Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Agatha wrote The Body in the Library almost as a joke. She acknowledged that finding "a body in the library" was an English detective novel cliche and this book was her amusing take on it. She name checks herself when a small boy says he has lots of detective novelists' autographs and her name is among those he lists. And although Miss Marple is the star of the novel and the solver of the mystery, there are as many detectives here as there are suspects, with Sir Henry Clithering (another recurrent character) helping out in addition to the three different official police detectives. This is only Miss Marple's second appearance in a Christie novel, her first being The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, 12 years earlier.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Thinking in Pictures: My Life With Autism by Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin is about 6 years older than my parents. She was diagnosed with autism in 1950 (after a previous false diagnosis of brain damage) at a time when most autistics would have been institutionalized. On the very high functioning end of the autism spectrum and given early special education opportunities and tutoring at the insistence of her mother, Grandin is now a professor with a Ph.D. in animal science, an inventor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, a public speaker, and an autism and animal welfare advocate. She is most famous not only for being the designer of one third of all the livestock-handling facilities currently in use in this country, but also for being one of the first adults to be able to speak out about what it is like to have autism, how autistics see the world, and why autistic people behave the way they do.
In Thinking in Pictures, Grandin writes about all of these issues and about how her autism has helped her to see the world from "a cow's eye view" to be able to design better, more humane ways of handling animals in slaughterhouses and veterinary procedures. She says she thinks visually and can run images in her mind like watching a movie, which helps her to invent machines and facilities without having to build models or test them repeatedly in real life. She says she feels she can understand better than neurotypical people how animals think and feel and how they perceive the world around them, so she strives to find ways to make their experiences with humans less fear-ridden and more peaceful. She also gives a lot of advice about how normal people who work or live with autistics can help them reach their potential and feel calmer and more secure, which in turn may help them to interact more on an interpersonal level.
I highly recommend this book to all my teacher friends who increasingly come into contact with students on the spectrum. It's fascinating to read Grandin's personal accounts of how she felt as a child and feels as an adult with autism and how she perceives the world, in addition to her reports of the experiences of other people she has met who have different forms of autism. I would also recommend it to my cousin who is a veterinarian, or anyone who is interested in animal welfare, because even I thought the stuff she writes about animals' minds and their handling was pretty fascinating.
Additionally, far from being dry or overly erudite, Thinking in Pictures is a fairly quick and easy read. Apparently, Grandin has her writing heavily proofread for readability and clarity and it is remarkably approachable. She often uses computer metaphors to describe her thinking, but thankfully her book never reads like stereo instructions. It's an incredibly engrossing, very human (and bovine!), fascinating story she has to tell.
In Thinking in Pictures, Grandin writes about all of these issues and about how her autism has helped her to see the world from "a cow's eye view" to be able to design better, more humane ways of handling animals in slaughterhouses and veterinary procedures. She says she thinks visually and can run images in her mind like watching a movie, which helps her to invent machines and facilities without having to build models or test them repeatedly in real life. She says she feels she can understand better than neurotypical people how animals think and feel and how they perceive the world around them, so she strives to find ways to make their experiences with humans less fear-ridden and more peaceful. She also gives a lot of advice about how normal people who work or live with autistics can help them reach their potential and feel calmer and more secure, which in turn may help them to interact more on an interpersonal level.
I highly recommend this book to all my teacher friends who increasingly come into contact with students on the spectrum. It's fascinating to read Grandin's personal accounts of how she felt as a child and feels as an adult with autism and how she perceives the world, in addition to her reports of the experiences of other people she has met who have different forms of autism. I would also recommend it to my cousin who is a veterinarian, or anyone who is interested in animal welfare, because even I thought the stuff she writes about animals' minds and their handling was pretty fascinating.
Additionally, far from being dry or overly erudite, Thinking in Pictures is a fairly quick and easy read. Apparently, Grandin has her writing heavily proofread for readability and clarity and it is remarkably approachable. She often uses computer metaphors to describe her thinking, but thankfully her book never reads like stereo instructions. It's an incredibly engrossing, very human (and bovine!), fascinating story she has to tell.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
N or M? by Agatha Christie
"But I suppose even you couldn't persuade your wife to keep out of danger."
Tommy said slowly:
"I don't know that I really would want to do that... Tuppence and I, you see, aren't on those terms. We go into things - together!"
In his mind was that phrase, uttered years ago, at the close of an earlier war. A joint venture...
That was what his life with Tuppence had been and would always be - a Joint Venture...
Agatha Christie's second detective novel, The Secret Adversary, featured two young adventurers in 1919 named Thomas Beresford and Prudence (nicknamed Tuppence by her family) Cowley who stumble on a mystery and fall in love. Christie would go on to write 3 more novels and a book of short stories about Tommy and Tuppence over the course of her career, and in each book the couple were shown to have aged and moved into different stages of their married lives together as time passed in Christie's real world.
In the second book, Partners in Crime, the book of short stories set in the 1920's, Tommy and Tuppence are married and open a detective agency. Each story is a case they undertake and each case is written to reflect the style of other famous fictional detectives, including Christie's own Hercule Poirot. At the end of the book Tuppence announces her pregnancy.
N or M? finds the Beresfords middle aged and eager to find exciting work at the outbreak of WWII now that their twins Derek and Deborah are grown and off having adventures of their own as part of the war effort. Despite the fact that public opinion states that gray hairs like Tommy and Tuppence ought to be sitting at home knitting or typing for England, they are determined to throw themselves headlong into danger and thrills and end up, of course, embroiled in an espionage thriller involving Nazi operatives and fake identities and invisible ink and secret messages.
The Beresfords are lovable pair of, essentially British, characters. Tommy seems to be the most boring, safe, unassuming guy on the planet, but deep down he longs for excitement and never holds Tuppence back. Tuppence, on the other hand, is feisty and daring and smart, and she chafes against the expectations society holds for her as a woman and a mother. They are tender and hilarious together, and completely believable as a couple in unbelievable circumstances.
"I have often noticed that being a devoted wife saps the intellect," murmured Tommy.
"And where have you noticed that?" demanded Tuppence.
"Not from you, Tuppence. Your devotion has never reached those lengths."
"For a man," said Tuppence kindly, "you don't really make an undue fuss when you are ill."
The last two novels are By the Pricking of My Thumbs, published in 1968, and Postern of Fate, published in 1973. In the former, Tommy and Tuppence are grandparents in their 60's, and in the latter they are "retired" and in their 70's. Postern of Fate was the very last novel Agatha Christie ever wrote.
Most of the time Christie fans debate whether Poirot or Marple is the better of her detective characters, but I love the Tommy and Tuppence books best. I wonder as well if Agatha herself didn't love them more since she returned to them repeatedly, although not often, as the decades rolled by, checking in on their progress as though they were old friends. Perhaps Tuppence even resembles the real Agatha or else the person Agatha wished to be. They were the same age always, so I wouldn't be surprised. At any rate, the books are a lot of fun and a nice little window on history.
Tommy said slowly:
"I don't know that I really would want to do that... Tuppence and I, you see, aren't on those terms. We go into things - together!"
In his mind was that phrase, uttered years ago, at the close of an earlier war. A joint venture...
That was what his life with Tuppence had been and would always be - a Joint Venture...
Agatha Christie's second detective novel, The Secret Adversary, featured two young adventurers in 1919 named Thomas Beresford and Prudence (nicknamed Tuppence by her family) Cowley who stumble on a mystery and fall in love. Christie would go on to write 3 more novels and a book of short stories about Tommy and Tuppence over the course of her career, and in each book the couple were shown to have aged and moved into different stages of their married lives together as time passed in Christie's real world.
In the second book, Partners in Crime, the book of short stories set in the 1920's, Tommy and Tuppence are married and open a detective agency. Each story is a case they undertake and each case is written to reflect the style of other famous fictional detectives, including Christie's own Hercule Poirot. At the end of the book Tuppence announces her pregnancy.
N or M? finds the Beresfords middle aged and eager to find exciting work at the outbreak of WWII now that their twins Derek and Deborah are grown and off having adventures of their own as part of the war effort. Despite the fact that public opinion states that gray hairs like Tommy and Tuppence ought to be sitting at home knitting or typing for England, they are determined to throw themselves headlong into danger and thrills and end up, of course, embroiled in an espionage thriller involving Nazi operatives and fake identities and invisible ink and secret messages.
The Beresfords are lovable pair of, essentially British, characters. Tommy seems to be the most boring, safe, unassuming guy on the planet, but deep down he longs for excitement and never holds Tuppence back. Tuppence, on the other hand, is feisty and daring and smart, and she chafes against the expectations society holds for her as a woman and a mother. They are tender and hilarious together, and completely believable as a couple in unbelievable circumstances.
"I have often noticed that being a devoted wife saps the intellect," murmured Tommy.
"And where have you noticed that?" demanded Tuppence.
"Not from you, Tuppence. Your devotion has never reached those lengths."
"For a man," said Tuppence kindly, "you don't really make an undue fuss when you are ill."
The last two novels are By the Pricking of My Thumbs, published in 1968, and Postern of Fate, published in 1973. In the former, Tommy and Tuppence are grandparents in their 60's, and in the latter they are "retired" and in their 70's. Postern of Fate was the very last novel Agatha Christie ever wrote.
Most of the time Christie fans debate whether Poirot or Marple is the better of her detective characters, but I love the Tommy and Tuppence books best. I wonder as well if Agatha herself didn't love them more since she returned to them repeatedly, although not often, as the decades rolled by, checking in on their progress as though they were old friends. Perhaps Tuppence even resembles the real Agatha or else the person Agatha wished to be. They were the same age always, so I wouldn't be surprised. At any rate, the books are a lot of fun and a nice little window on history.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
World War II is taking over my reading life! Lately, I've read Sarah's Key, Shutter Island, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and my next book is N or M? All of these books are set during WWII, or in the case of Shutter Island, involve the psychological aftereffects of the War and Nazis and Dr. Mengele-esque medical experiments. Even the crossword puzzle I've been working on the last couple of days is WWII themed. I've got Nazis out the wazoo!
I think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the best of the bunch. I loved this book to death. I could hardly stand for it to end. I'm sure it will be made into a (horrible) movie soon if it isn't already in the works because the characters are so appealing and the geographic setting would make for lovely cinematography. And who doesn't like a British historical costume drama?!? London in the Blitz! Spunky lady journalists! Quirky islanders in a quaint seaside village! Call me a sucker, but you can sign me up for two helpings of all of it. I'm buying my plane ticket for the Channel Islands tonight.
I also love, love, love the premise that READING BOOKS was a survival technique for an isolated group of diverse people during the long, dark night of Nazi occupation. It's so appealing to me that a book club would be the thing that provided them with camaraderie and support, and I so enjoyed how the individual characters discuss the particular books they cherish and why. I would join their club in a heartbeat!
The book is written in the form of letters, which I also find appealing. In the Afterword, Annie Barrows says that people often ask her if she knows of other books written as letters and she mentions Daddy Long Legs, which was a favorite of mine when I was a girl. I can also think of the Griffin and Sabine series, which I love, so I guess it's a technique that really captures my imagination.
Additionally, the gorgeous discriptions of the islands and the lovable characters are a perfect contrast to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and the destruction of London. The book goes to dark places, but overall you're left with the beauty - of nature, which regenerates itself, of people, who have resilience and compassion, and of art, which lives long even though life is short.
I think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the best of the bunch. I loved this book to death. I could hardly stand for it to end. I'm sure it will be made into a (horrible) movie soon if it isn't already in the works because the characters are so appealing and the geographic setting would make for lovely cinematography. And who doesn't like a British historical costume drama?!? London in the Blitz! Spunky lady journalists! Quirky islanders in a quaint seaside village! Call me a sucker, but you can sign me up for two helpings of all of it. I'm buying my plane ticket for the Channel Islands tonight.
I also love, love, love the premise that READING BOOKS was a survival technique for an isolated group of diverse people during the long, dark night of Nazi occupation. It's so appealing to me that a book club would be the thing that provided them with camaraderie and support, and I so enjoyed how the individual characters discuss the particular books they cherish and why. I would join their club in a heartbeat!
The book is written in the form of letters, which I also find appealing. In the Afterword, Annie Barrows says that people often ask her if she knows of other books written as letters and she mentions Daddy Long Legs, which was a favorite of mine when I was a girl. I can also think of the Griffin and Sabine series, which I love, so I guess it's a technique that really captures my imagination.
Additionally, the gorgeous discriptions of the islands and the lovable characters are a perfect contrast to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and the destruction of London. The book goes to dark places, but overall you're left with the beauty - of nature, which regenerates itself, of people, who have resilience and compassion, and of art, which lives long even though life is short.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
I read some mixed reviews of the movie version of Shutter Island and it hasn't seemed to really take over the box office, which completely surprises me now that I've read the book. The film reviews complained that Scorcese tried to cram too many different styles (cop drama, horror, mystery, thriller, noir) into one film with poor results. I would say that's also what Lehane's book does, but I liked the results very much (so did Mike). The book seems perfect for making into a movie and it's not like Scorcese is a hack. I don't know, I still haven't seen the movie, but the book is worth reading.
Lehane is the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, so you can guess that Shutter Island involves cops and murdered kids and is set in Boston. Beyond that, you really should just read the book. I'm sure you've seen the film preview, so that's about all that can be given away. Some friends said they figured it all out early on, and I did have some idea of how it would play out about half way in, but the twists and turns were still worth it to me to keep reading. And some of the twists were still a surprise to me. Shutter Island won't change your understanding of human existence or make you a better person, but it's fun and spooky, so don't take yourself so seriously. :)
Lehane is the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, so you can guess that Shutter Island involves cops and murdered kids and is set in Boston. Beyond that, you really should just read the book. I'm sure you've seen the film preview, so that's about all that can be given away. Some friends said they figured it all out early on, and I did have some idea of how it would play out about half way in, but the twists and turns were still worth it to me to keep reading. And some of the twists were still a surprise to me. Shutter Island won't change your understanding of human existence or make you a better person, but it's fun and spooky, so don't take yourself so seriously. :)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
I suppose it's because of the recent Tim Burton movie version, but I decided to check out Alice in Wonderland from the library and finally actually read the original version. I've seen plenty of adaptations and it's never seemed to make any sense to me whatsoever, so I wondered if reading the actual book would clear it all up and make me realize how absolutely brilliant it is. Not a chance. I read it. I still don't have any freaking idea what it's about. Maybe you have to take some undergrad college lit course to fully understand its genius. Maybe I'm just dumb and lacking the ability to interpret the subtle nuances of classic literature. Maybe it's just a book that only a Victorian English child with a touch of schizophrenia and not much else going on in terms of entertainment would love.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2009. It's a tremendous book. The characters are so real that I feel sure I have met them before. Strout captures small town life, especially that of Mainers - as far as I've been able to see - perfectly: the speech patterns, the priorities, the gossip, the prejudices, the routines.
The title character is a retired teacher in a small coastal town in Maine. Each chapter is basically a short story told from the perspective of one of several different townspeople (a couple are actually from Olive's point of view, too), and each story gives some insight into Olive's personality and reputation. She's a tartar, a force to be reckoned with, a woman who pulls no punches. Some people hate her, school children fear her, but her husband loves her, and the reader will feel respect and pity and empathy and embarrassment for her. I can't imagine not seeing some part of oneself, even if just a small one, for good or for bad, in Olive Kitteridge.
This book reminded me quite a lot of Empire Falls by Richard Russo, which was also made into a miniseries starring Ed Harris (among many other great actors) a few years ago. Empire Falls is also set in small town Maine and is also full of perfectly drawn characters, although it's far more plot oriented.
Elizabeth Strout has written two other novels, Amy and Isabelle and Abide with Me, and I need to put both of them on my Wish List. I don't even care what they're about. Strout's just that good of a writer that I'm interested in reading them regardless.
The title character is a retired teacher in a small coastal town in Maine. Each chapter is basically a short story told from the perspective of one of several different townspeople (a couple are actually from Olive's point of view, too), and each story gives some insight into Olive's personality and reputation. She's a tartar, a force to be reckoned with, a woman who pulls no punches. Some people hate her, school children fear her, but her husband loves her, and the reader will feel respect and pity and empathy and embarrassment for her. I can't imagine not seeing some part of oneself, even if just a small one, for good or for bad, in Olive Kitteridge.
This book reminded me quite a lot of Empire Falls by Richard Russo, which was also made into a miniseries starring Ed Harris (among many other great actors) a few years ago. Empire Falls is also set in small town Maine and is also full of perfectly drawn characters, although it's far more plot oriented.
Elizabeth Strout has written two other novels, Amy and Isabelle and Abide with Me, and I need to put both of them on my Wish List. I don't even care what they're about. Strout's just that good of a writer that I'm interested in reading them regardless.
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Hoo wee, I'm getting behind over here. I've already finished Olive Kitteridge and have started on Shutter Island, but I still haven't yet written up The Lost Symbol. Slacker!
Anyway, I'll be able to keep this relatively short because I'm sure you won't be the least surprised that The Lost Symbol is fun and interesting, but no great departure from Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code. I think the science in Angels & Demons was more convincing and the art in The Da Vinci Code was more exciting. Plus Brown really took on the Church head to head in Code but he's almost apologetic about using the Masons as his mysterious organization in The Lost Symbol. Is Dan Brown a Mason? Who knows, but he seems to really like them and worries about besmirching their reputation throughout the book.
I did love his setting the story in Washington, DC, and using the odd symbols and ideology of our nation's founders. Revolutionary era US history is fascinating because this group of incredibly smart and impassioned men went about the business of creating a concept, a belief system, a philosophy for a wholly new nation, and a lot of their ideas have been muddied by modern day politics to the point that the average person's understanding of these big ideas is often confused. There's so much that would be shocking to the average (ignorant) modern American that it's the perfect treasure trove for Brown's typical storytelling MO. And it is definitely a typical Dan Brown story, and the ending is a bit of a softball, but I enjoyed myself anyway. It's the perfect quickie Summertime read, so be sure to pick up a copy before you head to the beach this year.
Anyway, I'll be able to keep this relatively short because I'm sure you won't be the least surprised that The Lost Symbol is fun and interesting, but no great departure from Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code. I think the science in Angels & Demons was more convincing and the art in The Da Vinci Code was more exciting. Plus Brown really took on the Church head to head in Code but he's almost apologetic about using the Masons as his mysterious organization in The Lost Symbol. Is Dan Brown a Mason? Who knows, but he seems to really like them and worries about besmirching their reputation throughout the book.
I did love his setting the story in Washington, DC, and using the odd symbols and ideology of our nation's founders. Revolutionary era US history is fascinating because this group of incredibly smart and impassioned men went about the business of creating a concept, a belief system, a philosophy for a wholly new nation, and a lot of their ideas have been muddied by modern day politics to the point that the average person's understanding of these big ideas is often confused. There's so much that would be shocking to the average (ignorant) modern American that it's the perfect treasure trove for Brown's typical storytelling MO. And it is definitely a typical Dan Brown story, and the ending is a bit of a softball, but I enjoyed myself anyway. It's the perfect quickie Summertime read, so be sure to pick up a copy before you head to the beach this year.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual is such a quick read at only 139 pages that I almost forgot to write about it here after I read it all in one afternoon. Pollan writes in his other books about his simple "diet" philosophy: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants, and this book is divided into three sections based on those three ideas. Each section contains "rules" meant to guide you towards creating a food culture for yourself that avoids the traps of modern industrial processed food and establishes healthier eating patterns.
Disclaimer: Let me just say that I usually cringe at the thought of "healthy lifestyles." I sneer at exercise, I've never been inside a gym, I don't run (weak ankles!), and I hate "health food." Foodies and trendy diet nuts are to be avoided. I like bourbon, butter, and backsliding. I love caffeine and chicken friend steak. Nevertheless, some of the "food" that I see advertised on TV scares the bajeezus out of me. What are we eating, America?! It's not right.
So I appreciate that Pollan is offering up 64 completely commonsensical tips for doing a better job of consuming actual food in reasonable portions. Here are some of my favorites:
#2: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
#11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
#19: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
#36: Don't eat breakfast foods that change the color of the milk.
#39: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
#47: Eat when you are hungry, not when you're bored. "If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're not hungry. Food is a costly antidepressant." - I've actually been using this test. It makes so much sense!!
#63: Cook.
#64: Break the rules once in a while.
As always, whenever someone lays out some simple, honest Truths for you, it feels good to embrace them. Buy this book! (Thanks Jane and Dale for buying me this book!)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
In 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern half which included Paris. The southern half was governed under martial law by the Vichy French State who collaborated heavily with the Germans in order to maintain the illusion of independent sovereignty. On May 10, 1941, about 4,000 Jewish men of non-French nationality were arrested by the French police and sent to internment camps. Then, on July 16 and 17, 1942, a massive round up of more than 13,000 men, women, and children took place mostly in and around Paris. The Germans called it Operation Spring Breeze, but the French and Jewish people refer to it as Rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver (or just Vel' d'Hiv).
The Vélodrome d'Hiver was an indoor cycling arena near the Eiffel Tower. After the arrests were made around dawn, the Jews were bussed from all over the city to the Vel' d'Hiv and confined there for several days in sweltering summer heat under glass skylights without food, water, or sanitation. From there, they were sent to internment camps around Paris, and later on to Auschwitz in Poland to be killed.
The rafle (roundup) was meticulously planned by the German SS, but it was carried out by the French police force with the permission of the Vichy leadership who seem to have considered Jewish deportation a benefit to France even though they claimed to have had no choice but to appease their occupiers in this request. As evidence of French enthusiasm, the French police ordered children as young as two to be arrested with their parents even though children younger than 15 or 16 were not included in the German deportation orders (since they were upholding the ploy that the Jews were needed as workers). Additionally, only foreign born or stateless Jews were required by the Germans, but many of the Vel' d'Hiv Jews were actually French citizens, especially the children who were often even French-born. After the war, the French government refused to take responsibility for their complicity in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, claiming that the Vichy State was not the French Republic and therefore the Republic was not to blame, until in 1995 Jaques Chirac formally acknowledged the deportation and apologized for France's involvement.
Tatiana de Rosnay's novel Sarah's Key tells the story of the Vel' d'Hiv in two intertwining narratives: one of a young Jewish girl living through the roundup and its aftermath in 1942 and the other of a middle-aged American journalist living in present-day Paris with her French husband and daughter, researching the event for an article. Julia, the journalist, discovers a very personal connection between herself and Sarah, the girl, which promts her to try to find out whether or not Sarah survived the Holocaust and might still be alive, now an old woman.
I generally shy away from Holocaust literature and films. I've read and seen tons of them now, and visited Jewish museums in Germany, and it's emotionally exhausting to keep recovering that same horrifying ground. When my sister-in-law loaned this book to me, I was intruiged by the plot summary but wary of digging into a book I couldn't finish. Nevertheless, I found this unusual story of a forgotten piece of war history to be really captivating. I ended up doing some additional reading online about the Vel' d'Hiv, the French camps, the Vichy government, and the French Resistance because the topic sparked my interest. My only quibble was that I felt the relationship between Julia and her husband was kind of a distraction and not really satisfactorily resolved in terms of how it related to the rest of the story. There should have been something about how uncovering Sarah's story changed the way she felt about family and relationships or something like that, but it never really surfaced. Otherwise, I felt it was at least something new, a new story well told about an well-covered era.
Ironically, I also watched Inglorious Basterds this weekend! Another French setting for an unusual Holocaust story. Weird. Good movie - the German officer Landau steals the show!
The Vélodrome d'Hiver was an indoor cycling arena near the Eiffel Tower. After the arrests were made around dawn, the Jews were bussed from all over the city to the Vel' d'Hiv and confined there for several days in sweltering summer heat under glass skylights without food, water, or sanitation. From there, they were sent to internment camps around Paris, and later on to Auschwitz in Poland to be killed.
The rafle (roundup) was meticulously planned by the German SS, but it was carried out by the French police force with the permission of the Vichy leadership who seem to have considered Jewish deportation a benefit to France even though they claimed to have had no choice but to appease their occupiers in this request. As evidence of French enthusiasm, the French police ordered children as young as two to be arrested with their parents even though children younger than 15 or 16 were not included in the German deportation orders (since they were upholding the ploy that the Jews were needed as workers). Additionally, only foreign born or stateless Jews were required by the Germans, but many of the Vel' d'Hiv Jews were actually French citizens, especially the children who were often even French-born. After the war, the French government refused to take responsibility for their complicity in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, claiming that the Vichy State was not the French Republic and therefore the Republic was not to blame, until in 1995 Jaques Chirac formally acknowledged the deportation and apologized for France's involvement.
Tatiana de Rosnay's novel Sarah's Key tells the story of the Vel' d'Hiv in two intertwining narratives: one of a young Jewish girl living through the roundup and its aftermath in 1942 and the other of a middle-aged American journalist living in present-day Paris with her French husband and daughter, researching the event for an article. Julia, the journalist, discovers a very personal connection between herself and Sarah, the girl, which promts her to try to find out whether or not Sarah survived the Holocaust and might still be alive, now an old woman.
I generally shy away from Holocaust literature and films. I've read and seen tons of them now, and visited Jewish museums in Germany, and it's emotionally exhausting to keep recovering that same horrifying ground. When my sister-in-law loaned this book to me, I was intruiged by the plot summary but wary of digging into a book I couldn't finish. Nevertheless, I found this unusual story of a forgotten piece of war history to be really captivating. I ended up doing some additional reading online about the Vel' d'Hiv, the French camps, the Vichy government, and the French Resistance because the topic sparked my interest. My only quibble was that I felt the relationship between Julia and her husband was kind of a distraction and not really satisfactorily resolved in terms of how it related to the rest of the story. There should have been something about how uncovering Sarah's story changed the way she felt about family and relationships or something like that, but it never really surfaced. Otherwise, I felt it was at least something new, a new story well told about an well-covered era.
Ironically, I also watched Inglorious Basterds this weekend! Another French setting for an unusual Holocaust story. Weird. Good movie - the German officer Landau steals the show!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
What's the deal with all the Agatha Christie novels on your reading list?
Well OK, here's the deal, after Kate was born I had loads of time trapped on the couch at 3 am with a nursing baby and not a lot of brainpower left to ponder the deep thoughts of Western Civilization. I decided to reread all of my Agatha Christies. I have TONS of them on a bookshelf upstairs, collected since high school since I've probably read all of the novels, most of the short stories, a play or two, and her autobiography. Agatha wrote 80 detective novels (between 1920 and 1973), about 160 short stories, about 20 plays, some poems, two works of nonfiction, and a handful of romance novels under a pseudonym. Only the Bible has outsold her, and her play The Mousetrap is the longest running play ever in the world (it opened in 1952 and is still being performed).
It sounds like a daunting task, but I can rip through a Poirot or a Miss Marple in a couple of days, especially since I've already read most of them before. Surprisingly, though, I rarely remember the outcomes of the stories entirely until I get close to the end - probably because there are just so many plots to remember and because the characters tend to be very similar British upper-class stereotypes. Also, a decade of hard drinking has passed since I read some of these! :) Often, the plot twists still catch me off guard, and even when I do remember whodunit I still get to marvel at her ingenuity.
I decided from the beginning to read the books in chronological order. One of the fascinating things about Agatha's novels are that they are set in the time that they were written and her career spanned the middle 50 years of the 20th century. So much changed so drastically in Great Britain from WWI to the Cold War. The Tommy and Tuppence books are the best example of this: the series of I think about 5 books begins with a very young couple during WWI and continues through various stages of their family life together into old age with all the changes to British culture and technology happening in the background. It's great entertainment for a history lover like me. I started a year ago with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and now I've just finished Evil Under the Sun (1941). Here's a list of all her books, in chronological order, if you're interested to see how I'm doing. I am also reading the short stories, although I'm not doing as well at keeping them in the chronological order so I will have to catch up with them at some point, but I'm skipping the plays and other writings for now.
Next up, N or M? (a Tommy and Tuppence, by the way).
Well OK, here's the deal, after Kate was born I had loads of time trapped on the couch at 3 am with a nursing baby and not a lot of brainpower left to ponder the deep thoughts of Western Civilization. I decided to reread all of my Agatha Christies. I have TONS of them on a bookshelf upstairs, collected since high school since I've probably read all of the novels, most of the short stories, a play or two, and her autobiography. Agatha wrote 80 detective novels (between 1920 and 1973), about 160 short stories, about 20 plays, some poems, two works of nonfiction, and a handful of romance novels under a pseudonym. Only the Bible has outsold her, and her play The Mousetrap is the longest running play ever in the world (it opened in 1952 and is still being performed).
It sounds like a daunting task, but I can rip through a Poirot or a Miss Marple in a couple of days, especially since I've already read most of them before. Surprisingly, though, I rarely remember the outcomes of the stories entirely until I get close to the end - probably because there are just so many plots to remember and because the characters tend to be very similar British upper-class stereotypes. Also, a decade of hard drinking has passed since I read some of these! :) Often, the plot twists still catch me off guard, and even when I do remember whodunit I still get to marvel at her ingenuity.
I decided from the beginning to read the books in chronological order. One of the fascinating things about Agatha's novels are that they are set in the time that they were written and her career spanned the middle 50 years of the 20th century. So much changed so drastically in Great Britain from WWI to the Cold War. The Tommy and Tuppence books are the best example of this: the series of I think about 5 books begins with a very young couple during WWI and continues through various stages of their family life together into old age with all the changes to British culture and technology happening in the background. It's great entertainment for a history lover like me. I started a year ago with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and now I've just finished Evil Under the Sun (1941). Here's a list of all her books, in chronological order, if you're interested to see how I'm doing. I am also reading the short stories, although I'm not doing as well at keeping them in the chronological order so I will have to catch up with them at some point, but I'm skipping the plays and other writings for now.
Next up, N or M? (a Tommy and Tuppence, by the way).
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Half Broke Horses, Part Two
Now that Festivus is over, I'm dedicated to getting this blog going again. I'm going to rip through some books over here, I promise. Let's begin by wrapping up Half Broke Horses, shall we?
After finishing the whole story, my recommendation still stands. Walls brings to life an amazing character in all her complexity, celebrating her while never shying away from her flaws. That's quite an accomplishment, especially considering the character is her actual grandmother. It would be so easy to just make her sound delightful and move on, but there's a mountain of dysfunction in Walls' family, and that didn't just crop up out of nowhere. Lily Casey Smith was a tough woman, and you can admire her for that, but on the other hand she was also a hard woman, and that wasn't so easy for her little daughter who grew up to be the author's messed up mother.
The book is subtitled, A True Life Novel, which at first glance makes no sense. Walls decided to tell Lily's story first person, thereby being forced to fictionalize some details and dialogue in order to keep a readable narrative going. For this reason, I guess, it's no longer a memoir or a biography. Lily grew up on horse ranches in West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. She later taught school (uneducated and uncertified herself, but willing, I guess, and that's all that mattered at the time) in one room school houses in remote desert towns. She married, had two kids, and worked ranches with her husband, too. She was a horse racin', poker playin', airplane flyin', gun totin', straight shootin' wild west character, and while that life may have been wild and free, it was not easy by any means. Some of Lily's stories are awe inspiring, some mind boggling, some horrifying, some hilarious. One of my favorite lines is repeated a few times when Lily says, "You just got the lace knocked off your panties, that's all!"
But you get the sense that as she aged, Lily lost patience with the softness in other people. In particular, she had very little empathy for her dreamy, artistic, impractical daughter. She spent most of her time "teaching her a lesson," thinking she was saving the girl from learning hard truths through experience. Little Rosemary was impulsive and irrational though, and these cold lessons just pushed her further and further from her mother's practical approach to life's joys and miseries.
In her first memoir, Walls told the Angela's Ashes-esque story of her own childhood in Rosemary's manic-depressive care. (Walls' father was also an alcoholic and a dreamer.) Having read The Glass Castle, it's fascinating to see where some of Rosemary's personality quirks originated. As I said in my last post, I would recommend reading The Glass Castle first. Half Broke Horses definitely stands on it's own as a novel and could be read entirely by itself, but you would miss some of the deeper, looming tragedy that will play out in the next generation. It would be interesting to read them chronologically, I guess, but I still think that there's an assumption in Half Broke Horses that you already know and understand the darker aspect of Lily's legacy. Whichever way you decide to tackle them, both stories are gripping and complex and real and amazing.
After finishing the whole story, my recommendation still stands. Walls brings to life an amazing character in all her complexity, celebrating her while never shying away from her flaws. That's quite an accomplishment, especially considering the character is her actual grandmother. It would be so easy to just make her sound delightful and move on, but there's a mountain of dysfunction in Walls' family, and that didn't just crop up out of nowhere. Lily Casey Smith was a tough woman, and you can admire her for that, but on the other hand she was also a hard woman, and that wasn't so easy for her little daughter who grew up to be the author's messed up mother.
The book is subtitled, A True Life Novel, which at first glance makes no sense. Walls decided to tell Lily's story first person, thereby being forced to fictionalize some details and dialogue in order to keep a readable narrative going. For this reason, I guess, it's no longer a memoir or a biography. Lily grew up on horse ranches in West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. She later taught school (uneducated and uncertified herself, but willing, I guess, and that's all that mattered at the time) in one room school houses in remote desert towns. She married, had two kids, and worked ranches with her husband, too. She was a horse racin', poker playin', airplane flyin', gun totin', straight shootin' wild west character, and while that life may have been wild and free, it was not easy by any means. Some of Lily's stories are awe inspiring, some mind boggling, some horrifying, some hilarious. One of my favorite lines is repeated a few times when Lily says, "You just got the lace knocked off your panties, that's all!"
But you get the sense that as she aged, Lily lost patience with the softness in other people. In particular, she had very little empathy for her dreamy, artistic, impractical daughter. She spent most of her time "teaching her a lesson," thinking she was saving the girl from learning hard truths through experience. Little Rosemary was impulsive and irrational though, and these cold lessons just pushed her further and further from her mother's practical approach to life's joys and miseries.
In her first memoir, Walls told the Angela's Ashes-esque story of her own childhood in Rosemary's manic-depressive care. (Walls' father was also an alcoholic and a dreamer.) Having read The Glass Castle, it's fascinating to see where some of Rosemary's personality quirks originated. As I said in my last post, I would recommend reading The Glass Castle first. Half Broke Horses definitely stands on it's own as a novel and could be read entirely by itself, but you would miss some of the deeper, looming tragedy that will play out in the next generation. It would be interesting to read them chronologically, I guess, but I still think that there's an assumption in Half Broke Horses that you already know and understand the darker aspect of Lily's legacy. Whichever way you decide to tackle them, both stories are gripping and complex and real and amazing.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
My brother sent me this book for my birthday, which was last Friday. As soon as I unwrapped the package, I cracked open the book and started reading the first chapter. Now I'm about half way through it, so I guess I'm reading it, even though I'm not done with True Compass yet. I often read quick fiction books while I'm reading longer, more time consuming non-fiction because I'm such a slow non-fiction reader. The suspense and escapism of fiction holds me to the story and keeps me pushing forward, but the facts and ideas in non-fiction cause my brain to head out on long tangents so that I often find myself staring off into space wrapped in some internal monologue instead of actually reading the book in my lap. At any rate, I can say already that Half Broke Horses is great and well worth the detour. I highly recommend it (I'm particularly looking at you, Cousin Amy), but you should read Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle, first.
Monday, February 1, 2010
True Compass
Teddy talks about a trip through Central and South America fact-finding for Jack during his presidency. They were curious about issues of nationalism and independence movements and socioeconomic situations in light of the Cold War and the spread of communism into poor countries fighting for sovreignty and development. Teddy shares that he and Jack felt that mostly the people in these countries were reaching out to the US and our ideals of freedom and democracy, but they were also desperate for technology and a helping hand out of poverty and the communists were providing for more of their needs. EMK talks about tiny villages generating just enough electricity to power a few small radios around which the entire village would gather to hear the news from the outside world - and the only station broadcasting to them was out of Havana. JFK's view was for the US to help these countries improve their technology to improve the lives of the people to win them over to American style capitalist democracy instead of forcing them at gunpoint. The tragedy of his assassination and the reality of the wars that would follow so closely afterward and the consequences to the rest of the world and our history are staggering. We could use a little more of this kind of thinking and foreign policy today. Read Three Cups of Tea!
Monday, January 18, 2010
True Compass
Some thoughts:
1. The Kennedy women really got the shaft. They worked like dogs and accomplished so much and still got very little recognition. All their pain and sorrow and loss was out on display for the whole world but their men mostly ignored them. Rose was just incredible. He talks about when their father took the assignment as ambassador to the UK and she moved 7 of their 9 children (Teddy was only 6 years old or so) to London, with only a few weeks to get Kick and Rosemary ready to come out as debs in the royal court in a foreign country, and heads of state and aristocracy to entertain in the drawing room as a world war was breaking out around them. Teddy says Mother was quite busy. Really? I'd be quite busy chasing shots of scotch with Pepto Bismol. (Which brings me to: Poor, poor Joan Kennedy. I feel for her, I really do.)
2. Ted tells this weirdo story about getting in a fist fight with an African-American guy in the army. He says he hadn't really had much contact with black people prior to this and then tells about finding this guys who was supposed to be working with him playing dice in the barracks and then getting in a fight with him. I can't for the life of me figure out what the point of mentioning that the guy was black or even of telling this story was. That he could win a fight with a black guy? That black people play dice? That he didn't know any black people? I don't get it.
3. As competitive as they were with one another, the Kennedy kids were also like a gang. They made their life decisions as a family, not as individuals really, and once they decided to do something they acted as a pack. All the rest threw their weight and energy behind whomever was sailing in a race, going to law school, playing football, starting a business, running for office, etc. How can you lose with an army of Kennedys behind you??
1. The Kennedy women really got the shaft. They worked like dogs and accomplished so much and still got very little recognition. All their pain and sorrow and loss was out on display for the whole world but their men mostly ignored them. Rose was just incredible. He talks about when their father took the assignment as ambassador to the UK and she moved 7 of their 9 children (Teddy was only 6 years old or so) to London, with only a few weeks to get Kick and Rosemary ready to come out as debs in the royal court in a foreign country, and heads of state and aristocracy to entertain in the drawing room as a world war was breaking out around them. Teddy says Mother was quite busy. Really? I'd be quite busy chasing shots of scotch with Pepto Bismol. (Which brings me to: Poor, poor Joan Kennedy. I feel for her, I really do.)
2. Ted tells this weirdo story about getting in a fist fight with an African-American guy in the army. He says he hadn't really had much contact with black people prior to this and then tells about finding this guys who was supposed to be working with him playing dice in the barracks and then getting in a fight with him. I can't for the life of me figure out what the point of mentioning that the guy was black or even of telling this story was. That he could win a fight with a black guy? That black people play dice? That he didn't know any black people? I don't get it.
3. As competitive as they were with one another, the Kennedy kids were also like a gang. They made their life decisions as a family, not as individuals really, and once they decided to do something they acted as a pack. All the rest threw their weight and energy behind whomever was sailing in a race, going to law school, playing football, starting a business, running for office, etc. How can you lose with an army of Kennedys behind you??
Thursday, January 14, 2010
He Was a Handsome Man
Kate likes to kiss the picture of JFK on the back of my book. RFK and Teddy are also in the picture, but she likes Jack.
Interesting Tidbit #2: Teddy's first communion was administered by Pope Pius XII himself in Rome at the Vatican. Top that.
Interesting Tidbit #2: Teddy's first communion was administered by Pope Pius XII himself in Rome at the Vatican. Top that.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
True Compass by Ted Kennedy
I'm cutting you off at the pass. I don't want to hear your snide comments about the fact that I'm reading Ted Kennedy's memoir. Keep it to yourselves. My aunt Sandy gave me this book for Christmas and I'm excited to read it. He was the Lion of the Senate for God's sake and well respected by people on both sides of the aisle for the hard work he did over a lifetime in public service. I know he was far from perfect - one of the chapters of the book is entitled "Harvard Screw-Up" so I think he knew it too - but his story is most certainly an interesting one.
So there. And by the way, it takes me forever to get through non-fiction these days because I'm easily distractable, so bear with me. I'll probably try to throw in some interesting tidbits and random commentary about Uncle Teddy as I go along, just so you know I'm still alive. And still reading.
Interesting Tidbit #1: Ted tells the story of how the family spent a weekend at Hyannis Port shortly after JFK was elected President. Jack was already exhausted from the job, so he slept in on Sunday morning. As he heard his parents come in from Mass, he jumped out of bed, threw on some pants, and snuck out of the house through the neighbors yard to avoid getting griped out by his mom and dad for missing Mass. The President of the United States!!
So there. And by the way, it takes me forever to get through non-fiction these days because I'm easily distractable, so bear with me. I'll probably try to throw in some interesting tidbits and random commentary about Uncle Teddy as I go along, just so you know I'm still alive. And still reading.
Interesting Tidbit #1: Ted tells the story of how the family spent a weekend at Hyannis Port shortly after JFK was elected President. Jack was already exhausted from the job, so he slept in on Sunday morning. As he heard his parents come in from Mass, he jumped out of bed, threw on some pants, and snuck out of the house through the neighbors yard to avoid getting griped out by his mom and dad for missing Mass. The President of the United States!!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Now that Kate's birthday is past, I can finally get down to clarifying a thought about Unwind, which I actually finished reading almost a week ago. In truth, that would be clarifying a lot of thoughts, because as Wendy (who of course told me about this book) said I would, I have a lots of thoughts swirling around about this story. "There's a lot of ins, a lot of outs. A lot of strands in the old Duder's head..."
I talked to my mom a bit about it, which helped me pull some stuff together in my mind, because my mom does juvenile justice social work. Knowing her and the work she does and the stories she's told me, I know that as bizarre as this story seems to be, parents do just throw their kids away sometimes, and for the lamest of reasons. And the state is overburdened taking care of rejected, unloved kids. And that's reality as of right now, not some grim future world of fiction.
Shusterman's main point in all this seems to be to strike some philosophical middle ground in the war over abortion, but he throws in so many other points as well (anarchy, personal responsibility vs. personal freedom, the nature of consciousness, the position of teenagers in our society, religious extremism, etc.) that you could discuss this book endlessly. I can definitely see how this story would strike a powerful chord in the minds of teens. If you want to get a teenager you know reading, this book would do it. On top of all that, it's fast-paced and exciting. That's a powerful combo.
Primarily, I appreciate a YA writer making the case for seeing all sides of an issue. I think a lot of stories marketed to kids are propagandistic. They attempt to teach something and in the process beat kids over the heads with their message. Shusterman seems to be saying, "look at all of these ideas and think about what the logical conclusions and consequences would be." That is a valuable message for anybody these days. We harp and harp about how we think things ought to be, but there doesn't seem to be enough call for stopping to think things out to their end result. How is this going to play out on the ground? In the book, for instance, a law allowing people to secretly leave their unwanted newborns on the doorsteps of others, thereby passing the legal responsibility on to the person who owns the doorstep, actually ends up inducing people to pass babies from door to door night after night until they are too weak to survive. A slow, painful death is not more humane and holy than life never lived. So many things in this world are good in their inception and intention and bad in their execution; you have to consider the consequences. That is a powerful teaching point all by itself.
On a lighter note, I had to laugh at the "romance" portion of the plot, which I guess the author felt was a necessity to draw in the ladies. It seems so obviously written by a man. Basically, it reads like: I like you. Me too. They kiss. HA!
I talked to my mom a bit about it, which helped me pull some stuff together in my mind, because my mom does juvenile justice social work. Knowing her and the work she does and the stories she's told me, I know that as bizarre as this story seems to be, parents do just throw their kids away sometimes, and for the lamest of reasons. And the state is overburdened taking care of rejected, unloved kids. And that's reality as of right now, not some grim future world of fiction.
Shusterman's main point in all this seems to be to strike some philosophical middle ground in the war over abortion, but he throws in so many other points as well (anarchy, personal responsibility vs. personal freedom, the nature of consciousness, the position of teenagers in our society, religious extremism, etc.) that you could discuss this book endlessly. I can definitely see how this story would strike a powerful chord in the minds of teens. If you want to get a teenager you know reading, this book would do it. On top of all that, it's fast-paced and exciting. That's a powerful combo.
Primarily, I appreciate a YA writer making the case for seeing all sides of an issue. I think a lot of stories marketed to kids are propagandistic. They attempt to teach something and in the process beat kids over the heads with their message. Shusterman seems to be saying, "look at all of these ideas and think about what the logical conclusions and consequences would be." That is a valuable message for anybody these days. We harp and harp about how we think things ought to be, but there doesn't seem to be enough call for stopping to think things out to their end result. How is this going to play out on the ground? In the book, for instance, a law allowing people to secretly leave their unwanted newborns on the doorsteps of others, thereby passing the legal responsibility on to the person who owns the doorstep, actually ends up inducing people to pass babies from door to door night after night until they are too weak to survive. A slow, painful death is not more humane and holy than life never lived. So many things in this world are good in their inception and intention and bad in their execution; you have to consider the consequences. That is a powerful teaching point all by itself.
On a lighter note, I had to laugh at the "romance" portion of the plot, which I guess the author felt was a necessity to draw in the ladies. It seems so obviously written by a man. Basically, it reads like: I like you. Me too. They kiss. HA!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The English American by Alison Larkin
I always think it's strange to read a book whose main character is nothing like me as a person. There's always this assumption that I will be able to inhabit the primary personality of the story to some extent - maybe I only feel this way when the book is written in first person, because now that I'm thinking about it, there are quite a few books I love who's main figure is a man or an old woman or on drugs or living in another era, etc. I'm not entirely sure now about my theory, but I do know that the entire time I was reading this book, I felt a little bit off balance about how different from me I found Pippa Dunn, Alison Larkin's fictional alter ego in this semi-autobiographical novel. It's not that Alison Larkin and Pippa Dunn are both English-raised adoptees with American birth parents. The adoption part didn't really factor into it all, even though it's the central theme of the story.
Pippa (and Alison, I believe) are theater girls, cheery, energetic, enthusiastic, goody-too-shoes types who love show tunes and prefer chocolate milk to cocktails. They are messy, impulsive, romantic types dripping with spontaneity who jump at the chance to sing in public. I don't understand people like this at all. I like bluesy rock bands, bourbon and 7's, sarcasm, black humor, inconspicuousness, tidiness, and gritty realism. I do not pine after men who write emails that say cheesy things like, "You open your soul for a second, so it touches mine." I rarely get sucked in to other people's emotional turmoil. I just wanted to shake Pippa and smack some sense into this girl. Don't fall for that guy's ridiculous romantic claptrap! Don't take a job from a family member with no paycheck! Don't get dragged in to that drama! Don't pay off one credit card with another!!! Aaaaurrrrrgh!!!
I bought this book as a Christmas present for Wendy and our other friend Val because it sounded like an intriguing story and we're all a bunch of Anglophiles who once travelled through the UK together. I loved how Larkin compares the two cultures with humor and understanding, appreciating and skewering each of them equally. However, I did sometimes feel like her comments were based on fairly generic stereotypes, but then again I guess most humor is based on generic stereotypes. There aren't any really deep revelations here about the trans-Atlantic culture clash. I think Bill Bryson has more interesting and funnier things to say about it in his memoir, Notes from a Small Island. Not all English people are emotionally stunted intellectuals and not all Americans are artistic drama queens, for example. And I'd just like to make the argument that if Americans don't know how to make a proper cup of tea, Brits can't produce a cup of coffee that doesn't taste like warm dirt. I did love how all the English people in the book eat tons of toast. That is true.
What Larkin does best is present a realistic picture of what it is to be adopted and what a struggle it is to go in search of your birth parents. She makes good, subtle arguments for why the US should change it's adoption laws to make it easier for biological parents and children to contact one another and share information such as health histories. She helps explain the kind of support adoptees need as they work on piecing together an identity once they meet the people who gave them life. As an advocate for adoptees, I think she comes out swinging. Here's more from her website.
As for me, I'm headed over to my grocery store's international food aisle to pick up a tube of Smarties and a bag of Maltesers. But what I'd really kill for is a Flapjack, any flavor!
Pippa (and Alison, I believe) are theater girls, cheery, energetic, enthusiastic, goody-too-shoes types who love show tunes and prefer chocolate milk to cocktails. They are messy, impulsive, romantic types dripping with spontaneity who jump at the chance to sing in public. I don't understand people like this at all. I like bluesy rock bands, bourbon and 7's, sarcasm, black humor, inconspicuousness, tidiness, and gritty realism. I do not pine after men who write emails that say cheesy things like, "You open your soul for a second, so it touches mine." I rarely get sucked in to other people's emotional turmoil. I just wanted to shake Pippa and smack some sense into this girl. Don't fall for that guy's ridiculous romantic claptrap! Don't take a job from a family member with no paycheck! Don't get dragged in to that drama! Don't pay off one credit card with another!!! Aaaaurrrrrgh!!!
I bought this book as a Christmas present for Wendy and our other friend Val because it sounded like an intriguing story and we're all a bunch of Anglophiles who once travelled through the UK together. I loved how Larkin compares the two cultures with humor and understanding, appreciating and skewering each of them equally. However, I did sometimes feel like her comments were based on fairly generic stereotypes, but then again I guess most humor is based on generic stereotypes. There aren't any really deep revelations here about the trans-Atlantic culture clash. I think Bill Bryson has more interesting and funnier things to say about it in his memoir, Notes from a Small Island. Not all English people are emotionally stunted intellectuals and not all Americans are artistic drama queens, for example. And I'd just like to make the argument that if Americans don't know how to make a proper cup of tea, Brits can't produce a cup of coffee that doesn't taste like warm dirt. I did love how all the English people in the book eat tons of toast. That is true.
What Larkin does best is present a realistic picture of what it is to be adopted and what a struggle it is to go in search of your birth parents. She makes good, subtle arguments for why the US should change it's adoption laws to make it easier for biological parents and children to contact one another and share information such as health histories. She helps explain the kind of support adoptees need as they work on piecing together an identity once they meet the people who gave them life. As an advocate for adoptees, I think she comes out swinging. Here's more from her website.
As for me, I'm headed over to my grocery store's international food aisle to pick up a tube of Smarties and a bag of Maltesers. But what I'd really kill for is a Flapjack, any flavor!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
