The Sunday Salon: Short Stories #3

(I realized it's a little incongruous to see the title "Short Stories" followed by a cover of War and Peace!)

My big reading news this week: I finally finished War and Peace! Put a notch in my belt! I find it impossible to review a book like this. I've never read any other translations, so I can't compare this new Pevear-Volokhonsky translation to earlier ones; and the book is so long and complex that I wouldn't even know where to begin. Suffice it to say, it is wonderful; it is challenging; it is funny, frustrating, exciting, boring...in short, it is many things. I did have some "issues" and did not give it a 5 star rating. But I'm so glad I read it; I loved the characters and most of the story. I wearied of Tolstoy stepping out of the narrator role and ranting about Napoleon and historians (though he did insist it was not a novel). Now I need to move away from the Russian tomes for awhile.

LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd sent me this cartoon:


On to my short stories for the day. Of course, this is just an excuse to crack open the new Jhumpa Lahiri collection, Unaccustomed Earth.

• "Quality Time" from Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver. I am crazy about Kingsolver's writing and had read everything she's written except this collection of short stories, which I stumbled onto in a used bookstore recently. In this story, Miriam, a single mom of a precocious five year old daughter, Rennie, wrestles with the everyday chores of working and raising a child, in addition to the Big Questions and the What Ifs - such as how would she handle guardianship of her three nieces and nephews if her sister should die? What ensues is a delightful and realistic conversation between mother and daughter about where Rennie would live if anything happened to Miriam. Kingsolver is as skilled at the short story as she is at essays, nonfiction and novels.

• "The Bad News" from Moral Disorder and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood. Another great used bookstore find. Like me, the female protagonist cannot bear to hear the news first thing in the morning, before the coffee and the toast. Her husband, Tig, needs to "download" the bad news first thing, to purge it by sharing it. Atwood does an interesting bit on relationships in terms of past, present and future tenses: 'back then, still and not yet.' It's the 'not yet' that's mildly disturbing:

  Communication hasn't failed us, not yet. 'Not yet' is aspirated, like the 'h' in 'honour.' It's the silent 'not yet.' We don't say it out loud.

  Atwood's character then does a time trip and transports the breakfast conversation in her mind to the south of France, 3rd century CE. She finds many parallels, politically and personally.

• Another couple of stories from Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor: "A Perfect Relationship" and "Men of Ireland." I didn't find these as compelling as the title story, which I read a few weeks ago. Still, he's a wonderful writer and I was happy to stumble onto his short novel, The Story of Lucy Gault at, you guessed it, that same used bookstore. I look forward to reading this highly recommended novel and finishing up his book of short stories.
  

• And saving for the last:
  Even the book's cover draws me like a magnet. The danger of starting this collection is that I won't want to put it down, and I have two Early Review books I need to read and review soon. I've been looking forward to Lahiri's new book since I heard about it a couple of months ago, and I've read nothing but rave reviews about it. So, gathering all the discipline I can muster, I'm reading one story this morning, "Hell-Heaven." I'll report in next Sunday's salon how successful I am at depriving myself of the rest until my ER obligation is met.
  

Here's to a week of wonderful reading. I'm fantasizing about being at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in Wales this week. Hope my friends are having fun there! Maybe one day....
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Sunday Salon: War and -- More War

This week as I mourned the beginning of the sixth year in the debacle known as the Iraq invasion/occupation and the 4,000^th US soldier killed there, I found myself in the middle of two other wars - in Belgium patching up casualties from WWI in Life Class (Pat Barker) and in the midst of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in Tolstoy's War and Peace (I am past the halfway mark!).

I rarely read war stories, so it was a bit unsettling to find myself so occupied in the ugliness of battles and the aftermath of them. Barker’s novel of historical fiction snuck up on me; I started it several times and abandoned it for one reason or another, but this time I stuck with it, as she comes so highly recommended by several people. I did like the book quite a lot; it was an interesting comparison of one person who’s mired in the war while another is at home enjoying a social life and trying to ignore the war. And how utterly war changes one’s perspective and life and the effects it can have on art and relationships.

The book starts out quietly, at the Slade, an art college in London. There are hints of a pending war, but Paul, the protagonist, is mostly concerned about the direction his art is taking and wondering if he should stick with it. His art lacks passion. He will remedy that after working for the Red Cross patching up wounded soldiers at the front in Belgium.

There were some unresolved pieces in this novel and I think it could have gone a bit deeper. Barker’s writing is engaging and, when I feel ready to read more stories of war, I will give her Regeneration Trilogy a try. It’ll be awhile, though. (3.5/5) (Advanced Reader's Copy)


Reading War and Peace is sort of like life – when I get to the hard icky parts (the war) I want to put it down and avoid it. I haven’t picked it up for a couple of days now – just need to take a breather, so I’m reading another Elizabeth Taylor book, At Mrs. Lippencote’s.

Ex Libris' post, Short Story Sunday, gave me an idea. I plan to start doing a different genre each Sunday -- next Sunday, short stories; the following one, essays, then poetry, and drama (possibly a Shakespeare Sunday). I'll rotate each month, so on the last Sunday of each month I'll be reading short stories, etc.

Laura posted her top five books for the quarter and wondered if others have picked their favorites. I’ve read 24 books so far; I've read so much good fiction since the turn of the year, it's really hard to pick, but here goes, in no particular order:

Fiction

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Of course, if I finish War and Peace by the 31st, I'll have to amend this. That’s not looking very promising though, even though I have several reading days this next week.

Nonfiction - I didn't read a lot of it this quarter, but I did love:

The Translator: a tribesman's memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
In Defense of Food : an eater's manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

Happy Spring to everyone!

It's not too late to impeach Bush and Cheney.

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St. Patrick's Day Sunday Salon

Well, almost St. Patrick's Day; and a happy one to you all!

After reading Laura's post this week about Winnie the Pooh characters, I started noticing similarities to the characters I'm reading about in War and Peace. Pretty bizarre, I know, and not the sort of depth one would expect from a character analysis of such an epic work. Nevertheless, here are a few I've noted:

Natasha = Tigger
Pierre = Eeyore
Nickolai = Roo
Countess Rostov = Kanga
Old Count Rostov = Pooh
Marya = Piglet
Boris = Owl

By the way, turns out in the Pooh test that I'm Roo, which explains why I relate so well to Nickolai.

I'm nearing the War and Peace halfway mark, and I'll have some good chunks of reading time in the next couple of weeks, so I anticipate finishing by the end of the month. I'm finding it a compelling read, pleasantly surprised by the humor and depth of emotion Tolstoy conveys.

And I'm almost done reading Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks. It is not a cheery book! but it's very good. Her language is so authentic (17th century English village) and believable, it's almost like reading a diary from the time - she talks about tools or clothes using the authentic words and it doesn't even matter that I'm not sure what she's referring to, it just all makes sense in the context. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books, I think she's a brilliant writer. I'm confident enough to rate this before I finish it: (4.5/5)

I'm not sure what I'll pick next for my supplement to W & P - it needs to be something fairly short and straightforward that I can pick up and put down, so neither of the Sarah Waters books I have, and not The Blind Assassin, which is fairly high on my TBR stack; I want to give those my full attention. Maybe I'll pick one or two of the John Steinbeck short novels - I found a lovely 1953 edition of a collection of them at Goodwill a few weeks ago.

Have a great week, Salonsters. Happy reading! Read More!

The Sunday Salon: Variety is the spice....

I'm jumping ahead a bit here, it's still Saturday night, but almost midnight! And I'll be moving the clocks ahead an hour before I head off to bed, so it is pretend-Sunday. And I probably won't have much time to write here tomorrow. I was excited to write my first Salon journal.

I just finished a remarkable kid's book (which I rarely, if ever, read) - The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.


Hugo is an orphan who lives and works within the walls and tunnels of a Paris train station. He keeps all the clocks oiled, wound and working. He has a knack for mechanics and an interest in magic. And he has a fantastic secret - a mechanical man that, when fixed properly, will write an important message for Hugo. Or so he believes.

What a delightful, beautiful book! This is a finely illustrated kid's book that any adult would find wonderful. I consider it a graphic novel, though it probably doesn't fit a strict definition of one. The writing is good, the illustrations are fabulous and the story kept me interested from the beginning. Great afternoon read. (4.5/5) Book website.

I'm also still reading War and Peace (see post below) and, to keep myself from getting too bogged down with that heavy tome, I started reading Geraldine Brooks' novel about the plague in 17th century England - Year of Wonders. I was drawn in by her writing from the first paragraph. I haven't read any of her books yet, though I've reached for March a couple of times. I chose this one because I'm so interested in medical history and love a good historical fiction. When I write my first novel, I imagine it will be about this subject!

I finished Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat yesterday. Haven't been able to comment on it yet. Powerful book. I was happy to see she won the Nat'l Book Critics Circle award for Brother, I'm Dying.

Today, before reading, we spent some hours getting our reading nook set up with new shelves. Very satisfying. Read More!

First blog post, ever!

Well here I am in the blogosphere after swearing I'd never do this. And I still haven't decided if I really want to be here. Do I really need one more website to attend to?


Here's what I'm reading these days. I'll be at it for awhile, I think I started it three weeks ago and I'm not quite 1/3 of the way through it. Not sure what possessed me to read this except so many people on LibraryThing raved about the new translation (Pevear and Volokhonsky) and I figured it was time I read it. I am loving it, much to my surprise! Yet I'll be glad to finish it and get back to some "normal" reading; it takes some stamina - literally! The book weighs about ten pounds!!!

Progress:





I also read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina this winter - really my first introduction to Russian literature. I'm playing catch up with some of the classics I managed to avoid in my years of schooling (even as an English major!).

I read 100 books in 2007. And I'm aiming for 100 again in 2008. This little meter will keep a tally of my progress:






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