Words on War

I recently read Tobias Wolff's memoir In Pharoah's Army as well as Phil Klay's collection of short stories, Redeployment.  It's fascinating to read these books within the same few weeks, as they both illustrate the effects of war and have many commonalities.  Wolff writes of his decision to enter the army, his experience in Vietnam, his relationship with his father, and his adjustment to life as a civilian.  Klay writes about Iraq and Afghanistan, and his stories focus on both being in the thick of daily life in a war zone, as well as what people's lives are like after returning from war.  Both Klay's debut and Wolff's memoir are very well written and engaging, and provide a great deal of insight into the intimate challenges faced by soldiers.  Recommended!

To Russia We Go

Published in 1948, A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck, is his account of spending just over a month traveling in Russia at the beginning of the Cold War.  Steinbeck traveled with war photographer Robert Capa.  As Steinbeck explains in the book, his goal was to write about the lives of every day Russians, not to take a political or ideological stance, and ultimately has a very good experience there and enjoys his time with the generous and friendly Russian people he and Capa meet along the way.  In doing so, he reports about the various Russian cities and towns he visits, the food he eats, people's clothes and customs, and his experiencing traveling in planes, jeeps, etc. throughout the country.  The book captures Steinbeck's signature ability to write clearly to the heart of the matter, with no shortage of humor as well.  While this wasn't my favorite Steinbeck, it is an interesting one.  Some of my favorite passages:

"At last the plane took off, and as it did, a man sitting next to me opened his suitcase, cut off half a pound of raw bacon which was melting in the heat, and sat chewing it, the grease running down his chin.  He was a nice man, with merry eyes, and he offered me a piece, but I didn't feel like it at that moment."

"It was equipped with blades that were scissors, blades that were files, awls, saws, can-openers, beer-openers, corkscrews, tools for removing stones from a horse's foot, a blade for eating and a blade for murder, a screw driver and a chisel.  You could mend a watch with it, or repair the Panama Canal.  It was the most wonderful pocketknife anyone has ever seen, and we had it nearly two months, and the only thing we ever did with it was to cut sausages. But it must be admitted that the knife cut sausages very well."

"Our driver was, as usual, wonderful, an ex-cavalry man, and he had, of all things, a jeep.  The jeep does not bring out the best in anyone, and in a cavalry man it brings out the cowboy....He drove like a mad man, he was afraid of no one.  Again and again, in traffic, outraged drivers forced him to the curb, and there would be an exchange of violent Georgian language, and our man would smile and drive off.  He won all engagements.  We loved him."

Irish Anguish

I've wanted to read John McGahern's The Barracks for quite some time now - glad I finally got around to it.   The story centers around the life of Elizabeth Reegan, a woman who has lived a varied life but ends up back in the Irish village in which she grew up.  Married to her husband, a widower and a police officer who hates his job and wishes to be his own boss someday, she tends the home and takes care of his three children.  It's a bleak tale in which Ms. Reegan must fight for her life against breast cancer, and addresses the futility and fleeting freedoms of life.  This is an insular, unsparing book, and beautifully written.  Some compelling passages:

"He brought a wonderful ease with him sometimes into the house, the black hands of the clock would take wings."

"She was shackled, a thieving animal held at last in this one field."

"There never had been even any real discussion, not to speak of understanding, and while each of them alone was nothing there might be no knowing what both of them might find together." 

"Always easy to love something or somebody when you know you don't have to endure them anymore, when the goodbyes are being waved, and you can have your dream and choice of them instead of their solid, individual and demanding presence."

A Tightly Woven Tale

I have no recollection of how Larry Watson's Let Him Go ended up on my "to read" list (possibly an IndieBound next list suggestion?!) but I'm glad it did.  It's the kind of book you'll want to read quickly, as it immediately draws you in to the action the characters, and their intent.  It's spare and atmospheric writing, reminding me in ways of Kent Haruf and Peter Heller's The Painter.  And I feel that I've read this kind of plot before, but I just can't remember in what book (family members attempting to rescue kids and bring them out of harm's way, etc.). 

The story centers around Margaret and George Blackledge, who set out on a journey to find and protect their grandson, who, after their own son's death, is being raised by their daughter-in-law and her boyfriend, Ronnie Weboy.  The Blackledges know something is amiss with the Weboy family and despite their age, have a determination and pluckiness that propel them to possibly put themselves in harm's way to make sure their grandson grows up in a safe environment.  Set amidst the backdrop of small town North Dakota and Montana, this is a book you'll want to read in just a few sittings, and then put more of Larry Watson's books on hold at the library.  At least, that's what I'm going to do!

Favorite Bookstores of 2014

Here were my favorites that I visited this year:

1.  Front Street Books:  Alpine, TX
-  A pleasant bookstore with a well curated and bountiful selection of regional books, as well as new and used books on all topics.  Very helpful manager. I can't wait to go back!

2.  Parnassus Books:  Nashville, TN
- I have heard much about this bookstore in interviews with owner (and famous author) Ann Patchett on NPR.  Though in a strip mall of all places, this was a classy, modern establishment with friendly and well informed staff with hand picked recommendations at the ready.  

3.  Book Fellers:  Fort Davis, TX
- Such a charming, unpretentious, small used bookstore in small-town Fort Davis.  Very friendly owners, old time jazz music playing, used and collectible Texas books, and lots of general used books for only $2/book!  I found a copy of Jane Jacob's The Economy of Cities, and also, The Enneagram Made Easy.  Delightful, unexpected find!

4.  Mrs. Dalloway's:  Berkeley, CA
- One of my favorites - so many hand written reviews (my mark of a good bookstore), very cute, also conveniently located right next door to The Elmwood Cafe which makes the best hot chocolate in town!

5.  Walden Pond Books:  Oakland, CA
- This is the closest one to me, so close I can even walk there from my apartment, and I consider this my "local bookstore."   It has both new and used, and the floors make a good creaky sound as you walk on them.  I've been impressed by how busy this bookstore has been lately (though I prefer it less crowded).  Makes me happy to know there are still lots of book lovers out there.  They are always happy to special order titles for me. 

Cather: The Young Adventurer

Before Willa Cather became a famous author she was a teacher in Pittsburgh, and when she was only twenty-eight years old (in 1902), she traveled to England and France to the first time.  Having grown up in pastoral Nebraska, some of the countryside she saw resonated with her own life, whereas the cities and the level of poverty within them was something she had never experienced before.  Collected in Willa Cather in Europe:  Her Own Story of the First Journey are fourteen travel articles that Cather wrote for a newspaper in Lincoln, Nebraska.  The articles contain her first impressions of the places she visited.  Even in this early writing of hers, some of the key themes of her later writing are captured, perhaps the most compelling of which is her keen interest and curiosity of the lives of the poor and working class, as opposed to high society.  My favorite quotes:

In Liverpool:  "Hats have never at all been one of the vexing problems of my life, but, indifferent as I am, these render me speechless.  I should think a well-taught and tasteful American milliner would go mad in England, and eventually hang herself with bolts of green and scarlet ribbon - the favorite colour combination in Liverpool."

In Barbizon:  "The village at first sight looks like any other little forest town; the home of hard-working folk, desperately poor, but never so greedy or so dead of soul that they will not take time to train the peach tree against the wall until it spreads like a hardy vine, and to mass beautiful flowers of very hue in their little gardens."  

"There is something worth thinking about in these brown, merry old women, who have brought up fourteen children and can outstrip their own sons and grandsons in the harvest field, lay down their rake and write a traveler directions as to how he can reach the next town in a hand as neat as a bookkeeper's."

In Avignon:  "As we carried no bologna with us, we were naturally interested in the dining-room on the afternoon of our arrival."

In Marseilles and Hyeres:  "What more of life could one wring out of twenty-four hours, if you please  At noon the wet olives of Arles; at nightfall a chorus of gay sailors, made up to the life, and the rattle of stage thunder, much blue lightening, and a great tossing of blue water; at dawn a sunrise over feathery date palms, with the sea at one's feet and a porcelain sky above.  What more could one ask for, even in the country of Monte Cristo?"

In Lavandou:  "I am sure I do not know why a wretched little fishing village with nothing but green pines and blue sea and a sky of porcelain, should mean more than a dozen places I have wanted to see all my life."

Army Wives' Lives

No Man's War:  Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife is the debut book by Angela Ricketts, who has been part of the army culture for her whole life, first as an army brat as she calls herself, and then by way of marrying her husband, whom she met when he was an infantry lieutenant.  I learned of this book because of Terry Gross' interview with Ricketts on Fresh Air.  It struck me that the topic was something I know nothing about, as I don't know anyone in my life who is connected to the military in any way.  I was intrigued enough by the interview to read the book of which the main themes seemed to be the relationships (i.e. camaraderie, competitiveness, and hierarchy) among army wives, being without ones' partner for long stretches and the toll it can take on one's marriage and well being (Ricketts describes having a heart attack), raising children with your partner gone for long stretches, etc.  Ricketts describes the "buoyancy" of army wives as a key characteristic and common thread among highly divergent personalities. 

You've Got Mail (from Capote)

I recently read Too Brief a Treat, the letters of Truman Capote.  While I didn't enjoy this collection merely as much as Willa Cather's short stories, they were still entertaining and of course provided some insight into one of my favorite authors.  Capote addressed his friends with pet names, often contained gossip, and usually involved his asking his friends to keep writing him wherever he was (Italy, Switzerland, New York, Kansas, etc.).  Some of my favorite quotes are as follows. The last quote was in reference to William Goyen, a Texan writer most famous for The House of Breath (which I recently reviewed on this blog).  Capote was an early supporter of Goyen, but when Goyen wrote some less than flattering words about one of Capote's works, he was no longer a fiercely appreciated friend, but a foe to which Capote said good riddance.  He fiercely adored his friends and abhorred his enemies, never one to be moderate in his opinions!

"Currently am waging war against two little girls down the road.  They are driving me out of my mind.  Why do children always think that I am a child too?  I'd like to crack their little heads together."

"Not, I must say, that you've been dazzling correspondents, any of you:  many's the night I've trudged down to the post-office, then trudged back empty-handed - thinking, a fine lot they are, whirling from one gay event to another, never giving a thought to poor Truman:  far off there on a windswept hill with nothing but the sound of the sea to cheer him up.  Oh chilluns, it do get mighty powerful lonesome here."

"What a psychopath."