Singing Doig's Praises

"The most precipitous chapter of life always begins before we quite know it is under way," writes Doig in his winning new novel Work Song.  The story takes place in Butte, Montana in 1919.  Morris Morgan ("Morrie") steps off the train in Butte, known at the time as the copper capital of the world, to begin a new chapter of his life.  Morgan is featured in Doig's earlier work The Whistling Season, though it is not necessary to read this work beforehand.   

The charming and multi-talented Morrie quickly finds his skills needed, and so becomes integral to the town's library and the local union's struggle against the Anaconda mining company and the radical Wobbly agitators.  Doig excels at creating memorable characters with such motley names as Rabrab, Hoop, and Russian Famine.  This Western tale was quite an enjoyable read.  One down, twelve more Doig books to go!

SF Big Book Sale!

Come on down to support the San Francisco Public Library!    Touted as the largest book sale on the West Coast, all proceeds go to the library system.  With an anticipated 100,000 books on hand and all books only $1 on the last day of the sale, this is surely an event not to be missed if you are in the Bay Area.  

Author spotlight: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

   

This year I have had the pleasure of reading all three of Adichie's books - Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus and most recently, the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.  Adichie has received many accolades, including winning the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007 and being named one of the New Yorker magazine's "20 under 40," this past summer.  At just 33 years old, Adichie is a literary hotshot, but if you watch her on YouTube you'll likely be impressed with her humility. 


I enjoyed all of her books, but my favorite was Half of a Yellow Sun, a story about two sisters and what happens to them around the time of the Biafran War in Nigeria.  This is a book that is bursting with vivid detail and impassioned characters.  Be forewarned that there is civil unrest and violence described in the narrative.


Adichie masterfully captures both quiet moments and loud ones, the dynamics of political movements and the dynamics of family.  Her books are fresh, bold, and written with a gracefulness that belies the effort it must take to write such wonderful stories.

Don't mess with (football in) Texas

When I talk with friends about Friday Night Lights (TV version), their reaction is always the same, to the tune of "why would you want to watch a show about high school football in Texas?"  I have no particular affinity for high school, football, or Texas, but the series, based on H.G. Bissinger's book, is outstanding.  It's shot in a gritty way that feels almost like a documentary.  The acting is top-notch.


Being a huge fan of the show, I was curious about the book.  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H.G. Bissinger spent 1998 immersed in the football season at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas.  His book follows the team through the tremendous ups and downs of that year.  While I didn't think Bissinger's writing was as dynamic as I had hoped, he does go beyond writing about the players and the focus on "going to State," and in doing so, paints a picture of life in a small town affected by the boom and bust of the oil industry.  Bissinger focuses on tense race relations and school integration in Texas, as well as the way in which football was much more of a focus than academics at the school.  Both of these topics were ones he was later criticized for exposing in his book.  


What Bissinger does best is convey how football affects all parts of life in Odessa - politics, home life, career choices, and local tradition and how this all-encompassing love for and loyalty to football makes a group of teenage boys godlike for a season or two, and then become largely forgotten once they are injured or graduate.  Friday Night Lights offers a glimpse into what it would mean to grow up in a town defined by one thing.  I'll admit that after reading the book, it did have me curious about what it would have been like to be under those Friday night lights, cheering for those seemingly invincible kids that had the weight of the whole town on their shoulders.

Green Apple Books: Worth Biting Into

This weekend I went on a long jaunt out to the Richmond in San Francisco to visit Green Apple Books, an independent bookstore that has been around since 1967.  The store has both an annex featuring used and new fiction, and a main bookstore.  Having walked to the outer lands of SF with the fog rolling in and the wind picking up, I had high hopes of a warm, inviting, cozy space in which to warm up and browse.  


While unassuming from the outside, I came under Green Apple's spell as soon as I set foot inside.  What I found inside were hardwood floors, warm lighting, lots of handwritten recommendations, and a playful atmosphere.  I wandered into the "red delicious room" and spotted the rather intimidating  "shoplifters will be nailed" sign.  I particularly liked their unique shelving categories which included such delightful sections as "big fat reads," "the bicycle," and" just because you're old and unhappy doesn't mean you can't read children's books."  The store was abundant and bountiful, a place to get lost in for hours.  It reminded me of Elliot Bay Books in Seattle.  The only downsides were that there was nowhere to sit and the staff were not as friendly as they could have been.


To me, the mark of a good bookstore is one that humbles me.  One that reminds me of the endless number of books I have yet to read.  I can't wait to go back!

Parrado's Perspective: Miracle in the Andes

Miracle in the Andes is by far the best account I've read or seen of the tragic airplane crash in the Andes in 1972, in which 16 members of a Uruguayan rugby team survived for 72 days in one of the harshest climates in the world.  With hardly any food, warm clothing, or medical supplies, the survivors of the crash battled nearly impossible circumstances.  As the number of deaths increased due to the cold and injuries, and once the survivors heard on a radio that the search for them had been called off, it became clear that someone would need to climb out of the mountains if any of them were to survive.  Nando Parrado, 34 years later, tells the story of the crash and of his journey out of the mountains.  Parrado and his friend Roberto Canessa made the 12 day trek, with little food and a sleeping bag made out of insulation from the plane.  


What is most fascinating about this book is the way in which Parrado describes how the survivors dealt with this trial.  Parrado recalls a moment in which he wants to cry for the death of his mother and sister who died in the crash.  He realized that to cry would be to lose essential fluid that he would need in the days to come.  His survival instinct kicked in immediately.  Yet, he later describes  a moment when all he could think of was to run off into the blinding snow and be left to die.  He writes about how as more and more of the crash survivors passed away, those who remained were terrified by the thought of being the last survivor, left to die alone amidst the stillness and silence of the Andes.  


This is a book I couldn't put down.  The vulnerability Parrado exhibits in writing about his love for his father as the driving force keeping him alive, as well as the humility and honesty of his writing make this a book not to be missed.  For weeks after reading this eloquent autobiography, and still now as I write this, I think about how if any story proves to us the possibility of human triumph over unimaginable odds, it is this one.