tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45914289817298253112024-03-19T02:54:22.867-07:00RandyKraftWriterFiction writer and reviewer.Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-47200722212814974662022-12-10T15:42:00.001-08:002022-12-10T15:42:09.224-08:00OC BookBlog is now at Substack<p>I will be posting a few more reviews for 2022 here, but I've moved the OC BookBlog to Substack, and will eventually migrate all the years of reviews there, but for now, do subscribe there for book reviews. Free and easy. </p><p>Sadly, <a href="http://www.ocinsite.com">OCinsite</a>, where the OC BookBlog was born, is shutting down, so reviews will no longer be available there either. </p><p>Follow the link below to keep up with reviews and recommendations for avid fiction readers and book groups.</p><p>Thanks. Happy reading. </p><p><a href="http://randykraft.substack.com">randykraft.substack.com</a></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-64503728134966736702022-09-12T11:20:00.003-07:002022-09-12T11:22:46.967-07:00Properties of Thirst will Quench a Smart Readers' Quest<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWZPsLIXkziKvb3Y4Ec9j-Gs1lV7BGN6rlleSPut_I2q-nKzA91h2vJ82AzSC2ZB21MrVzyJ-IV948_S76AItvOsLUKONVqrCt9ooT9-tJElVyVsdpvBXxlT3wL8gm5Prhgmx7WAglC5iTPbOfDmKdDsvasnlBVHrAKjrXqSYIHViyRQCXdKht8b5yw/s800/Wiggins_Slide-Ticketed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="800" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGWZPsLIXkziKvb3Y4Ec9j-Gs1lV7BGN6rlleSPut_I2q-nKzA91h2vJ82AzSC2ZB21MrVzyJ-IV948_S76AItvOsLUKONVqrCt9ooT9-tJElVyVsdpvBXxlT3wL8gm5Prhgmx7WAglC5iTPbOfDmKdDsvasnlBVHrAKjrXqSYIHViyRQCXdKht8b5yw/w400-h196/Wiggins_Slide-Ticketed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let me say first this novel is a masterpiece. Second only to her previous masterpiece, Evidence of Things Unseen. If you missed that one, make sure to read. Unforgettable and important, that's also how I would describe Properties of Thirst. Characters that leap into your consciousness and stay there as if old friends. Along the way, Wiggins weaves lessons of history, sets a powerful sense of place, and delivers a page-turning story. In the spirit of Stegner or an American Tolstoy. Historical, political, and also a love story. How often will those elements merge so beautifully?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">.<i>..that what it meant to be American - what he'd thought it meant - was a portion of the whole, that whole was out there was a spectacle beyond his keyhole view, that once you are truly in it, even from an airplane, as far as you can see - everything is still too vast too large too big to be a unified idea - nothing out there but unmitigated Nature, testifying to its nothingness in the breadth and depth of its emptiness. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The fictional story [grounded in historical detail] relates to the establishment of Manzanar, the internment camp set-up for Japanese residents in northern California after Pearl Harbor. Told through the lens of the government agent sent to spearhead the project, and the local ranching family with whom he becomes entwined, and who are struggling with water rights [yes, way back then, water politics went hand in hand with fascism.]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Schiff had estimated there would be "ten thousand" but the mind resists that number: the mind transforms that number to a cipher with no face. Yet here they were, busloads of them, silent and confused, transported only with the things they carried in their arms and pasteboard luggage: their memories. </span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Along the way, there is love, and loss, of course. The land as a sustaining force. Also, the sustaining and bonding nature of food - fantastic descriptions of food, better than any TV chef, because the rancher's daughter is a self-taught gourmet chef. Add the passions of a sophisticated east-coast aunt with an unconventional lifestyle and the elders of the Japanese community, coalescing to counter ghetto living, and spice with fascinating economic and historical insights. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As for the properties of thirst, they are elucidated at the start of each chapter, beginning with the element of surprise, to memory, desire, truth, and spontaneous combustion, among others. A most original defining structure and the properties of our lives. A must read for the erudite reader. And make sure to read the Afterword, by Wiggins' daughter, which describes the long remarkable journey to the completion of this book. Another achievement by the great Marianne Wiggins. </span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><p></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-57669680183675894462021-05-23T14:03:00.000-07:002021-05-23T14:03:04.976-07:00BEHOLD THE DREAMERS: Imbolo Mbue<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0bmT73o2yEhhOBR_Ao-r-1lfUinmhMMi53-cjKpHk3SfBpMZ7IZmWS8XNUScK3B3gJW3C5C2mnoTCFix9i30iQpv6hchf0OZ6aRGPlkFscqOJO3ue5E0QqrFVrNvJFyEUfRgsL3-_zHd/s1002/Imbolo-Mbue-Side-by-Side-Crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="1002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0bmT73o2yEhhOBR_Ao-r-1lfUinmhMMi53-cjKpHk3SfBpMZ7IZmWS8XNUScK3B3gJW3C5C2mnoTCFix9i30iQpv6hchf0OZ6aRGPlkFscqOJO3ue5E0QqrFVrNvJFyEUfRgsL3-_zHd/s320/Imbolo-Mbue-Side-by-Side-Crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">BEHOLD THE DREAMERS is a fairly simple story and one we hear often: migrants making their way to America to establish a better life. Front page news and a common theme in fiction. However, in this novel, the first published by the natural storyteller, Imbolo Mbue, a couple from Cameroon face an added obstacle: the financial crisis and subsequent recession. </span><p></p><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">He was leaving Cameroon in a month! Leaving to certainly not return after three months. Who traveled to America only to return to a future of nothingness in Cameron after a mere three months? Not young men like him, not people facing a future of poverty and despondency in their own country. No, people like him did not visit America. They got there and stayed there until they could return home as conquerors.</span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hard to find jobs when so much of the workforce is out of work and this plot element is front and center. Jende has had the good fortune, through an enterprising cousin, to land a well-paid position as chauffeur for a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Jende’s determined wife, Neni, is studying to complete an associate's degree in order to progress to schooling as a pharmacist, but takes a summer job as housekeeper for the family. Until the crisis, they are optimistic. Eyes on the American dream.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nothing in the world of New York movers and shakers is simple, nor is the struggle of the immigrant, and, as expected, their worlds collide in the face of the Wall Street debacle. The divide between rich and poor, white and black, and the core question of what it means to live a good life, is present on every page, but in the hands of this talented writer, never oppressive. We see the truth, we feel the heartbreak and the struggle. It would be easy to presume an ending, but do not: nothing is exactly as it seems. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">…<i>I saw this man who used to drive another executive at Lehman Brothers. We used to sit together outside the building sometimes; he was a fresh round man. I saw him downtown. The man looked like he had his last good meal a year ago. He has not been able to find another job. He says too many people want to be chauffeurs now. Even people who used to be police and people with fine college degrees, they want to be chauffeurs. Everyone is losing jobs everywhere and looking for new jobs, anything to pay bills. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The mix of characters is just right. The financier, his social climbing wife and sons. The kindly staff assistant, the caring housekeeper. The Cameroon cousin and the immigration lawyer with tall tales to tell. A church which may or may not provide spiritual solace. All living complex lives suffering from a need for simplicity. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Told more in dialogue than prose, the occasional descriptive passages perfectly render New York at the time [as a migrant from that great city, I can attest to the validity.] You will care deeply about Jende and Nini from page one, you will root for them, and worry about them, and also be shocked by their decisions, which, in truth, make perfect sense and which, in the end, like most good stories, has to do with who we are when far from what feels like home. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Realistic and thoughtful, it’s a novel of cultures clashing and good people stumbling into the ravines of despair and misplaced hopes, and unexpected redemption. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mbue has just published her second novel, the highly lauded HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE, which takes place in Africa and deals with environmental degradation. I will report back.</span></i></p><div><br /></div>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-49481815969087131462021-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:002021-01-13T20:07:06.074-08:00The Surreal Fits the Times: Charles Baxter
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<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKED-fIb-RHnq3XEUnr-f0O4Dc5oDaM2Sg4RkXsDfXex0LndBZAf69CNWxCShzV3mlJMMxBY795jdbMk7_jlrzNljtPhdxqod2Zou-G3YQHV-N9ciWyyiw7lxlwBNtrskL14ygfsASxVZ3/s294/Baxter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="294" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKED-fIb-RHnq3XEUnr-f0O4Dc5oDaM2Sg4RkXsDfXex0LndBZAf69CNWxCShzV3mlJMMxBY795jdbMk7_jlrzNljtPhdxqod2Zou-G3YQHV-N9ciWyyiw7lxlwBNtrskL14ygfsASxVZ3/w320-h186/Baxter.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Charles Baxter has been writing quirky unforgettable characters for many years, more often in
short stories than longer fiction, so this sixth novel, the first in a long time, is most welcome. I’m
happy to report he is in fine form – an eccentric cast of characters trying to ground themselves
in challenging times and in uncertain relationships. The novel asks the reader to observe closely,
to read between the lines and peer into the shadows, in order to place ourselves right along side
the action as the cast searches for truths, or at least, a sense of order.
</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And, given the strange times we live in, and the sense of displacement and disconnection rampant, the novel could not fit what ails us more. Thankfully, there is hopefulness in the strangeness. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Like a spool of yarn, of many colors, the novel reveals in strands, a bit at a time, and takes the
reader along, although I cannot give you a plot or even a meaningful summary: it’s just seekers
of truths, meeting in strange ways, colliding, in effect, and then rolling along to an undefined
destination, unravelling further as they go.
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>With his backpack, shabby sweater, jeans, and running shoes, he fit right in. He began to talk to
himself in a low, eloquent mutter. As his money dwindled and his credit cards maxed out, he
considered his situation dispassionately, as if his life were being lived by someone else. He felt
himself expanding into invisibility. Soon, he imagined, no one would be able to see him at all. He
would just fade away and vanish before taking up occupancy in the spirit world where he would
be as unwelcome as he was here.
</i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">An aging couple searching for their missing adult son, a former actor. A group of retirees who
take their walks at the mall. An oddball young woman taking a weird hallucinogenic and her
bully lover who may or may be a domestic terrorist. An activist group supposedly helping the
poor and the needy, but under the auspices of a shadowy figure who may or may not exist.
Another sort-of collective called Sandmen who target street dwellers. And, a Trump-like
President and Cabinet perpetuating a philosophy reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, for
whom “charity is a sin... because it encouraged losers.” Oh my.
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s not magical realism, although sometimes it feels that way. It’s not science-fiction, although it
could be. It takes place in Minneapolis, Baxter’s personal home and favored landscape, so the
just-plain-folk setting is a stark contrast to the idiosyncratic cast and ever-so-gently fantastical
underpinnings. It all works.
</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>We were younger then. We believed everything. We thought love could save the world... But I
don’t believe movies anymore. I don’t believe in them, and I don’t believe their stories. They
don’t seem real to me – just fantasy. Robots in space? Superheroes? Characters who look like
Cary Grant? The only person who ever looked like Cary Grant was Cary Grants. Fantasy. And
novels. All of it. It all looks made up now. Bunch of imaginary puppets on strings, dancing
around. When did we lost our grip on reality?
</i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is a subtle lampooning of our current political climate which provides some insight into
the otherwise murky plot and underneath the surface of all is deeply held belief, grief,
anger, fear and hope. He’s a most unusual writer and this is a most unusual novel, so if you’re
looking for the different, read THE SUN COLLECTIVE. Stranger than even the news and infinitely more fun. </span></p>
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</div><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-30805369056143933132020-11-29T13:53:00.004-08:002020-11-29T13:53:49.232-08:00WOW: A BURNING is a small novel with a huge global punch<p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4d9Cd2AcgFaNPuQTgSWrvE6GuQnH18yZ3GsFC1yRP2OJaTXtZcqRMXkV4rPyhn5vZA-dKvsJq_ezlJCrphE_8cUkgp1K-fbGDVyIHaNrj6QhMzhOU2VsNNVFrWL_OiBG3DQElxQtEuXK/s200/megha005_1445875756.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4d9Cd2AcgFaNPuQTgSWrvE6GuQnH18yZ3GsFC1yRP2OJaTXtZcqRMXkV4rPyhn5vZA-dKvsJq_ezlJCrphE_8cUkgp1K-fbGDVyIHaNrj6QhMzhOU2VsNNVFrWL_OiBG3DQElxQtEuXK/s0/megha005_1445875756.jpeg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />According to the book jacket, Megha Majumdar was born and raised in Kolkata, India, then moved to the U.S. to attend Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at <a href="http://catapult.co"><span class="s1" style="color: blue;">Catapult</span></a><i> </i>in NYC, an online literary site.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> She is already a literary force. </span></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I suppose in her spare time she wrote a novel and an extraordinary novel it is! An original, expertly crafted and insightful page-turner, exposing how politics and opportunism permeate every walk of life and every individual, and there are many in India, with aspirations for a better life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Every character, except the young woman who gets the ball rolling by posting a social media comment related to terrorism, resulting in her arrest and imprisonment, makes a deal with the devil for themselves, and what they would like to accomplish, rather than stand up for innocence. A BURNING begs the question: what is the right thing for all versus what is most right for oneself. This novel is a punch to the gut story from page one that nonetheless keeps you hoping the end might turn out better than it seems and/or the end might justify the means.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And that is the very essence of a morality tale — can the end ever justify the means when a life is at stake and when truth is buried for personal gain?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In an effort to avoid spoilers, I won’t say anything more about the plot or the ending. I will say that the writing is concise and descriptive — you will feel as if you are there, within prison walls and without, with the victim, an aspiring actress/friend, a physical education teacher who wants to make a difference for more than one student, and a myriad of media and political influencers who manipulate the outcome.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is one of the most hard to put down novels I’ve read, and that’s saying something, considering all the good fiction that’s been published just this year. [<a href="http://www.ocinsite.com/tag/randy-kraft-reads/"><span class="s1" style="color: blue;">Read the reviews.</span></a>]</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a rule, I include quotes from the books I recommend. In truth, the language in this novel is not what makes the book so grand — it’s not unusually eloquent or lyrical. It's nearly journalistic. You may feel like you are reading true crime without the excess of that genre. And, whatever I might extract, out of context, won’t make much sense. I promise you — every word is right and every word matters. She is a writer to reckon with. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXhvsYRAhOLpJIvWudbRZcEtahiCxWigKZfDkvYdTGc9QjNmnURx3UKvcMPmBVvOTmY2ZbyyTnZK0xg_UbqdT-bQ-N0jJDPyaXMH3KwoCsReHmz8FX_uJCHJHUxsxVTRgPKNqLaXM3M9xz/s499/BurningCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="302" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXhvsYRAhOLpJIvWudbRZcEtahiCxWigKZfDkvYdTGc9QjNmnURx3UKvcMPmBVvOTmY2ZbyyTnZK0xg_UbqdT-bQ-N0jJDPyaXMH3KwoCsReHmz8FX_uJCHJHUxsxVTRgPKNqLaXM3M9xz/w121-h200/BurningCover.jpg" width="121" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although the story takes place in India, the characters, the timeline, the fallout and the portent apply anywhere in the world right now.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> A microcosm of modern times. Worthy of the all the awards and award nominations it's received and would be a great read for book groups. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">Hard to miss this one - on most every best of list. </span></span></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-1502539051679209042020-09-20T13:43:00.000-07:002020-09-20T13:43:07.178-07:00A Fresh Voice: Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin<p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJEfiXijQ_Qf2LTKcS3y0keVDImXATZuzytmCplUEcX60DIC-g5RTRtuUxH4I1sfXrf-8LUlQzSGCCGV4icrEjRZc9Q4ZTsw36ubHCV3hZ5SbvsD3IT8WgyTFZyybv-LlTKeFkTVK5MDY/s250/ValeriePerrin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="250" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJEfiXijQ_Qf2LTKcS3y0keVDImXATZuzytmCplUEcX60DIC-g5RTRtuUxH4I1sfXrf-8LUlQzSGCCGV4icrEjRZc9Q4ZTsw36ubHCV3hZ5SbvsD3IT8WgyTFZyybv-LlTKeFkTVK5MDY/w400-h240/ValeriePerrin.jpg" title="Valerie Perrin" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #555555; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">How wonderful to discover a new voice - not new in Europe, but to us. Valerie Perrin is a French screenwriter and photogrpher, also an award-winning novelist, but this is her first fiction to publish in English. The sort of book that calls to you when over and hard to put down. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our unforgettable heroine, Violette, is a cemetery keeper. Not a job that often comes to mind but a fascination in fiction. Note: the name Violette, like the flower, signifies modesty, also faithfulness, and is said to be a good luck symbol for women. In this case, yes and no. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Day and night, Violette arranges funerals and supervises groundskeeping. She keeps a journal of interment for those who could not be there. She invites the regular mourners to tea. She comes to know the personal story of those encrypted, and the details, sometimes strange of their burials, as if extended family. We meet many of them through her reflections. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Violette understands that how we are buried reflects how we lived. Despite an early life of Dickensian hardship, and a catastrophic loss that has rendered her an iconoclast, she remains life affirming.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>I like giving life. Sowing, watering, harvesting. And starting again, every year. I like life just as it is today. Bathed in sunshine, I like being the essence of things. </i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Violette is not recording, receiving visitors, planning events or gardening, she feeds a posse of cats and a dog who reside on the grounds, and she spends time with her family of cohorts: the gravedigger, the mortuary brothers, the priest. She knows their stories; they accept her without knowing more than she wishes to reveal. She appreciates the safety net. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The weather is magnificent. The May sun caresses the soil I'm turning over. Three of the older cats rediscover chase after their imaginary mice together. A few wary blackbirds sing a bit further along. </i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As much as Violette is present in the moment, she is haunted by her past and the thread of the novel is a series of interlocking revelations of what came before. A mystery to be solved and within which is a profound understanding of human frailty. as well as the capacity to evolve. All of which ultimately forces her to face her tragedy and embrace the future. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #555555;">However, not until the mystery is solved, and here is another beauty in the construct: we learn, as she learns, bit by bit, painfully, the surprising truths she has evaded and which is essential for her to heal. </span><br /></span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">it's a glorious read. Touching, thought provoking, slow but also taut: a tribute to our humanity and our power to heal. Another must read. </span></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uocNnN-csQAaK7y1CQ1ZrunDemiGBAbY2vGs46xWQ8YR06P_259CbWhyphenhyphenh2wpOIeYYkU3Me9zckQaVDLGxDzXOLJfTxRg5J4yr7IJWkIA1dEsdouxoqLf16fRIUel8yJHuxa8tptuKYUa/s486/PerrinCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uocNnN-csQAaK7y1CQ1ZrunDemiGBAbY2vGs46xWQ8YR06P_259CbWhyphenhyphenh2wpOIeYYkU3Me9zckQaVDLGxDzXOLJfTxRg5J4yr7IJWkIA1dEsdouxoqLf16fRIUel8yJHuxa8tptuKYUa/s320/PerrinCover.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-66189466046405230982020-08-26T08:52:00.005-07:002020-08-26T08:52:43.461-07:00Hamnet: To Be Read - Not To Be Missed<div class="separator"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKVDcFSpag9vYHDrJTIlhX3QI5MHovaaNrs8pgKDQPkEWpVKK5kBJjd7jGT65GYX_KzVyS6qIPADzGXCWRQ-xL32VLVI_0yaSBlPSa-HP80r9XRNA7ckVOpbXtDKdC9JrfKaC_SBOw00t/s0/MaggieOFarrell.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maggie O'Farrell <br />Irish born - lives in London<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maggie O'Farrell, an accomplished and wonderful writer, steps into a new league with this wholly original readable stunning work of fiction. Can you tell I think it's divine?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The tragic but surprisingly heartwarming tale recounts the largely imagined early life of Shakespeare, his enigmatic wife, Agnes, also known as Anne, and the death of their eleven year-old son, Hamnet. The inspiration for what many consider the bard’s greatest play, Hamlet, written four years after the boy’s death.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> And what a character the young Hamnet is: as ephemeral and existential as his namesake.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hamnet’s mind, however, is in another place. For a long time, he could hear his mother and his sisters, his aunt and his grandmother. He was aware of them, around him, giving him medicines, speaking to him, touching his skin. Now, though, they have receded. He is elsewhere, in a landscape he doesn’t recognize. It is its cool here, and quiet. He is alone. Snow is falling, softly irrevocably, on and on. It piles up on the ground around him, covering paths and steps and rocks; it weighs down the branches of trees, it transforms everything into whiteness, blankness, stasis. The silence, the cool, the altered silver light of it is something more than soothing to him.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So little is known about Shakespeare’s early life so O’Farrell has woven what is known with what she has exquisitely invented. Once again, in this fiction, the telling is what matters most: mesmerizing prose, nearly Elizabethan poetry, but not, and not couplets, with stunning detail, for the landscape, the scope, and, at the heart of this tale, the grief of losing a child.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">So she cannot bear their gaze, cannot meet their eyes. She doesn’t want their sympathy and their prayers and their murmured words. She hates the way people part to let them past and then, behind them, regroup, erasing their passage, as if it were nothing, as if it never were. She wishes to scratch the ground, perhaps with a hoe, to score the streets behind her, so that there will forever be a mark, for it always to be known that this way Hamlet came. He was here.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story is as much about Agnes, a shaman, loving wife and mother, as it is about William. We meet their families. We inhabit the village life of late 16th century into the 17th, on to Stratford and London. You will see and hear and scent these worlds and feel nearly every heartbeat of every one of the many compelling characters. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHZD9O7YiA33J2XlpkpXyFDIN9IJM-I_wjurQ4iqNeyTPkJceTMvMrBlXTYuMEjJ0LUtkXWEQmtBm-8VIvMZbDGTQNDtCsd8PU4IqTw_Bp74vXTyPeB3z01L4hE8_Axv8ymOmFUHyUvLj/s400/Hamnet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHZD9O7YiA33J2XlpkpXyFDIN9IJM-I_wjurQ4iqNeyTPkJceTMvMrBlXTYuMEjJ0LUtkXWEQmtBm-8VIvMZbDGTQNDtCsd8PU4IqTw_Bp74vXTyPeB3z01L4hE8_Axv8ymOmFUHyUvLj/s0/Hamnet.jpg" /></a></span></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Captivating from page one to the last powerful scenes in London at the playhouse where Shakespeare made his mark.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">The crowd around her, she cannot help but notice, is entirely still. No one speaks. No one moves. Everyone is entirely focused on these actors and what they are saying. Gone is the jostling, whimpering, brawling, pie-chewing mass and in its place a silent, awed congregation. It is as if a magician or sorcerer has waved his staff over the place and turned them all to stone.</span></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My call for the Booker prize. A phenomenally elegant work of fiction. Happy reading. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><p></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-32701161341554289662020-07-27T09:20:00.001-07:002020-07-27T09:20:33.355-07:00Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth by Benjamin Taylor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbmT-jtzUM5BBjjQBDs9W4g0QakzNJnrTaZM7OtpiDwsOoFfWPujG2HfIGmr9yamyP_fO7XuSe8s8S-xZJwC7GoN1gq0cGtdwizOgRHqOjOX1q3CTgsgPKJTjagHxpodoNOPc1fzZxTPFv/s225/HereWeAreCvr.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbmT-jtzUM5BBjjQBDs9W4g0QakzNJnrTaZM7OtpiDwsOoFfWPujG2HfIGmr9yamyP_fO7XuSe8s8S-xZJwC7GoN1gq0cGtdwizOgRHqOjOX1q3CTgsgPKJTjagHxpodoNOPc1fzZxTPFv/s0/HereWeAreCvr.jpeg" /></a></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When it comes to the writer Philip Roth, there are two camps: those who dismiss him as a sex-obsessed east coast Jewish highbrow, and those who revere his prose and insights. I am a member of the latter. I’ve long admired his exceptional talent, also his profound understanding of the dark side of humanity, and I appreciate his intention to reflect on political and sexual power, and the hypocrisy they breed, which is the common thread in his fiction.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He would have had the seat at the head of my fantasy dinner party table, based on what I’ve learned about him over the years, through tributes and through his words, and never more so having read this beautifully crafted memoir of late life friendship with writer/professor Benjamin Taylor.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The memoir is a reflection on Roth as a man more than writer, and these resonate with his writings. Lots of anecdotes. For example, he lived on the upper west side of Manhattan most of his life [as well as a country home in CT] and was frequently recognized. In fact, a street-seller displayed only Roth books for years in front of Zabar’s [the famous upper west side market] many of them signed. Taylor recounts his resistance to personal notoriety: “At dinner one night in an. Indian restaurant on Broadway, the actor Richard Thomas, spruce in a white beard, said to Philip, ‘You’re the writer whose meant the most to me.’… Some variant of the encounter occurred when we went to any public place … ‘Let’s have dinner on the East Side,’ Philip would occasionally say. ‘Nobody knows me over there.’ Prompt refutation came in a favorite eatery on Third when a woman at the bar beckoned to me with a long forefinger. ‘Young man, is that Philip Roth you’re with?’ I nodded. She passed me her card. ‘Tell him I’ve got a classic six on Park and am available.’”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I missed my chance to chat with the great man not once but twice. Roughly twenty years ago, I too was in an uptown restaurant with friends when I saw him enter and walk toward a coat rack next to our table. Our eyes locked for a moment and I’m sure he feared I would intrude on his solitude, which I respected. On the way out, he looked up at me from his New Yorker magazine as I passed. He didn’t smile, but again, our eyes locked, and I wanted so much to sit down and engage him in conversation, but I refrained. A friend I was with who didn’t recognize him asked me who he was, and when I told her she said, ‘My Lord, the way you looked at him, he might have been Paul McCartney.’ To me, he was.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A couple of years later, I was lucky enough to attend the National Book Awards with a good friend who invited me because Roth was receiving a lifetime achievement award. His speech was mesmerizing. On the way out [he was one of the first to leave and Taylor confirms a shyness among strangers] he was waiting for his car to pull up, and we ours, and again, our eyes met, and this time I smiled and said congratulations, and he nodded appreciably. I so wish I had known him and in this memoir, which is a charming and touching tribute, I feel I know him better.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvhBNm5LGeuLQLH0d4Jrzk1Oy2_MksChUDc2s2kSRU1UcvbxNnRify6wSWDgjxQuKcnY9GdIOQGIjj7aB_28zRcVU7EAiZ12xQzq9YD_Zp3B2p67anALQAlTh-26A-N7fE81BoRKY03Fd/s230/Philip.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvhBNm5LGeuLQLH0d4Jrzk1Oy2_MksChUDc2s2kSRU1UcvbxNnRify6wSWDgjxQuKcnY9GdIOQGIjj7aB_28zRcVU7EAiZ12xQzq9YD_Zp3B2p67anALQAlTh-26A-N7fE81BoRKY03Fd/s0/Philip.jpeg" /></a></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For a man who has been called, like his contemporaries and friends Updike and Bellow, a misogynist, there were many women, friends and ex-lovers, at his bedside as he lay dying, and many more women singing his praises when he passed. [I recommend the<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/philip-roth-in-the-metoo-era"><span class="s1" style="color: blue;">New Yorker Radio Hour</span></a> </span>podcast tribute.] He was an exacting and determined human being, not easy to live with, as he was the first to admit, and opinionated on a wide array of subjects. However he also had a great sense of humor, tended to pontificate in a Socratic way, and relied on music, as well as friendship, for sustenance, particularly during the many years illness and pain.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He was the sort of writer and thinker who pondered the imponderable. However he had no use for religion and no patience for platitude. Taylor tells this story about strolling with Philip and musing on religion after passing the Atheists booth at Columbus Center. "‘Religions are the refuge of the weak-minded. I’d dispense with all the art, music and even poetry they’ve engendered if we could finally be free of them.’ ‘The B-minor Mass? The Sistine ceiling? George Herbert’s poems?’A dog walker comes past with eight or ten doggies of all sizes and shapes. ‘You see that?’ he says. Perfect concord among the breeds. The border collies admire the Heinz fifty-sevens. The Newfoundlands would make love to the dachshunds if they could. And why? Because dogs are wise enough to have no religion.’”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Roth never won the Nobel Prize, which still pains his fans, and apparently saddened him. However his body of work, numerous awards and many admirers, are high honors. And, he was a loving friend - this memoir may be more meaningful than the literary analysis and biography[s] still to come, most notably his approved biographer, Blake Bailey’s, whose bio will publish early next year.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">RIP Philip Roth and thank you Benjamin Taylor for sharing your story. </p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Available now in hardcover and for your favorite e-reader. Happy reading.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-8022957786749168612020-06-12T13:45:00.001-07:002020-06-12T13:46:10.868-07:00VALENTINE: Hard times in a hard place<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQq6ldkS5Aig1USatzvLZYa4NeQBuImnTpJtkIZQXTa_GOukt8YAv6kj4j3OraMSJ1KSAbfvGEL_WVlo4ySAOiugP7CTY16-bXUMvhuazjVtGnbxwbYTIsRlIej5z_RBUtUQDbKJKUyBJ/s1874/WetmoreValentine_img02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1374" data-original-width="1874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQq6ldkS5Aig1USatzvLZYa4NeQBuImnTpJtkIZQXTa_GOukt8YAv6kj4j3OraMSJ1KSAbfvGEL_WVlo4ySAOiugP7CTY16-bXUMvhuazjVtGnbxwbYTIsRlIej5z_RBUtUQDbKJKUyBJ/s320/WetmoreValentine_img02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p>It is rare to discover a page-turning plot told in mesmerizing language, and featuring a cast of haunting true-to-life characters. And, although set in west Texas in the 70s, relevant to all that ails us, still.<o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">This is VALENTINE, remarkably a first novel by a gifted writer. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">From page one, you will not believe the power of the prose – colorful descriptions of a landscape that make you feel the dry brush against your skin and the scent of oil in your nose. And, a cast of characters who pop off the page. Honestly, this book is powerful.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">The set up reminded me of another terrific novel, published last year: DISAPPEARING EARTH, by Julie Philips. Both begin with a horrific event, in this case a violent assault against an adolescent Mexican girl, and spend the rest of the novel revealing the reverberations through the lives of the women residents. In this book, all the women, and children, live on one street, and they watch out for each other and/or judge each other – unwed mothers, widows, women who give up and leave, daughters tending to fathers or longing for mothers, and one woman who stands up for the raped girl, all struggling to overcome misogyny and racism and make sense of their lives, and their futures.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i>Ginny will remember pushing her daughter’s fine brown hair out of her eyes, the smell of oatmeal and Ivory soap, the chocolate on her chin from the Valentine’s candy she’s been eating all morning, and the shine on her cheeks from the suntain lotion Ginny swiped across her face before they left the house. Ginny’s hand trembles and she thinks, Take her. Make it work somehow. But Debra Ann scoots away, saying, Quit it. Because to her, this is still like any other Sunday morning and her mother might be nagging her about any of the usual things. To her, even Ginny’s tears have become old hat.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">The Viet Nam war hovers over the story, contributing to the layers of fear and instability that permeate this town, maybe many during those years, including broken war veterans who suffer and/or implode, usually at the expense of their women and children.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i>When they get home, all their problems will still be there. They will still be a young man and a young woman with the worst war of their lives just a few years behind them, with worries and fears and a little girl to feed and love. They will fight over money and sex, and whose turn it is to mow the yard, wash the dishes, pay the bills. In a few years, Corrine will threaten to tear it all down when she falls in love with the social studies teacher, and a few years after that, Potter will do something similar. And each time they will grit their teeth and wait to love each other again, and when they do, it will be a wonder.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">Wetmore’s ability to see into the heart of her characters and reflect so profoundly on the human condition, and what ails us all, reminds me of Marilyn Robinson, one of the modern masters [and one of Wetmore’s teachers at Iowa Writers Workshop.] She often comments on what will come after we leave the story, making the few months of the novel seem like she has visited a generation and beyond.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-60805180377104074532020-04-26T08:19:00.000-07:002020-04-26T08:19:04.424-07:00Scheherazade in Palestine.<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><b>Colum McCann Spins Another Gorgeous Novel.</b></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The great Colum McCann</td></tr>
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“Apeirogon” which means a shape of infinite sides, is based on the true story of a Palestinian and Israeli who forged an unusual friendship in the hopes of peace in the region. Both men lost their daughters to terrorism. Fodder enough for good fiction in a place where division and hostility prevail.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What makes the novel mesmerizing is the telling. McCann has written 1001 snippets – some a couple of pages, others only one line – and includes fascinating factoids as far afield as how birds and bats were once used as weapons [birds are a constant metaphor, reflecting, I suspect, on flight as freedom, and the cover is adorned with doves]. Also how certain words, like mayday, came to be, how Israeli irrigation tunnels were dug by the same Sandhogs [immigrants and freed slaves] who dug NYC subway tunnels, how Einstein and Freud commiserated over the rise of fascism or Francoise Mitterand’s favorite meal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fascinations embedded into the tapestry of two family tragedies and a shared determination to advocate for unity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s a WOW work of fiction. To my mind, Pulitzer prize-worthy, but not for everyone. This novel requires a commitment to reading all 1001 passages, as each thread and every image has meaning. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A homespun set of photographs complement the telling. </div>
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The story sounds more sobering than it is, although surely painful in parts. Also heart-wrenching and mind-bending. McCann is a writer of unusual excellence. [If you haven’t read his National Book Award winning “Let the Great World Spin” I recommend highly, and its protagonist, the high wire walker Phillipe Petit, makes an appearance here as well.]<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first 500 sections lead up to an intermezzo in which the protagonists, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, speak directly. From there, 500 additional short passages dwindle down. Plus one. And every one, even though occasionally repetitive, plays an important role in telling the tale.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is a rare glimpse into the lives lived in this region – an ancient spiritual people devastated by politics and greed. Also an inspiring view of two men who might have retaliated or allowed anger to define them, who chose peace instead.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And oh, the storytelling, the prose and the fascinating information. Consider these, but a few of the many examples.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>They seemed the most unlikely of friends, even beyond the obvious, one being Israeli, the other Palestinian. They had met first in the Everest Hotel. On a Thursday. It was that time of the evening when Beit Jala willed itself to cool down: the land breathed, the sun dipped, the birds rose, the hills took on a sudden burst of dark green.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Riot, from the Old French, rioter: to dispute, to quarrel, to engage in argument. Riote: noise, debate, disorder, rash action. Also, perhaps, from the Latin reguire, meaning to roar.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>On the day of judgment, in Muslim tradition, it is said that a fine wire rope will be stung from the top of the Haram al-Sharif wall on the west to the summit of the Mount of Olives in the east where Christ and Muhammad will both sit in judgment. The righteous will be preserved by angels and they will cross quickly, but the wicked will fall headlong into the valley.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The reason a falcon is hooded is exactly the reason a falconer is not: the birds can see so well that they would most likely be distracted by other prey much further away. The falconer hoods the bird and waits. He wants the falcon to only see what he sees.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>In Jewish tradition it is forbidden to throw away writings invoking the name of God. Prayer books. Scrolls. Encyclopedias. Garments. Tefillin straps. Even pamphlets or cartoon books. Instead of being destroyed, the texts are interred in a genizah, a burial place for the written word.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Released last month in hardcover and for e-readers. These days, local book stores will deliver online orders and they need our support. Libraries, mostly closed, offer e-reading downloads. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A masterful and profound work of fiction in which to immerse yourself while social distancing. Stay safe and stay well. <o:p></o:p></div>
Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-70432551361961374092020-04-01T10:58:00.003-07:002020-04-26T08:17:44.940-07:00Go somewhere without leaving home.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthologies are a great way to go</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">So, we’re stuck at home. Better safe than sorry. Some are home schooling, bravo to all of you. Some are working from home, good job. Others are out providing essential services, thank you.</span></div>
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We've got streaming stations, too many TV stations and On-Demand. I suspect, we’re adding items to our Watch Lists as fast as the virus is spreading. We need things to look forward to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And, of course, you are listening to the news. More sobering by the day. How long will this last? There is only one answer: too long.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unless you are a genuine recluse, it’s a hard time. Even a loner enjoys occasional socialization. I can write all day, but I prefer writing at a café. I miss lunch with friends and dinner out with the boyfriend. Small sacrifices, yes, but we all feel the pinch. Many of us are taking walks or bike rides, maintaining social distance, please. Nevertheless, the days are long, and the stress level is high.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Whatever your circumstance, we are living in strange times. Even your elders, like me, have never experienced anything quite like this. Not in this country. Uncertainty is the tie that binds right now, across the globe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reading [and music] are the great equalizers, beyond social media or blogs or Internet news. They have their place, of course, but they tend to fuel the fires of anxiety. If we are to stay sane, and support our immune systems, which suffer under stress, read fiction. Whatever your favorite genre, read. Get out of your head. Away from what ails us. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of my very favorite collections</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Although we have too much time on our hands, our attention spans are justifiably under assault, so I recommend short stories. There are a zillion of them in print and online and in a matter of minutes, maybe a half an hour, you might ground yourself in what truly matters.</span><br />
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From the Bible to fairy tales to Sherlock Holmes, stories fortify connections more than divides. You may prefer the traditionalists – Hawthorne and Hemingway, Fitzgerald or O’Connor. Or the early modern masters, like Grace Paley and Ann Beattie. </div>
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Thanks to <i>The New Yorker</i> [one of the only commercial magazines still publishing short stories] you can peruse the archives and read stories by greats like E. L. Doctorow and Alice Munro, or grand Irish storytellers, like William Trevor and Edna O’Brien. More recently, you’ll find the phenomenal Lauren Groff and Paul Yoon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some of my favorites, Mary Gordon and Tessa Hadley, layer stories like cake. Award-winning novels have been strung together like pearls with short stories by Elizabeth Strout, Jennifer Egan and Bernadine Evaristo, just as James Joyce did in his day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reading a short story first thing in the morning softens the edges of harsh news. At bedtime, the most poignant tale makes for sweeter dreams than our current reality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are many stories published online in literary e-zines and also many short story podcasts. I prefer <i>The New Yorker Fiction</i> or <i>The Writer’s Voice</i> – listening is like sitting by the fireside. Audible and Kindle offer some stories for free. Soothes the soul. Oh how we need that now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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BTW, although the <a href="http://www.ocpl.org/" style="color: purple;">OC Library</a> system, like others across the country, is shuttered, there are several digital systems available and most local bookstores are taking online orders. They need our support. </div>
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A gold mine of short reading awaits. <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Stay safe, stay well. </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-56831537076014135952020-03-12T14:08:00.002-07:002020-03-12T14:12:09.396-07:00Two Gems: Weather and ArtForum<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenny Offill</td></tr>
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The original and unusual novel, <i>Department of Speculation</i>, reviewed here in 2014, was Jenny Offill’s breakthrough book, written in short takes that reveal contemporary lives and challenges. Her latest novel, <i>Weather, </i>which deals abstractly with the climate crisis,<i> </i>is told in the same format and has received glowing reviews. I agree.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The protagonist, a promising graduate student trapped by her brother’s addiction, goes to work answering mail for a Q&A podcast, and ends up dealing with the most neurotic and fearful among us, from whom she too learns a few things, but which begins to unravel her core equanimity. In the end, a human life, and human psyche, is as unpredictable as weather, despite meteorologists who suggest otherwise – as variable and as fragile as the planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This little book is a book that demands underlined passages and scribbles in the margins. So much info and insight. I was consistently shaking my head in wonder at her wisdom, not to mention her cleverly crafted prose. It’s a gem, truly, and I suggest you read at least twice, or at least very slowly. A post-modern novel as sharply observed as Bronté in her time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Sylvia tells the audience that the only reason we think humans are the height of evolution is that we have chosen to privilege certain things above other things. For example, if we privileged the sense of smell, dogs would be deemed more evolved. After all, they have about three hundred million olfactory receptors in their noses compared to our six million. If we privileged longevity, it would be bristlecone pines which can live for several thousand years. And you could make a case that banana slugs are sexcually superior to us. They are hermaphrodites who mate up to three times a day.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cesar Aira</td></tr>
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<i>Artforum</i>, by César Aira, at first sight looks like an art gallery catalog, but without images, and is a novella based on an Argentinian intellectual’s obsession with Artforum magazine. Not so much the reading of them as the collecting of them. He gathers them, obsessively, into his arms and into his home for posterity, and goes to great lengths to protect them from the elements, although, in the end, nothing can be protected perfectly. Any book lover understands the compulsion to pile and shelve books. As essential as the reading.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This small gem is an incredibly simple concept: from chapter to chapter, a life is revealed through his search for current and past editions and the people he encounters along the way. Quirky and delightful, what seems like interrelated stories combine to exemplify one man who, in this seemingly small passion, finds an opportunity to fill the spaces between an otherwise predictably linear existence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Leaving aside such subtleties, or digging deeper into them, the craziness of buying all of them resided in the excess of pleasure, or at least, gratification. I had had a stroke of luck, there they were in my avid hands, as incredible as they were undeniable, material, tangible. We always count on having strokes of luck, but on a different and fluctuating plane in time, not in the present. Now it was the present. The present and Artforum that expressed it now coincided. That was enough to make me slightly giddy with incredulity.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-33605071390080246212019-12-13T16:31:00.000-08:002019-12-14T13:20:15.994-08:00Quichotte by Salman Rushdie<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxsTL7PZruJHhCyDM5lpal31LYMtOZkU3A43ycz3NekUJukaT5iuD_2lkCaLw96hq7oaF9avVUTotiJkkCpfBTGEsq7tFD2TXOuOGl1RYJ1tsHDOP1r7eiD087p7hwC54r83jDNpfw4zA/s1600/quichotte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="968" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxsTL7PZruJHhCyDM5lpal31LYMtOZkU3A43ycz3NekUJukaT5iuD_2lkCaLw96hq7oaF9avVUTotiJkkCpfBTGEsq7tFD2TXOuOGl1RYJ1tsHDOP1r7eiD087p7hwC54r83jDNpfw4zA/s320/quichotte.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not for everyone, for sure, QUICHOTTE [pronounced key-shot]<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> fluctuates between satire
and magical realism, and within the blueprint of Cervantes’ Don Quixote mixed with Moby Dick, Pinocchio and a smattering of mythology. You will enjoy the references and the parody. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Between
the Gods and mortal men and women, there hung a veil, and its name was maya.
The truth was the fabled world of the gods was the real one, while the
supposedly actual world inhabited by human beings was an illusion, and maya,
the veil of illusion, was the magic by which the gods persuaded men and women
that their illusory world was real.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">A lost soul turned dreamer searches
for his idealized beloved. A companion, in the form of an imagined child, comes
to life. An opportunistic businessman tramples ethics. An adoring wife hopes to
secure the family legacy with philanthropy [think Sacklers.] A Bollywood actress
turned talk show host struggles under the weight of celebrity [and fentanyl.] And,
a high-profile advocate pedals integrity to the apathetic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She
was a privileged woman complaining about small things. A woman whose life was
lived on the surface, who had chosen superficiality, had no right to complain
about the absence of depth. Human life was lived between two chasms, a Russian
writer had said, the one that preceded our birth, “the cradle rocks above an
abyss,” and the one we were all “heading for, at some forty-five hundred
heartbeats an hour].”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brown
[Indian mostly] confronting white [white supremacists mostly] and all in fear
of the “other.” Sound familiar?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, it’s a
mixed-up story, often humorous, sometimes maddening, and with an often confusing set
of characters – multiple characters with multiple names on parallel but intersecting paths. Rushdie is also sketching a tale of what-ifs and false narratives.
And, for good measure, includes sexually damaged women and sexually mutable
men. No stone unturned here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rushdie, no
stranger to pointing the finger at evil-doers [once subject to a fatwa by
Iranian religious leaders] seems to have decided to go after all the quirks of
Western civilization, most notably capitalism and pop-culture, aided and
abetted by. 24/7 TV. He also cites <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,</i> books favored by wanderers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It was bewildering at such an advanced age
to understand that the narrative of your family which you had carried within
you – within which, in a way, you had lived – was false, or, at the very least,
that you had been ignorant of its most essential truth, which had been kept
from you. Not to be told the whole truth, as Sister with her legal expertise
would know perfectly well, was to be told a lie.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Frankly, I
loved reading this novel. I looked forward to a block of time to immerse myself
in his ingenuity – one must read for prolonged periods of time or get totally
lost. I laughed. I cringed at painful truths. I marveled at his command of
language and history. On the other hand, Rushdie once too often goes off the
rails – rambling beyond a willing suspension of disbelief – and I agree with
the critics who suggest he reign in pontification for the sake of storytelling.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> Perhaps </span>Rushdie created in this novel his own impossible dream, where fictional characters bring
out the best in each other, battle windmills and redeem themselves of their
sins, although along the way, they create messes for the unsuspecting, or the opportunistic, to deal with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Read at
your own risk. If nothing else, Quichotte is exquisitely crafted and unforgettable.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-1606723000864894652019-12-02T10:07:00.001-08:002019-12-02T10:07:47.508-08:00The Third Hotel by Laura VanDenBerg<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Metaphysical meets magical realism in Cuba. </i></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0wPHcnUKO0ogsm6ut36VByhfzayt2c92qB1Ysc-Tv_PasG2THZgv3jVkt8wNQaL1mUW3BKacrcx2sMS623kZy_LG9mUvZJ2rF-sDl2t3lDtpZRRPgdtO9SkBUWEakQIVIadYJQnbdtYp/s1600/van-den-berg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="971" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih0wPHcnUKO0ogsm6ut36VByhfzayt2c92qB1Ysc-Tv_PasG2THZgv3jVkt8wNQaL1mUW3BKacrcx2sMS623kZy_LG9mUvZJ2rF-sDl2t3lDtpZRRPgdtO9SkBUWEakQIVIadYJQnbdtYp/s320/van-den-berg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Van Den Berg’s second novel [she’s also published two
impressive story collections] may be the book to elevate her stature to where
she belongs. She is a superb novelist and this wholly original exploration of
the nature of time and loss, and recovery, might make you feel as unmoored as I
felt at the last page, unmoored as a confrontation with your own fragility. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Clare’s husband, a horror film aficionado, has been killed
in a freak accident and she attends in his place a horror film festival in
Havana, where she sees him on the street. Or does she? Of course, she follows,
from a distance, at first. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In THE THIRD HOTEL, little is linear, yet you are not
confused. Much is irrational, yet it all makes sense. There is plenty of
foreboding, without finality. Nothing is supernatural or frightening, yet if
feels like a story by Edgar Allen Poe: vaguely disturbing, a little off-beat
and totally fascinating. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Clare is a woman who keeps secrets. She prefers her guard
up. Her job is practical and logistical, otherwise disinteresting. Her
childhood was a bit odd. Now her father has Alzheimer’s. She has lost her
compass, and that’s the central point. Think of the theory of relativity or
black holes. Time is fluid. Lives are fluid. Like the eels that slink around an
award-winning film at the festival or the Zombies that frequent that genre –
creatures, and people, can be alive but not alive. Here but not here. Past,
present and future are entwined. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Of course, marriage had not let her to a sense of completeness. Rather, it introduced different sets of questions, one after another, and ultimately led her to the drastic incompleteness of being married to a man whose death, the exact circumstances, was uncertain. If a death was uncertain, a life in turn was made uncertain – or the uncertainty that had always been there was exposed.</i></div>
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It’s a journey, not so much of the clock but of personal discovery.
One must let go of preconceptions, obligations or a sense of destination in
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I was spellbound from page one, where the unusual title is
explained. Exquisitely crafted. Frequent moments of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ah-hah, that’s so true!</i> An eclectic set of characters, a striking city,
that uniquely vibrant Cuban landscape contrasted with spare elegant prose. I’d
call this novel one of the best this year, for me, and well reviewed, although
not commercially hot. Highly recommended. Spread the word. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-14424459992967042902019-11-07T18:06:00.003-08:002019-11-08T11:34:24.767-08:00Olive, Again... Wow, Again<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFetMgDpXVMBCwzwDFBosP6CHuGuP7A4UR5VX511n8z6vmqljpf2QgFz5599yglIjCetbP23-sPpdEzneJFLLnq7RFLQfHch2KGoUotBP_CeKWY2rmMEJld-oHELI1AfK-xjJxfUkBsI3A/s1600/Strout.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFetMgDpXVMBCwzwDFBosP6CHuGuP7A4UR5VX511n8z6vmqljpf2QgFz5599yglIjCetbP23-sPpdEzneJFLLnq7RFLQfHch2KGoUotBP_CeKWY2rmMEJld-oHELI1AfK-xjJxfUkBsI3A/s320/Strout.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since Elizabeth Strout burst on the literary scene in 1998
with the novel “Amy and Isabelle” she has been revealing less than attractive truths
about small town America in extremely attractive prose. Her fictional town of
Crosby, where much of her fiction has been set, is a microcosm of the American culture
– neighbors whose personal narratives are unfathomable and often astray while
their motives can be mysterious despite ostensibly simple in design. In this
place we find marriages without passion, angry spouses, false friends,
repressed children, misogyny and harassment… And all, once again, under the watchful
eye of the irrepressible incorrigible, often intolerable, but nonetheless captivating,
Olive Kittredge, the heroine of the eponymous novel that won Strout the
Pulitzer Prize. She’s back in the aptly named, “Olive, Again.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I confess, when I began reading
this book, I wondered, briefly, why the author, and reader, should go back to
Olive, to her often warped perception and harsh rules, or why I wanted to return
to that town, and those small town people, but, in a matter of pages, it is
clear: the cast of characters is not only a fascination, and the prose exquisitely
crafted, but we need to go back there to be reminded of all that ails us and
what might redeem us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the end, to forgive Olive, to understand
her and sympathize with her, is what we all need to do for each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Olive’s second husband says it
best: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He understood that he was a
seventy-four-year-old man who looks back at life and marvels that it unfolded
as it did, who feels unbearable regrets for all the mistakes made. And then he
thought: How does one live an honest life?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Strout says she took six years to
write that first novel, but clearly those characters remained in her heart and
on her mind. [And watch for a timely reappearance.] Who knows how many stories of
the fictional town residents she has logged over time to resurface at just the
right moment in just the right book, most taking place in that same place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here, a decade after her first
appearance, Olive woos us again with her determination to understand herself, as
well as her friends and neighbors and, again, with her surprising compassion for
those least understood, those least seen, as if she has a filter through which
she observes those who need the most and miss what’s right in front of her eyes
that matters more. And, we are right there with her as she grapples with age. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It
was almost panic that she felt. “Damn man” she said, and she meant the doctor,
who was still young and had no idea – he had no idea – what it was like to be
old and alone. But other days she felt okay. Not wonderful. But she could drive
and get her groceries and she visited her friend Edith at that awful old folks’
home she lived in called Maple Tree Apartments. Then when she came home she was
glad to be there, although she could not shake the feeling that it was Jack’s
house. She sat in Jack’s chair these days so that she wouldn’t have to look at
it gapingly empty. And sometimes as she sat there a deep sadness trembled
through her…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Olive is as real as it gets. The
new novel lives up to its origin story and, as award-winning writer Pico Iyer
said recently, Strout may be the most important fiction voice today. In their
deceptively simple way, she and Olive speak for us all. As Olive would say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What a thing! <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-39048039062665337052019-08-17T11:20:00.004-07:002019-08-17T11:20:41.671-07:00THE WEIGHT OF INK by Rachel Kaddish<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Yb1XCtEoPRx1Q9emrTgwrJ0RKfPfVau2x9jfgNDTuT3X2y6q_5N-4GiCjd_T8Hz6irAwztHKTiB0823-kn4NK8HYQeWj1834gpvsmQLju0MDAoQoKGg-VtRXs6S1yZ730pC6CiNMmuwI/s1600/RachelKaddish.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Yb1XCtEoPRx1Q9emrTgwrJ0RKfPfVau2x9jfgNDTuT3X2y6q_5N-4GiCjd_T8Hz6irAwztHKTiB0823-kn4NK8HYQeWj1834gpvsmQLju0MDAoQoKGg-VtRXs6S1yZ730pC6CiNMmuwI/s320/RachelKaddish.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Kaddish</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“The Weight of Ink” is in the spirit of “Possession” the
great novel by A. S. Byatt, although that was a mind-bending tale of secret
passions and this is an understated novel of faith. Both use the literary
technique of parallel tales, in this case London in the 1660s and in 2000, and
also the discovery of medieval writings of historical significance. Both also
feature two scholars – an academic and, and in this case, an arrogant graduate
student – both in search of enlightenment as well as connection to repressed
passions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The novel reveals the often overlooked history of the migration of
Spanish/Portuguese Jews, post-Inquisition, to Amsterdam and then to
England. Known as Marrano Jews, they were previously forced to live as
Christians, following their faith in secret, until they were permitted in England
to observe Judaism but with few other rights. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaddish introduces a fictional Marrano rabbi and
his scribe – a young woman with unusual intellect and curiosity. In 2000, the scholars
discover her writings and set about to uncover her story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The novel is a testament to what I fear is the diminishing
art of scholarship. In the new millennium we have so much information at our
fingertips and a subsequent propensity to come quickly to conclusions. [But I
digress.] More to the point, we have here another story of a woman trying to
rise above her limitations and her station. She’s a terrific character who
charts a unique course, and both scholars find in her pursuit the answer to
their questions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Christians, it
seemed to Ester, wished to fathom the mechanism of the soul: by which levers
did it pull the body into motion, and by which was it pulled by the divine? Yet
the rabbis had little concern for such deliberation. What, they wished to know,
were the minute instructions for doing God’s will? How most the economy of
devotion be paid in laws of kashrut, in decorations of house and body, in the
number of repetitions of a prayer… how were laws for behavior to be observed
under this and that specific circumstance… the distance between the two manners
of thought seemed to hold the key to something she couldn’t name. Must the two
– the Christian and the Hebrew, the soul and the measurable, tangible world –
remain disconnected?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a subtle element of mystery and suspense throughout
and a powerful narrative arc, with exceptional historic detail and
contemplations of faith. Beyond the history, there is the evolution of characters
past and present. The great Toni Morrison said it best on the book cover: “A
gifted writer, astonishingly adept at nuance, narration, and the politics of
passion.” Agreed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A literary journey for those who like to snuggle into a big
book with sufficient twists and turns, clarity of prose and compelling
characters to keep you cozy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Along the narrow
street, youths hauled sacks of sand, an ink vendor cried his wares, saltpeter
men hauled stained sacks through a stable door. A girl leading a milch-ass
knocked on a door and, when there was no answer, leaned her forehead to the
door with a bleary call for any with babies in need of milk. Above the street,
signboards mutely announced their wares – one carved in the shape of a mortar
and pestle, another in the shape of a barrel of ale, another painted with a
picture of crockery, that the unlettered might know where to enter with their
coin. And now the road sloped downward beneath her shoes – first the slightest
dip, barely perceptible. Then a steeper slope, as though not only her feet but
the whole city were rushing toward the river. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enjoy the journey.</span></div>
Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-18598477326845688692019-07-08T11:19:00.000-07:002019-07-08T11:19:32.148-07:00Mexico to Zambia: Two Magical Novels<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
MURMUR OF BEES by Sofia Segovia [Translated by Simon Bruni]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12.0pt;">THE
OLD DRIFT by Namwali Serpell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you are a fan of the
Russian epic, magical realism, or historical and/or geopolitical fiction, these
two new novels incorporate the best of those forms. Great storytelling with a
solid dose of magical realism or cultural realism and a rich line-up of
characters.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4EWzlZ4_mHiLH5zlAyBv12fR-cvJ7SWCio5_Wu-63nWuq3qNkoY0xildYQqVAS0Qo_XaYh1O5uYUGFMPmqKWgcawpXBSIu3IUPYT07cP231WZNUCmIwo84-yzd7Y-ZYyeirWfYCzlyFY/s1600/Serpell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4EWzlZ4_mHiLH5zlAyBv12fR-cvJ7SWCio5_Wu-63nWuq3qNkoY0xildYQqVAS0Qo_XaYh1O5uYUGFMPmqKWgcawpXBSIu3IUPYT07cP231WZNUCmIwo84-yzd7Y-ZYyeirWfYCzlyFY/s320/Serpell.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Debut Novelist Namwali Serpell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12.0pt;">THE
OLD DRIFT, which is Russian in scope, tells the tale of three families from
Europe, Africa and India, over three periods of time, whose lives and interactions
define the formation of a nation. Serpell sporadically adds a most unusual
Greek-style chorus [think mosquitoes] to remind the reader that the land has
existed forever, and will continue to exist, despite colonists and xenophobia,
diseases, and personal and political disaster. THE OLD DRIFT is filled with
Homerian journeys and heroes and a large cast of characters that will be
daunting, at first, but Serpell does an excellent job grouping their stories to
make it easier to follow. She begins way back, in the depth of a jungle, with
Livingstone, and carries us all the way to a future ruled by drones and
electronic surveillance. To be sure we recognize the epic nature of the novel,
she drops in nods to Shakespeare, Milton, and Virgil, and a finale reminiscent
of Conrad’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heart of Darkness</i>. The
ride is fast-paced, filled with what I’m sure most of us never knew about this
country, and a style of writing deceptively simple, although she goes in and
out and back and forth, and because she is a masterful writer, we follow until
we wonder, where does it all go and how did it get to this point? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is the story of a nation – not a
kingdom or people – so it begins, of course, with a white man… </i>That
introductory colonist tells us, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The worst
difficulty of exploration, I learned, is that it is a tormenting isolation.
There was no chumming it up with blacks, naturally. </i>Although THE OLD DRIFT
is fast-paced [despite the length] read it slowly, savor it, tell your friends.
Available in hardcover or for your favorite e-reader. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO2zHT4vufgA8ituW7AkXDTBDUy1pTphDeCpwHESydpU5coHAUv5NsFt_nNo7DYq3nZMp41iEydsE1HdqZW3Kx1YV2uAqBB4zAvedckt19356JiiBq3nMpQgTPm4tD3SovR2sWEFBc3D0e/s1600/Segovia.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO2zHT4vufgA8ituW7AkXDTBDUy1pTphDeCpwHESydpU5coHAUv5NsFt_nNo7DYq3nZMp41iEydsE1HdqZW3Kx1YV2uAqBB4zAvedckt19356JiiBq3nMpQgTPm4tD3SovR2sWEFBc3D0e/s320/Segovia.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sofia Segovia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">The
Mexican writer Sofia Segovia’s sweet novel, A MURMUR OF BEES, her first to be
translated into English, was issued recently by Amazon for Kindle as a special
event tied to International Book Day, and there is also a hard copy available.
The novel is, at heart, a fairy tale – a direct descendent of Colombia’s
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A baby, smothered in humming protective bees, is taken
in by the town wet nurse, a modern day good witch. Named Simonopio [yes, think
Pinocchio] his otherworldliness and unusual powers, despite an inability to
speak, form the backbone of the novel’s story, from prerevolutionary Mexico
during the great flu epidemic of the early 1900s to the cultural and economic
struggles of generations. Like Tolstoy, or Marquez, also Isabel Allende, we
encounter wealthy landowners surrounded and influenced, often protected, by
servants, laborers, priests and magicians. A large cast of characters with a large
imprint, but an intimate tone of voice. Along the way, we experience the
upheaval and magic of Mexican history – family connections, tragedy,
redemption, spirituality and superstition, and the healing bond of love. The
narration is lyrical and rich, and you might shed a few tears, all in service
to good storytelling. As the boy reminds us, <i>we listen to what life sometimes murmurs into your ear, heart or gut. </i>Or
as his friend says, familiar music transports him </span><i><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12pt;">to
warm days swimming in the river, to the toads that croaked at nightfall, to the
summertime cicadas, to the orange-tree mazes, to the footstep of a bee on my
face, and to its sound when it flew off. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 12pt;">Transporting indeed and a
lovely read.</span><!--EndFragment-->
Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-86833982733807153472019-04-30T17:55:00.001-07:002019-04-30T17:55:24.553-07:00A wow debut: ELMET by Fiona Moxley
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<!--StartFragment-->
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXYSDFIFor_GUIy_L-18TprI4dkvvgrk-n6ibv6e3wT3BzVg2Zt02whWZ9kyG0yvYRJqM3JCroanaQyvMZ6bIeUxuBc5bEjsnlSXzIIesKKOFczYgNyv9iEPENdQSfGVjweHDsuILGQtO/s1600/fiona-mozley-800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXYSDFIFor_GUIy_L-18TprI4dkvvgrk-n6ibv6e3wT3BzVg2Zt02whWZ9kyG0yvYRJqM3JCroanaQyvMZ6bIeUxuBc5bEjsnlSXzIIesKKOFczYgNyv9iEPENdQSfGVjweHDsuILGQtO/s320/fiona-mozley-800.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">Now and then a first novel knocks your socks off. In ElMET, without fuss
or complexity, and told in humble descriptive prose, you are from the first in the
clutch of narrative tension<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and you know
you’re headed dark places. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">The Guardian called it “an impressive slice of contemporary
noir steeped in Yorkshire legend…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">I’m not familiar with Yorkshire legend, but I was able to
picture the landscape – the loamy smells, the rustling of the wind – where
families live largely off the grid. What we used to call down-home living. A culture of hard work and stoicism. Also
an eye for an eye, and a take-what-you-can-get-when-you-can-get-it way of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">And so it is for this family – an enigmatic father, a mighty
independent daughter, and a delicate son, the narrator, who speaks to us
now and then from a distance of time and place so we know he survived, but we’re
not sure who else might have. Their mother is long gone and although she occasionally
makes an appearance in flashback, we learn little of her, and their father, a
large looming figure, with nearly mythological strength, is their rock: a
surprisingly gentle man sometimes called upon to earn a living as a fighter,
also a sort of fixer [that’s where the noir comes in] and a lumberman. A
man who respects land and neighbors and tries to do what’s right, with a
priority to protect his own, whatever that takes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">Like many country settings where families are known to feud, he
is opposed by another powerful man and his sons. The story revolves around
their struggle for control and the inevitably destruction that will be left in
its wake. No good can come of this rivalry, not in this landscape. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">I
wondered if she thought about it too. Or if the boys did. Or if any of the
other small people t the far reaches of my recollection spent the time that I
had thinking about the bits in which they played a part. It seems to me that so
much of everything came from this, and that if anyone thought about moments
like this enough, the future would be done before it had even started, and I
mean that in a good way.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">Despite the Robin Hood setting and the dominance of
malevolence, this is Cathy’s story – a slip of a girl mothered only briefly by
a grandmother, determined to survive on her own terms. Cathy is no victim, and
not one to play by the rules. She is her father’s daughter. And although
[avoiding a spoiler here] there is a moment where the Christ figure enters, it
is Cathy who may rise from the ashes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">In this novel, the climactic conclusion, a startling
denouement, is secondary to the journey. The reader is voyeur. We make every
move with them, and the characters surrounding them, and with each page we hold
our breaths a little more until barely breathing. We don’t know what’s coming,
but we know enough to fear it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">ELMET is a unforgettable little novel and I suspect we will
read more from this lovely writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-40408983188037909342019-04-10T16:50:00.000-07:002019-04-10T16:50:00.047-07:00A most unusual ladder to successA LADDER TO THE SKY<br />
By John Boyne<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNXLt0GU_C4RC7bFhKkb-TG2uyn2cP_8GxIH0Arkp_Y1_Mja1zxyB0TGwYVFAiTR8o_wil6cgzofMjhkSQ2qGfkso_Kz845XQBRI76qaz5oLQ0gHLEmajhwI23XcGQx9D2sb31mnRv3gQP/s1600/Boyne.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="188" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNXLt0GU_C4RC7bFhKkb-TG2uyn2cP_8GxIH0Arkp_Y1_Mja1zxyB0TGwYVFAiTR8o_wil6cgzofMjhkSQ2qGfkso_Kz845XQBRI76qaz5oLQ0gHLEmajhwI23XcGQx9D2sb31mnRv3gQP/s320/Boyne.jpeg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Boyne</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 11pt;">The Irish writer John Boyne is on a winning streak. Following
the commercial success of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, he published a fan-favorite
entitled THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES, a charmer. Both are what you might call smart,
and poignant, page-turners. He captures the reader’s attention at once and
holds you in his tender hands throughout.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 11pt;">Now another, except a change in style: an edgy sharply-observed
parody of our celebrity and media-driven culture. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; font-size: 11pt;">Boyne tells you right up front that this lead character, Maurice
Swift, whose name is scribbled over the author’s name on the title page, is of dubious
intent. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You’ve heard the old proverb
about ambition, haven’t you? That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. It can
lead to a long and painful fall. This is a tale about ambition.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">This novel is about ambition in a Machiavellian way. Ambition at all costs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">In alternating narratives by key players – a writer who’s life
is destroyed, a brilliant writing-wife, a biographer, and Mr. Swift’ himself,
we discover this talented wordsmith is a manipulator without a story of his own
to tell, who nonetheless becomes a celebrated author. He also starts and serves
as editor of a magazine cleverly named <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stori.</i>
Over a lifetime, he manages to seduce men and women willing to pave his path
and none, except the great writer Gore Vidal, in a razor-sharp scene set in a
fabulous villa, of course, are wise to his dark secrets. Boyne does an excellent
job capturing Vidal’s perspective when he comments on the public humiliation of
a great writer Swift has decimated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">And
as far as I can tell, half the world’s novelists have chimed in with their
opinions, which has provided each one with their intended few minutes of publicity.
How competitive everyone is in expressing their outrage! As far as I can tell,
Bellow is the only one who’s said anything sensible on the subject. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">Secrets are Boyne’s literary concern – all his books are centered
around what people hide, for the sake of salvation as well as opportunism. In a
review of an earlier novel, THE ABSOLUTIST, John Irving said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyne is very, very good at portraying the
destructive power of a painfully kept secret — not to mention the damage done
by the self-recriminations (and other condemnations) that are released when
that secret is revealed. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Athelas Regular"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Hebrew";">Maurice Swift is ruthless to the point of unscrupulous. In
fact, diabolical. We slowly, with that pit in the stomach, recognize he is a
sociopath. Rare to discover this depth of amorality in a lead character that
does not diminish the reading. I imagine my jaw was in permanent drop position
through the last third of the novel. He is a fascination. A direct descendant of Raskolnikov, of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, one of my personal favorites, and another of the road-kill genre of literature: you simply cannot turn your eyes away. </span></div>
<br />
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</style>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-85532329677710202802019-02-16T16:54:00.005-08:002019-02-16T16:54:59.284-08:00First Readings 2019
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMra5rGcbge3TzgIRK9lNQ4ZL0y0NHDeBTXe9QT_o4eR0_wEOKmMvdA2eNFnZLnYo-nHh1U4SF0lZ7oe_igfxdPsqqEXlP9JCp-257mfdjnukBcomQGwmQboJ5IJzSugt4arB8FAxqq-yH/s1600/ToniM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="680" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMra5rGcbge3TzgIRK9lNQ4ZL0y0NHDeBTXe9QT_o4eR0_wEOKmMvdA2eNFnZLnYo-nHh1U4SF0lZ7oe_igfxdPsqqEXlP9JCp-257mfdjnukBcomQGwmQboJ5IJzSugt4arB8FAxqq-yH/s200/ToniM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Toni Morrison speaks in a new <br />collection of essays:<br /><i>The Source of Self-Regard</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many wonderful writers are publishing early this new year –
novels, short stories, essays, true crime and memoir – and many candidates for
book groups. A sampling. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tessa Hadley: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Late in the Day<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A terrific writer, this novel is all about relationships,
past and present, and the impact of grief. Reminiscent of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crossing to Safety</i> by Stegner. I’ve also returned to an earlier
work, the Marriage Bed, in which she subtly takes you into the mindset of a
lonely woman who doesn’t realize how desperately she’s in need of attention.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTSxBRZoJGV_LgRXhxyEHedVFCrAJVOckqJAeOwee4hr1mZq0aKNrInmkQoox-So5j6-0ij-g3QitnIV4O3zbAvCHBW4vIo9cVBBFrUfJ1xVmSqEiLokAKzHAhMSqhcZLs-hTbQhyphenhyphene1K9/s1600/220px-Dani_Shapiro_2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTSxBRZoJGV_LgRXhxyEHedVFCrAJVOckqJAeOwee4hr1mZq0aKNrInmkQoox-So5j6-0ij-g3QitnIV4O3zbAvCHBW4vIo9cVBBFrUfJ1xVmSqEiLokAKzHAhMSqhcZLs-hTbQhyphenhyphene1K9/s200/220px-Dani_Shapiro_2018.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-size: 11pt;">Dani Shapiro: <i>Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy,
Paternity and Love</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shapiro has mined her life frequently in memoir and fiction,
and still new revelations keep it interesting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Robert Bolano: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Spirit of Science Fiction<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the Bolano fans, from a world far far away. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
E<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">lizabeth McCracken: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bowlaway</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Might be the zaniest premise of a novel ever – McCracken
loves to explore whacky characters. [Remember the Giant’s House?] This one
lands on earth with a bowling bowl! She is a true original and lovely writer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Claire Adam: <i>Golden Child</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A wow debut novel of a family coming to terms with twin sons, one of whom is born challenged and stays a challenge, but only when he goes missing do we begin to understand why. A touching and insightful work of fiction that feels like a docudrama.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Leila Aboulela: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elsewhere, Home</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Fxe3fDxkCzNtyHKPruCCL6JJxFfnM8wn-CUHPOvDTxQtgLN059YyiFeDyy06k3VF7HXkbGj8NAHwz-Klx8Hu6dawfNgGZ38_cWYvAJQ7e1gbI_jB7rr_8xgEWBKJnsCBkPefata7MppV/s1600/Elsewhere.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="195" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Fxe3fDxkCzNtyHKPruCCL6JJxFfnM8wn-CUHPOvDTxQtgLN059YyiFeDyy06k3VF7HXkbGj8NAHwz-Klx8Hu6dawfNgGZ38_cWYvAJQ7e1gbI_jB7rr_8xgEWBKJnsCBkPefata7MppV/s200/Elsewhere.jpg" width="130" /></a>A new master of the short story, she writes about what it means to be an immigrant in a wider world. Great characters.<br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yu</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">val Taylor: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and
Betrayal</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yummy literary gossip.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Karl Ove Knausgaard: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So Much Longing in So Little Space </i></b><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><i></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The title alone makes it a must read, if you like his style and his [incessant] introspection. This tale weaves in the artist Edvard Munch - might make you scream. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Claire Harman: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder by the Book<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dickens’ London, literary, and literally, true crime. Might
be a curl-up-on-a-wintry-night read.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dave Eggers: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Parade<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In an un-named middle eastern country, a set of conflicted
characters confront conflicting agendas, what Eggers does so well in fiction. Reminds
me a little of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hologram for a King</i>,
one of my favorites. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h-wKMIvDpLciCmaE7JybommEBiWhFB8C7g7z0K5M4QPDpGiBWUbZBbyILji9QZFpHYRTHF4l0lRI2DXFV_3C4lfYd6WWNrv2yJePw58IInrnhjbQdSsrgnbr__CUtyKAEdtZ7ZxYZXQv/s1600/memories-of-the-future-9781982102838_lg-199x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="199" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h-wKMIvDpLciCmaE7JybommEBiWhFB8C7g7z0K5M4QPDpGiBWUbZBbyILji9QZFpHYRTHF4l0lRI2DXFV_3C4lfYd6WWNrv2yJePw58IInrnhjbQdSsrgnbr__CUtyKAEdtZ7ZxYZXQv/s200/memories-of-the-future-9781982102838_lg-199x300.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Siri Hustvedt: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Memories of the Future</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This lesser-known great-brain writes with longing and
imagination, and I look forward to this new novel. [And she’s married to the
great Paul Auster!]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Frederic Tuten: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Young Life</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had the pleasure of meeting this relatively unknown but
prolific writer some years ago and I was struck by his Chekhovian persona –
subtle, stoically quiet and quirky. Now he’s written a memoir that sounds as
intriguing as his fiction. [He too was born in the Bronx, so we’re kindred
spirits.] If you’ve never read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Green
Hour</i>, I recommend. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-size: 11pt;">Kathryn David: <i>The Silk Road </i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbd6vnxiL4rgMyh3o6p3LnUEHXMQCtRvaMZ7MvGn3-TbOpgWai4YiYNKowm7CEEArv5EC8cffcRk-e5Sf6toRchkdAhk9AoqNDVbq-f7l0G5OnS1gaAMuMSAhexrwCe3H2tTHuTGI1BHF/s1600/KDavis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbd6vnxiL4rgMyh3o6p3LnUEHXMQCtRvaMZ7MvGn3-TbOpgWai4YiYNKowm7CEEArv5EC8cffcRk-e5Sf6toRchkdAhk9AoqNDVbq-f7l0G5OnS1gaAMuMSAhexrwCe3H2tTHuTGI1BHF/s200/KDavis.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Davis' writing is enigmatic to the point of metaphysical, sometimes surreal, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
often allegorical, and I don't always get it, but she's always worth a try. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dryer’s English<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you write just about anything, or just have a fascination
with the written word, this new take on grammatical correctness is smart and
engaging. At the very least, a good book to add to the how-to shelf. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-19691935907334100892018-12-03T10:52:00.001-08:002018-12-06T08:26:45.177-08:00UNCOMMON CAUSE: An uncommonly fascinating memoir of military life<div class="MsoNormal">
by General George Lee Butler<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With illustrations by Victor Guiza</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LyHNZQeBCcJlW0yZJ7iWK15K48zig_XwqcpLN_zqh7rTEBN3ni0nX30yZpeqbPVEfbuHZ6OO2gzJ8b5UdklPD0zPkf_uS4E1l7jOn0_jgkiHYsD5flMbdJcA28QqlvCE4TH_eYWtr6mh/s1600/butler_post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="394" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LyHNZQeBCcJlW0yZJ7iWK15K48zig_XwqcpLN_zqh7rTEBN3ni0nX30yZpeqbPVEfbuHZ6OO2gzJ8b5UdklPD0zPkf_uS4E1l7jOn0_jgkiHYsD5flMbdJcA28QqlvCE4TH_eYWtr6mh/s320/butler_post.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General George Lee Butler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype"; font-size: 11pt;">We all assume we know something of military life. We’ve seen
lots of movies. Watched documentaries. Read a few books.</span><span style="font-family: "palatino linotype"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "palatino linotype"; font-size: 11pt;">Some of us are close to members of the
military. Nothing, however, will prepare you for the magnifying glass that
4-star General Butler holds to the military in his memoir. No, you say, not my
speed – I promise you, reading UNCOMMON CAUSE is worth your time and terribly important
in this day and age of sound-bites and tweets.</span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>General Butler’s
memoir portrays an incredibly expansive military life, but with an eye towards
how that life affected family and community, as well as a nation. A
one-of-a-kind glimpse into the inner workings of the military well beyond being
the defender of the peace. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Turns out, General Butler is a Don
Quixote. He doesn’t always choose his battles, he charges ahead with audacity
and hope, and, although he invariably creates change for the better, he has
often risked his own life and career. He's a true American hero. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Born to a military family in 1939
[auspiciously, the year Britain and France declared war on Germany] George Lee Butler
graduated the Air Force Academy, where he subsequently taught and where parts
of the memoir have been incorporated into the training manual. He also found
time to earn a PhD in Political Science and was an Olmstead Scholar in France,
where he earned a Master’s in International Affairs. A pilot who served in Viet
Nam [a war he ultimately challenged] he has logged in over 3000 hours flying
time in various places. And, beyond many other accolades and accomplishments,
was designated Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command from 1991 – 1994,
which means, if you don’t know, he had his finger on the nation’s nuclear
arsenal even though he argues for the elimination of reliance on nuclear
weapons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By and large, the world wants to
move away from the nuclear era. The question is how fast and how far. In a
world of sovereign nation-states, I can't rationalize any number above zero. If
it's more than zero, you have to acknowledge every nation has the right to have
them. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgqln61IhXtpfAdRHU19AcgLWvPE9V-a7zBBpQT12PD5yqivD5TUq-t7Pfm_zLwBP6ZxnQYom-thUW_cF2Zm3hLqTI2cuea1h4qg5GmDiQgtYtmigDaxsNDgUFkh96dTwtd58SUB1AunM/s1600/quote-deterrence-failed-completely-as-a-guide-in-setting-rational-limits-on-the-size-and-composition-george-lee-butler-134-32-99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="850" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgqln61IhXtpfAdRHU19AcgLWvPE9V-a7zBBpQT12PD5yqivD5TUq-t7Pfm_zLwBP6ZxnQYom-thUW_cF2Zm3hLqTI2cuea1h4qg5GmDiQgtYtmigDaxsNDgUFkh96dTwtd58SUB1AunM/s320/quote-deterrence-failed-completely-as-a-guide-in-setting-rational-limits-on-the-size-and-composition-george-lee-butler-134-32-99.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Most impressively, this General is
a fine writer. As lengthy as the reading is – two volumes, over 800 pages – it’s
a page-turner. Almost impossible to imagine one life as rich and as deeply
embedded in 20th century American history as this one. However he will tell you
he absolutely owes it all to his wife, and honors all military spouses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As
you will come to understand, she was as much in service to her country as was
I, making her mark in every assignment and on everyone privileged to be in her
company.</i><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Volume I deals with the formative
years and Volume II with what he calls the transformative and I would call the
maturity. From the naiveté and perseverance of a young man to a dedication to the
better-articulated high ideals of the older and decidedly wiser. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
General Butler said he spent ten
years writing the book, with numerous rewrites and readers. When I asked what,
if any overriding message he wanted to send, he answered, “the unique risks to
life and limb, the primacy of leadership and integrity, and the unrelenting
sacrifices demanded of members, their spouses and most especially, their
children.” And when I asked him to cite the most life-altering challenge or
experience, he replied, “Always do and say the right thing, no matter the
personal cost.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">In the interest of full disclosure, I met General Butler some years ago at an event for one of several non-profits he and his family support through their charitable foundation, and his lovely wife Dorene has been a supporter of my fiction. I can tell you in all truth they are quality people and this is a quality memoir.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Take the time to read these volumes.
Enjoy each of the many fascinating episodes. When you reach the last page,
you’ll be glad you know General George Lee Butler. </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>Available
in hardcover [a fabulous gift] or for Kindle [and Kindle Unlimited for free.]</i></span><!--EndFragment-->
</div>
Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-64323183920060347202018-11-19T08:06:00.000-08:002018-11-19T08:06:40.484-08:00WHICH LIFE ARE WE LIVING?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">THE END OF DAYS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Jenny Erpenbeck<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAZRwGk-c5KMDyrUExTOeR6-KnTDIVoAusz6nv4p9adpYrL366a-a-arU_XsKY7AGb2RSUZJRVKlL1Ez1Funu3s9X7gKP3nkaDzWze51B8kQERjUV6WZOe_bc5U0KtIgWFLzlZTzbe2Bo/s1600/jenny_erpenbeck__april2016_mangoldt-thumb-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAZRwGk-c5KMDyrUExTOeR6-KnTDIVoAusz6nv4p9adpYrL366a-a-arU_XsKY7AGb2RSUZJRVKlL1Ez1Funu3s9X7gKP3nkaDzWze51B8kQERjUV6WZOe_bc5U0KtIgWFLzlZTzbe2Bo/s320/jenny_erpenbeck__april2016_mangoldt-thumb-large.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writer Jenny Erpenbeck</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too often the great works of other languages are not
translated for the English speaking reader. We miss out on a lot of great
fiction and different voices, and the stories that underscore other cultures.
Fortunately, German writer Jenny Erpenbeck is available now in paperback, by
acclaimed translator Susan Bernofsky, and THE END OF DAYS is worth reading for
the most serious reader. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make no mistake – this is not entertainment, nor is it a
page-turner. It requires time, attention and thought, but it’s worth it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The premise, like others that have recently taken on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what-if</i> question of multiple lives,
posits the life of one single person who dies five times – first as an infant,
and then in each of the stages of life. This is not a spoiler, it’s the reason
to read. A literary-existential concept – what is the life we might have had? And
how does that inform the life we have lived?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Approximately eighty
years ago, an arts and crafts teacher in Vienna declared the work of one of her
pupils sloppy and shoddy. Is it possible that this pupil was given so long a
life for the sole purpose of having the sentence uttered by that loathsome
Viennese woman finally canceled out, buried by a new sentence uttered by a new
teacher? Has she been in the world all these many years so these two sentences
– to give just one example – can confront each other within her, and the good
one defeat the bad? Might everything that’s ever been said and that will be
said everywhere in the world constitute a living whole, growing sometimes in
one direction, sometimes in another, always balancing out in the end? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Paul Auster did a particularly wonderful version of this in
the novel “4-3-2-1” and Kate Atkinson explored a similar theme in “Life After
Life.” Both recommended.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Erpenbeck opens the novel with an epigram from Sebald’s
great fiction, “Austerlitz” in which he also said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At some point in the past, I thought, I must have made a mistake, and
now I’m living the wrong life.” </i>How many of us have had that thought once
or twice?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjgkmK-7i2swlkuOJs_H2sk3tqp5Sig3poXrL3etkDxQc2BNhJ2kkfIp2Z_c2FjtFXwYhALCu0hGC43odEW1WTkf-90mYSkE78OBWKP9B0QgcOPJzfJXh3tXWDKdYIzvauPpx3Jdi_aD4/s1600/End-of-Days-MECH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjgkmK-7i2swlkuOJs_H2sk3tqp5Sig3poXrL3etkDxQc2BNhJ2kkfIp2Z_c2FjtFXwYhALCu0hGC43odEW1WTkf-90mYSkE78OBWKP9B0QgcOPJzfJXh3tXWDKdYIzvauPpx3Jdi_aD4/s200/End-of-Days-MECH.jpg" title="" width="136" /></a>In END OF DAYS, in prose that makes you stop and read again,
and again, a female protagonist rides her five lives through five phases of
European culture. From the early 20th century through wars and revolution and
ultimately the dismantling of the Berlin wall. In these pages, politics is
personal and the personal does not exist in isolation from the politics. Characters
are haunted by Goethe, by the extermination of Jews, Russian supremacy, poverty
and corruption, and also redemption. They find it difficult to express their
feelings [extremely Germanic] and in their repression, they suffer almost as
much as our favorite Russians in Tolstoy. A lot of ground covered in just 238
pages. And much to consider about what composes a life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When her husband – who
despite his serious illness had lived longer than many healthy men – finally
died, the old woman accepted her daughter’s invitation, gave away all her
chickens, packed up the Holy Scripture, the seven-armed candelabra, and her two
sets of plates, and went to live with her. She left behind the semidarkness in
which she’d been spending her life, along with a few pieces of furniture, their
feet all scraped and scratched – her husband had taken a saw to them whenever
they began to rot, shortening them by a centimeter or two – and left behind the
dirt floor that was just the same outside, her granddaughter had scratched
letters into it with a stick when she was little. Soon the thatch roof would
weigh down the now abandoned house, pressing it into the ground, and covering
it until it decomposed. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I nearly underlined the entire novel. Profound and poignant,
it’s a word-by-word fictional feast. And, in these crazy days of political
turmoil across the globe, worth exploring again what it is that makes not only
each single life worthy but the collective. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In paperback and for your favorite e-reader. </div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-78246664954992042222018-10-19T17:54:00.000-07:002018-10-19T17:54:02.548-07:00EDUCATED with a capital PhD
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Advanced Studies in the School
of Hard Knocks<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBg5s9wtg1bCUUxaQEjDpExK2p04HjISb7SqmvqRZ7TOzrgnUgyIHhnuFJPfkVmaZA2Jo0unazgq4t2Fm47YONNmq4yHlE4kwWiDAsx31MWgYT3jbDBr1yQ3zDxwg8YHIThdB42C4b7BD/s1600/Educated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBg5s9wtg1bCUUxaQEjDpExK2p04HjISb7SqmvqRZ7TOzrgnUgyIHhnuFJPfkVmaZA2Jo0unazgq4t2Fm47YONNmq4yHlE4kwWiDAsx31MWgYT3jbDBr1yQ3zDxwg8YHIThdB42C4b7BD/s320/Educated.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writer/Family Survivor Tara Westover </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Truth, in this memoir, is definitely stranger than fiction.
If this had been written as a novel, you might accuse the author of vast
exaggeration. Sometimes, totally beyond belief. And yet, true. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Poignant, fascinating, shocking, and
sometimes overwrought, for good reason, this is a story of a young Mormon
girl’s coming of age. Not what you expect – oh yes, there is the revisionist
ideology, the isolation, the close-knit family of many children. And yes, we
see the powerful grip of the patriarchal culture. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
However this patriarchy also
suffers from the father’s deep psychological disturbance, likely bi-polar
disorder, which has been passed on to at least one of the sons, and also
suffers from profoundly powerless women, even those who wish to rise above who are
inevitably and frequently dragged back down. Few, like Westover, are driven
sufficiently to rise again. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
However she also appreciates the blessings
of rural Idaho. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There’s a sense of
sovereignty that comes from life on a mountain, a perception of privacy and
isolation, even of dominion. In that vast space you can sail unaccompanied for
hours, afloat on pine and brush and rock. It’s a tranquility of sheer immensity;
it calms with its very magnitude, which renders the merely human of no
consequence.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The family is so off the grid, so
paranoid about medicine or institutions of all types, and so removed from
community life other than a few co-workers in the family junkyard business, no
one seems to care about the seven children, even when horrible accidents
threaten their lives. This family is more concerned about preparing for the coming
apocalypse and Tara’s mom, a self-taught mid-wife and herbalist, is focuses on
canning food and ultimately protecting their hard-won wealth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">…my
father had taught me that there are not two reasonable opinions to be had on
any subject: there is Truth and there are Lies. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Although taught to read only by the
bible, the elder brother finds his way to college, inspiring sister Tara to do
the same, but she has to teach herself enough math, writing and basic grammar,
and science, to take the ACT, twice, before she is accepted to Brigham Young
University. From here, she is blessed with interventions and mentors who help
her learn and grow and eventually land at Cambridge University and subsequently
earn a PhD in history at Harvard. To do all this, she must detach from her
family, the hardest lesson of all. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For
as long as I could remember, I’d known that the members of my own family were
the only true Mormons I had ever known, and yet for some reason, here at this
university, in this chapel, for the first time I felt the immensity of the gap.
I understood now: I could stand with my family, or with the gentiles, on the
one side or the other, but there was no foothold in between. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
You will find yourself cheering for
Tara Westover, also cringing at many of her experiences, and reminded once
again of the sheer power of knowledge. And storytelling. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-18042162926628922612018-09-15T11:19:00.000-07:002018-09-15T11:19:12.029-07:00Orange is not the new black, it's just black. <span style="font-size: large;">THE MARS ROOM</span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-CrO3_JhJ_GhqhJc73chk11YCxtp5n0ftz4PLFR9ozfqrFBYPu_b6MHIMBBmWY2xa70lcI6TY90xV4ECvlsVkjxiTlXx5mocDbdgl7hLg9OCHrszoo7pPWTcXYoe_9ZHRP6yu89Gt12z/s1600/Kushner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="250" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-CrO3_JhJ_GhqhJc73chk11YCxtp5n0ftz4PLFR9ozfqrFBYPu_b6MHIMBBmWY2xa70lcI6TY90xV4ECvlsVkjxiTlXx5mocDbdgl7hLg9OCHrszoo7pPWTcXYoe_9ZHRP6yu89Gt12z/s320/Kushner.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author Rachel Kushner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rachel Kushner is one of those writers who grab you at once
or confound you. Or both. In this, her fourth novel, she grabs you by the
shoulders, and then by the throat, and holds you despite, or because of, the subject
matter: women in prison.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The novel deals largely with how they got there and how they
survive, told in short takes between past and present. Kushner does not gloss over
a thing. I suspect the attention to detail is as scrupulous and intense a portrait
of prison life as written by an outsider. And, beyond all that, page-turner fiction.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We meet the narrator, Romy, on the overnight journey to
prison. She has been sentenced to long sequential terms for the murder of her
stalker. She cannot see beyond the end of the tunnel. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They were moving us at
that hour for a reason, for many reasons. If they could have shot us to the
prison in a capsule, they would have. Anything to shield the regular people
from having to look at us…<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The title, by the way, refers to a seedy strip club in San
Francisco where Romy gave lap dances and where she rose above her coworkers, until
she got into trouble. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If you’d showered you
had a competitive edge at the Mars Room. If your tattoos weren’t misspelled you
were hot property. If you weren’t five or six months pregnant, you were the
it-girl in the club that night. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her descriptions of the city by the bay are elegant and detailed,
and a harsh contrast to its currently high-tech persona. She has had to leave
her son behind with her mother, a ne’er-do-well herself with whom Romy has had
a tumultuous relationship, and the shadows of the mother-daughter and the
mother-son bond hovers over the story. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kushner doesn’t ask you to feel sorry for Romy or any of the
other memorable characters. Nor does she expect you to them. This is not a victim
narrative. She merely tells their stories. You will alternately shield your
eyes or, yes, cry for them. More often you may marvel at the atrocities that
result from the inequities that pervade American culture, on display and
intricately woven through the lives of these prisoners. And their captors. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-56qAA84bIYoZ-1Xs9pguY-twcMTJRadpOYfOnIOgeKTxe_8aclKhkDhgbqBWtwKgM_6WzBzzP7bXk5AvZSVmetKS4eoXx_XRI2xZjcdjAYkLS7BJf7K5rW8VpEaS2JjTwh86PA8OOLs4/s1600/the-mars-room-9781476756554_hr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1061" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-56qAA84bIYoZ-1Xs9pguY-twcMTJRadpOYfOnIOgeKTxe_8aclKhkDhgbqBWtwKgM_6WzBzzP7bXk5AvZSVmetKS4eoXx_XRI2xZjcdjAYkLS7BJf7K5rW8VpEaS2JjTwh86PA8OOLs4/s200/the-mars-room-9781476756554_hr.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">My only critique is that Romy’s remarkable perception and
insight seems the voice of a well-educated erudite person, and does not fit this
character. Still, you put that out of your mind in favor of the narrative and
the wisdom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Did you ever notice
that women can seem common while men never do? You won’t ever hear anyone
describe a man’s appearance as common. The common man means the average man, a
typical man, a decent hardworking person of modest dreams and resources. A
woman who looks cheap doesn’t have to be respected, and so she has a cheap
value, a certain cheap value. </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is prison, beyond cliché or reality television. About inmates, and also the bystanders, the
opportunists, in and out of prison, and those who might offer redemption. Like a
Russian novel with all its drama and passions. A very good read. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br /><br />
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</style>Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4591428981729825311.post-2613169127618111802018-08-21T16:56:00.004-07:002018-08-21T16:56:50.281-07:00Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
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Everything we read about war is about the war – strategy, maneuvers,
the drama and death. We too rarely read about, or watch on film, the immediate
aftermath of war in a country, like England, ravaged for years. The slow return
to past lives. The reparation – financial, personal, emotional. Or, an
underground force still at war to tie up loose ends and ensure its end. It’s a
fascinating time, brought to life by the great Ondaatje. A novel as intimate as
memoir, and, to my mind, his best yet. <o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggv5jxXXIIvbJDWNaniH9bYVP1Gj2OdCYWRBrdqQuFBkJGVTmINzcM8Q-QmrsXTVbtIpe5-XWJgRgMYbdb4QbiMAGS55lhfD5ADbHEqdNbbo81_6NAiQZAahRavF5eWBHyfrCzR0_ztpBP/s1600/michael-ondaatje-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="900" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggv5jxXXIIvbJDWNaniH9bYVP1Gj2OdCYWRBrdqQuFBkJGVTmINzcM8Q-QmrsXTVbtIpe5-XWJgRgMYbdb4QbiMAGS55lhfD5ADbHEqdNbbo81_6NAiQZAahRavF5eWBHyfrCzR0_ztpBP/s320/michael-ondaatje-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ondaatje won the 50 year Booker Award this year <br />for The English Patient, worth rereading.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When
you attempt a memoir, I am told, you need to be in an orphan state. So what is
missing in you and the things you have grown cautious and hesitant about, will
come almost casually toward you. ‘A memoir is a lost inheritance,’ you realize,
so that during this time, you must learn how and where to look. In the
resulting self-portrait everything will rhyme, because everything has been reflected.
If a gesture was flung away in the past, you now see it in the possession of
another. So I believed something in my mother must rhyme in me. She in her
small hall of mirrors and I in mine. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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In this, his eighth work of
fiction, Ondaatje sets his sights on this transitional period, through the eyes
of a young man employed by the government who finally uncovers his mother’s
role in the war, and learns more about the people she placed he and his sister
with to keep them safe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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However, as we know, and are
reminded of late, children removed from their mothers are inexorably changed,
in their view of the world and of themselves. This narrator, introduced as a school
boy, evolves into an astute observer, a loner tethered to the past, while his sister
becomes unforgiving and distrusting. Around them, a charismatic cast of endearing
characters with their own secrets, who protect them and serve as surrogate
family. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A lot happens, much is revealed,
but slowly, quietly, in exquisite prose. Take your time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Warlight is rendered in images. No trappings
of war, only suggestions of its existence on the periphery. Nathaniel tells the
tale, and also manages to convince us so completely of his revelations over
time, he is able to describe events in places he couldn’t have been. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He learns his mother was a notorious
spy, integral to the war effort in western Europe. So valuable, that long after
the war, the extremist opposition searches for her to exact vengeance. She is
never as safe as her children, who have been left with seemingly unsavory neighbors
and their eccentric circle of acquaintances. The mother called her children by
pet names, so the children give their caretakers odd names like The Moth,
another The Darter. There is a story embedded in every name, every move they
make – love stories and stories of profound friendship, also disappointment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We order our live with barely held stories. As if we have been lost in
a confusing landscape, gathering what was invisible and unspoken – Rachel, the
Wren, and I, and Stitch, sewing it all together in order to survive,
incomplete, ignored like the sea pea on those mined beaches during the war.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Warlight
is a stunning work of fiction, recently released in hardcover or for your
favorite e-reader. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Randy Krafthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985134688643541894noreply@blogger.com0