The Sunday Salon - Fearless Reading

Hello bloggers and bloggees! Happy Sunday, and Happy Valentine's Day.

I've been thinking about books that have intimidated me, partly because I'm in the midst of one right now -- A. S. Byatt's Possession. It has seemed such an erudite tome and has many references to - gasp! - poetry, which is not my bailiwick. But I'm determined to read some Booker Prize winners this year - five winners to be exact - and this one has been on my list for some time. Now that I'm a couple of hundred pages into it, it's not so scary after all! Sure, there are references and allusions I'm missing, but the story is interesting and the writing is gorgeous:

Blackadder, in bad moods, thought of her as one of those puffed white spiders, bleached by the dark, feeling along the threads of her trap from her central lair. The feminists who had from time to time sought access to the Journal saw her as some kind of guardian octopus, an ocean Fafnir, curled torpidly round her hoard, putting up opaque screens of ink or watery smoke to obscure her whereabouts.

Of course, one good thing about reading challenging books is that I learn quite a bit, with Wikis and dictionaries at hand. I hadn't known what or who Fafnir was.

Most of the books I find intimidating (and that I should read) are classics - Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Henry James. The density of the language is problematic; do I want to work that hard to read a book? Sometimes, yes. I did, after all, conquer War and Peace and Anna Karenina a couple of winters ago and enjoyed them immensely, Russian names and all!

The next Booker Prize winner I feel a bit anxious about is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I've heard rave reviews about this historical novel about Cromwell and Henry VIII - a period in history about which I know very little. This 600 page tome daily taunts me from the shelf with its bright red spine and bold black letters. And for starters, there are 8 pages of the cast of characters, and these trees:


But I'm not worried. I can do this. I have Wikipedia.

A quick update on my January reading, since I missed the last couple of Salons: I read 8 books, all of them 4 stars and above. And I've reviewed all of them! You can see the list on the sidebar and click on the LibraryThing reviews (which are essentially the same text as the reviews here on the blog). February is going well too (half way through the month already!) - 3 1/2 books so far and all of them 4+ stars as well! So the bar is set pretty high for 2010. I feel sorry for that first clunker - it's really going to fall flat.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day, don't eat too much chocolate (is that possible?). And happy reading!
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Dear Diary....

I had to share this tidbit from my sister-in-law, Bonnie:

My little friend Ella is six years old, soon to be seven. Yesterday at church I noticed she was wearing a small key on a ribbon around her neck. When I asked her about it she said it was for her diary. She continued by telling me that a diary is like a blog that you write in a book.



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Crampton Hodnet - Book review

Barbara Pym is a writer I probably would never have run across were it not for some of my friends on LibraryThing. Her books tend to be about English manners and society, peopled with vicars and professors, office workers, housekeepers and ladies’ companions and the occasional “upper class” family. Plots are not high drama, but tend toward the mundane and made into high drama by some of the characters. Her novels are full of subtle wit and irony, done with an intelligence that is not easy to achieve.

Though it was one of her first novels, written in the late 1930s, Crampton Hodnet was published posthumously in 1985. It revolves around the lives of several people in Oxford: Miss Doggett, an elderly spinster of some means, and her paid companion, Miss Morrow; Mr. Latimer, the new curate who comes to lodge with them; Miss Doggett’s nephew Francis Cleveland, an English professor who falls in love with Barbara Bird, a young student; Margaret, his rather oblivious wife; and their daughter Anthea, of a marriageable age.

Comedies of manners, inappropriate invasive behaviors and gossip ensue.

There is nothing very profound in Pym’s novel, but her writing is so clever and laugh-out-loud funny, I have not failed to love any of her books. Some examples:

She shot a glance at Mrs. Killigrew, sitting there so smug and splendid for her age, and there came over her a desire to squash down her stiff straw hat, to tear the bird off it and fling it into the unseasonable fire.

and

She stood in the lounge, nervously twisting her hands and looking around her with some agitation. She saw that the room was decorated with stiff palms in brass pots and that, grouped in a corner, as if for artistic effect, were a number of old people reading the newspapers. They looked as if they had been left there many years ago and abandoned. Or perhaps they were people who at some time long past had intended to go abroad and had then either not wanted to or forgotten all about it, so that they had stayed here ever since, like fossils petrified in stone.

And what or where or who is Crampton Hodnet? It is a made-up place that becomes a running joke between two of the characters. You’ll need to read the book to discover more.

I raced through this book and now I wish I’d taken a little more time to savor the irony and wit. Fortunately, I have a few more Pyms to look forward to. Highly recommended. (4/5)
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Lark and Termite = Book review.

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips.

I was taken aback when I began to read Lark and Termite. Is this a war novel? It starts with Corporal Robert Leavitt, 24th Infantry Division, South Korea, July 26, 1950. But I didn’t want to read another war novel! There are hints of life back in the States, his wife and family. But he’s talking infantry and GHQ and ROK units and Occupation forces… this is not what I signed up for! 15 pages…23 pages…29… finally, on page 30 we switch gears to Winfield, West Virginia, 1956, and the story of Lark and Termite begins. Of course, connections are made eventually and the story swings back and forth between time periods and place. And I am most comfortable in the small town story.

I loved the chapters about Lark, the 17 year old beauty, and the tender relationship she has with her severely disabled and retarded brother, Termite, age 9. They live with their aunt Nonie, who works at a local restaurant.

Lark doesn’t think twice about caring for her brother. She is the one who best understands his needs and his methods of communication, and she realizes that he comprehends much more than others give him credit for: “…he’s got a rhyme and reason. We only see the surface, like when you look at a river all you see is a reflection of the sky.”

Phillips was courageous in the sections where it’s Termite’s POV. Of course, I have no way of knowing if her portrayal is authentic, but it certainly rings true. He catches snatches of conversation; hears and feels things that others can’t:

Sudden morning air floats low to the ground amid the small houses like fragrant evaporating mist, a cool bath of dew and shadow and damp honeysuckle scent. He gasps and hears the sharp grass under them move its fibrous roots…There’s a shape in the air where the car was. He feels the shape hold still before it begins to end. Slowly the air comes back. The grass begins small sounds.

These sections had me contemplating for a long time how people who can’t communicate in “normal” ways experience the world.

I forgive Phillips the Korean War chapters – they are integral to the larger story. And I forgive the bit of magical realism that is part of the story too. I just can’t quite give her a perfect score because of the grossly overwritten character of Gladdy, Nonie’s nemesis. She’s bitter, petty and vindictive – and I found her an unbelievable character who didn’t add much to the novel. After Phillips drew the other characters so exquisitely, this one was a stumbling block for me.

Still – highly recommended for some superb writing. (4/5)
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The Voyage of the Narwhal - Book review

Talking grew difficult; their beards froze to their neckerchiefs and saliva sealed their lips. The wind tore tears from their eyes and froze their lids together.

Thus is the atmosphere in The Voyage of the Narwhal, an historical adventure novel by Andrea Barrett. It is set in the mid-nineteenth century; the Narwhal is a whaling ship that has been outfitted for an Arctic voyage. The mission is to find out what happened to the Franklin expedition, apparently lost some years before exploring the Arctic. It is a bit of a race, as other expeditions have also set out to find Franklin’s ship.

The Narwhal’s naturalist and the book’s main protagonist is Erasmus Darwin Wells. He is the voice of reason on the voyage, compared to the commander, Zechariah Voorhees (Zeke), who is young and daring and doesn’t give much thought to the consequences of his actions. He puts his crew at risk on a number of occasions. He is the commander only because his father funded the expedition and built the ship.

Though I haven’t read many adventure stories, there are some elements here one would naturally expect – daring, danger, hardships, near death experiences, an unhappy crew, an unreasonable commander, and so on. Barrett's brilliance lies in her descriptions of the atmosphere and settings:

...any acknowledgment of sickness made the men nervous. So did the darkness, and the daily task of scraping from bunks and bulkheads the frost that formed from their breath while they slept. It was disturbing, Erasmus thought, to watch the air that had lived inside their lungs turn into buckets of dirty ice. Tossing the shavings over the side, he felt as if he were discarding parts of himself.

Waiting at home for the return of the Narwhal are Lavinia – sister to Erasmus and fiancé of Zeke – and her companion during the men’s absence, Alexandra. We are privy to their lives as well. They set to work hand coloring plates for an entomology book Lavinia’s two other brothers are publishing. Lavinia uses the work to fill her time, but Alexandra takes to the work and begins drawing illustrations for another book. She is the strong independent one and introduces the theme of women’s rights and abilities into the story. She and her family are abolitionists.

This novel holds adventure, intrigue, mystery, and a bit of magical realism right alongside issues of human rights – treatment of and attitudes toward the indigenous people of the Arctic, the Esquimaux, are explored.

Highly recommended (unless you’re trying to keep warm in frigid temperatures!). Read More!

Teaser Tuesday and Where Are You? 02-02-10: The Voyage of the Narwhal

Should Be Reading - Miz B - hosts this weekly event. We throw out a couple of sentences from our current read (without spoilers, of course) to entice you to read the book.



This week my teaser is from The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett, page 160:

...any acknowledgment of sickness made the men nervous. So did the darkness, and the daily task of scraping from bunks and bulkheads the frost that formed from their breath while they slept. It was disturbing, Erasmus thought, to watch the air that had lived inside their lungs turn into buckets of dirty ice. Tossing the shavings over the side, he felt as if he were discarding parts of himself.

It's Tuesday, Where Are You? is hosted by an adventure in reading.

I'm in the frozen Arctic searching for signs of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Read More!

The Septembers of Shiraz - Book Review

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

From the first page of The Septembers of Shiraz, you know it’s not going to be a fun or easy read. In September,1981 in the midst of his work day, Isaac Amin, a Jew living in Tehran, is apprehended at gunpoint by two members of the Revolutionary Guards. They transport him for interrogation and imprisonment. His crime? Being a Jew and benefiting from the reign of the Shah; officially he is accused of being an Israeli spy.

Isaac is a gem trader and jewelry designer in Tehran and has led a very comfortable lifestyle, amassing a fortune under the rule of the Shah. His wife Farnaz and ten year old daughter Shirin live with him in a sprawling house with servants and a gardener. His son, Parviz, attends architectural school in Brooklyn. The novel’s chapters alternate between these four characters from a third person POV.

After the fall of the Shah, they realize that their lifestyle, if not their lives, are in jeopardy. The revolution post-Shah has changed life in Iran drastically. No longer is music or dancing allowed, any person of wealth is suspect, and anyone not loyal to Islam is considered immoral and subject to harsh punishment. A list of executions is frequently posted in the newspaper, and the Amins sometimes read of friends being killed. It is difficult to know whom to trust and conversations and letters are often peppered with code words and phrases.

“The Septembers” refers to Isaac’s idyllic time spent in Shiraz in his youth and young adulthood. It is in stark contrast to the September in which he begins his imprisonment. Some of the prison scenes reminded me of The Lizard Cage, a remarkable book about a Burmese prisoner. Conditions are unimaginable, torture is frequent, survival is tenuous.

As difficult as the subject matter is, I found this a very readable book. The author, Dalia Sofer, was ten when she and her family fled Iran, so I assume that Shirin is a partially autobiographical character. Sofer’s prose is beautiful – for example, when Farnaz picks up a forgotten pair of Isaac’s shoes from a shoemaker while he is in prison, “…she takes them, like a widow leaving a morgue. She walks home with the bag looped around her wrist, the shoes banging against her thigh, as if kicking her for interrupting their repose.” There are many such lovely turns of phrase in this astounding debut novel.

Highly recommended. (4.5/5) Read More!

Friday Fill-ins 01-29-10

Janet is our fantastic host for this weekly event.


My responses are in italics.


1. Wouldn't it be easy to guarantee that everyone in the US has good health care?

2. Life approaching 60 is better than ever!

3. I love the taste of eggnog. It’s a good thing I can’t buy it year-round.

4. It is toddler-world in the living room during the week.

5. The first thing we're going to do is sing.

6. Oregon winter: drip, drip, drip; I love it.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Middle Eastern food, tomorrow my plans include a wonderful gathering of friends to remember our dear Betty and Sunday, I want to read!
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The Hearts of Horses - Book Review

The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. I’m not fond of Westerns and I’ve never been big on horse stories. But I do love me some strong women characters, and this book is full of them. Plus, the story held my interest throughout and the writing is superb. I’ve read two other Molly Gloss books: Wild Life and Jump-Off Creek (both also with strong women characters). This is my favorite.

It is 1918. Martha Lessen rides into (fictional) Elwha County in northeast Oregon intent on breaking horses and living the life of an itinerant cowboy. She is in her early twenties and has left home for reasons we find out later in the story. Her methods for breaking horses are not standard; she eschews any brutality toward the animals. Her talent lies with “gentling” the horses.

She finds a temporary place with George and Louise Bliss, a couple who run a small ranch, and she makes herself at home in their barn. She has very few creature comforts and is elated when Louise loans her a stack of books:

She cleared a shelf in the tack room, crowding the veterinary goods into other boxes and onto other shelves to make room for the books. Their variously colored spines, arranged along the cleared shelf, made a small, distinct change in the room. (Page 36.)

The Blisses grow fond of the tall, shy, tomboyish woman and, after she proves herself to be a skilled horse trainer, introduce her to other ranchers in the valley, securing more work for her.

Martha develops tentative relationships with the people she works for. She is painfully shy and often feels out of place in social situations. But because she spends time every week at various ranches, and because of the nature of community in the early part of the twentieth century, she becomes involved in the lives of the people who hire her.

The writing is simple, the story is simple, the lives straightforward, yet the complexities of the greater world are always in the background – WWI, illness, environmental destruction, racism. Since the story is told by an omniscient narrator sometime in the future, there are glimpses of events that will impact the land and the lives of the characters, such as the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Gloss did an astounding amount of research for this novel. The reader will learn quite a bit about horses, tack, life on a small ranch in a bygone era, the hardships and joys of being a horse whisperer and of being a woman alone in a man's world. Highly recommended. (4.5/5)
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Teaser Tuesday and Where Are You? 01-26-10: The Hearts of Horses

Should Be Reading - Miz B - hosts this weekly event. We throw out a couple of sentences from our current read (without spoilers, of course) to entice you to read the book.



This week my teaser is from The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss, page 50:

Martha had set out from Pendleton meaning to live a footloose cowboy life and see the places she'd read about in Western romances - she hadn't come down to Elwha County intending to stay. But a winter's worth of work would suit her about right. She had watched a few wranglers riding a circle and she knew the work was hard, riding half a dozen different horses every day, some of them considerably rougher than others and sometimes needing to change saddles or hackamores to fit their different shapes, and then another half-dozen the next day. You were in the saddle dawn to dark six or seven days a week, pretty much regardless of the weather.

It's Tuesday, Where Are You? is hosted by an adventure in reading.

I'm in fictional Elwha County in eastern Oregon. It's 1918 and I'm a 20-something woman traveling the county breaking wild horses. Read More!