girls of Slender Means. It's definitely the kind of book that stays with you for awhile after you've finished it. Spark starts us out in the May of Teck Club, a roooming house for young women of slender means under the age of thirty who have come to London seeking work. The war in Europe is over, but the effects--rationing, bombed-out buildings, the presence of American servicemen--remain. Spark creates a realistic portrait of what it must have been like to be young and vibrant in those days, and the characters of the young women are individualized and believable. Much of the story is told in flashbacks as Jane White, who works for a publisher, intercepts a news service wire announcing that Nicholas Farringdon, who had frequently visited the May of Teck Club and was in love with one of the residents, was killed in Haiti, where he was conducting missionary work. Her efforts to spread the word to others and to remember Nicholas shift the story from 'present day' back to 1945. Overall, the story is light-hearted and humorous, despite the rigors of post-war London life, but the tone shifts in a moving and surprising conclusion.

181Cariola
dec 29, 2010, 5:56 pm



George Eliot in Love by Brenda Maddox.

Considering that George Eliot was the brilliant author of so many brilliant novels, added to the fact that she defied social conventions to pursue life and love as she desired, I expected this biography to be . . . well, not quite so dull. In many ways, Maddox's efforts read like an annotated timeline of where "Marian" lodged, visited, and traveled. True to her title, Maddox speculates at regular intervals about her subject's crushes and presumed affairs, and she does a reasonably good job of depicting her quite conventional relationship with Gerge Henry Lewes. Although he was unable to divorce his adulterous first wife because he had assumed paternity for her lover's three children, he and Marian, who indeed seem to have been soulmates, settled comfortably into a conservative Victorian "marriage" that lasted for more than 25 years. Maddox also gives a brief account of Eliot's short-lived marriage to a much younger man after Lewes's death. Whether it is Maddox's style, her strict focus on Eliot's love life and domesticity, or some other unknown factor, the result is a rather flat and disappointing biography completely devoid of the vibrance and engagement one would expect in a book about the author of Middlemarch, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, and many other novels that are so full of life that they continue to fascinate readers today.

182janeajones
dec 29, 2010, 7:46 pm

181> I think I'll skip this one -- the last thing I want is a biographer to make George Eliot dull!