Two Debut Reviews

Esme Weijun Wang's debut novel The Border of Paradise captivated me from the first few pages.  Set in mid twentieth century Brooklyn, Taiwan, and a high Sierra town in California, it explores the impact of mental illness on multiple generations of the Nowak family, and portrays how it brings the family close together and tears it apart.  Taking the first person perspectives of the different family members is not a new approach but is done in such a fresh and intimate way in Wang's deft hands.  I was curious about this very talented young writer, so I went to her website which is quite unlike other author websites I have visited.  She describes how the three themes on her mind in recent times are creativity, resilience, and legacy, all of which are touched upon in her novel.  It's evident after reading the novel and visiting her website that she someone bristling with creative ideas, and has published many essays and embarked on other artistic projects.  Highly recommended!

Yaa Gyasi's debut novel Homegoing has been hailed as a revelation - some have even gone so far as to suggest it is and will be the best book published in 2016.  This is one of those books (and I've had this feeling before, for example, when Zadie Smith published White Teeth and Chimamanda Adichie published Purple Hibisicus) in which I wonder what I was doing when I was 26 years old!  What Gyasi has achieved at such an early stage of her age is very impressive.  She's written a gorgeous, heartbreaking novel that spans eight generations and multiple geographies (coming full circle to Ghana, with many stops in between including Harlem and Alabama). What I find particularly interesting about her novel is that despite its breadth, each chapter almost stands alone as a vignette that explores deeply the characters' lives.  To achieve both breadth and depth is rare.  It's an essential read on slavery and its legacy.  

The Wild West, Two Ways

I recently read two books back to back that prominently feature the American West, in two very different ways.  The first was Molly Gloss' Falling From Horses, which is a straightforward and really touching story that follows the lives of two young people setting out to California to try to carve out a life for themselves in Hollywood - one as a screen writer and the other as a horse rider in Western movies.  The year is 1938, and Lily Shaw and ranch hand Bud Frazer meet on the bus as they travel to Los Angeles for the first time, and ultimately become life long friends.  We learn about Bud's difficult past regarding his sister and his family, and about his coming of age in Hollywood.  It was the first book I read by Gloss, and I plan to try another one.  The writing style reminded me in a way of Kent Haruf.  

The second book was John Williams' Butcher's Crossing.  Set in the 1870s, the book tells the story of young Will Andrews, who drops out of Harvard and heads West to explore his own "wildness" and learn more of the natural world.  He finds himself in Butcher's Crossing, Kansas, where he decides to put together an outfit of four men who will travel on a buffalo hunt.  The book perfectly captures the restlessness and sense of adventure of men in those times.  The men encounter difficulties along the way, and ultimately end up snowed in, in a valley in the Colorado Rockies for the winter, as they were so caught up with the greed and excitement of killing buffalo that they lost track of time.  

Both of these books caught me off guard - they were well written, captivating, and just plain old fashioned great story telling.  Both are recommended!

Solnit's San Francisco

Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, is a beautiful "coffee table" book that represents San Francisco in a variety of unique and compelling ways, and includes beautiful maps of the city.  The maps tend to focus on two seemingly dichotomous ideas, such as "death and beauty" which pinpoints the 99 murders in San Francisco in 2008 juxtaposed with the location of the city's cypress trees.  Another map, "poison/palate" highlights many of the "foodie" artisan gourmet food locations such as the Straus Family Creamery and the Alemany Farmers Market along with "poison sites" such as the Mount Diablo mercury mine and the Port of Oakland.  Overall, this is a refreshing and intriguing representation of San Francisco, and highlights its infinite nature.  The best part of book is by far the maps themselves.  I didn't get that much from the narratives accompanying the maps (with some notable exceptions, such as the narrative that discusses the effect of the Great Migration on San Francisco) and the photos did nothing for me.  Solnit has a new book out called Unfathomable City, her take on New Orleans.  Solnit is fascinated by and seems to have a deep understanding of urban landscapes.

The Point is the Point

One of my favorite places in this vast and varied world is Point Reyes National Seashore.  I feel alive and expansive in this land of serenity and beauty.  Curious to know more about this majestic place, so close to my house yet so far away, I purchased An Island in Time:  50 Years of Point Reyes National Seashore, by John Hart, which highlights some of the major issues that have defined Point Reyes over the last 50 years, such as dairy farming, the animals that inhabit Point Reyes, and its very creation.  This is somewhat of a "coffee table" book in that it has lots of glossy photos, but it also has a good deal of information as well.  I wasn't riveted by Hart's writing, but it did provide a good overview of Point Reyes and some of the controversies and debates about the land over the years.  I'm interested in pairing this with The Solemn Land, a much older work written by local Point Reyes historian Jack Mason. 

The Face of the Great Depression

We all have probably seen the iconic photo, Migrant Mother, snapped in 1936 by Dorothea Lange, who worked for the government agency known as the Farm Security Administration.  The woman in the photo was Florence Owen Thompson, a 32 year old mother of seven children, who worked as a pea picker in California.  It is this famous and haunting photo that is the inspiration for Marisa Silver's new novel Mary Coin, which weaves together the fictionalized versions of Lange and Thompson, as well as a modern-day history professor who has the feeling that his own passed is tied somehow to the woman in the photo.  In simple, lush, and beautiful prose, Silver illuminates these three lives.  Walker Dodge's family owned the Dodge farm, where Mary Coin was employed many years ago as a migrant worker.  This is an interesting and satisfying novel.  It would be an interesting companion read with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which is also set in California and highlights the living conditions of those who worked the fields,  and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which depicts and describes the conditions of sharecroppers in the South also during The Great Depression. 

The Sweetest of Thursdays

Not surprisingly, I greatly enjoyed Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday!  I would not say it was one of my favorites of his novels, but it is always a treat to see how Steinbeck describes a place, crafts dialogue, and introduces a motley cast of characters.  Considered a sequel to Cannery Row, the story follows Doc, who works in his homegrown lab named Western Biological to learn about various creatures he finds in tide pools, and Suzy, the new gal in town, as well as an extensive supporting cast including Hazel, Whitey No. 2, Mack, the Seer, and Joseph and Mary (one person!) all who populate Cannery Row in Monterey, CA.  What I love about Steinbeck is his unique way of telling a story - he invents phrases like "tom wallager" and has chapter names such as "There's a Hole in Reality through which We Can Look if We Wish" and "Oh, Woe, Woe, Woe!"  This is a story about our basic humanity that focuses on classic themes such as love, loyalty, friendship.  While not much happens on a grand scale, Cannery Row shows off Steinbeck's way of infusing lyricism into the most regular of human activities - throwing a party, playing matchmaker, helping out a friend, and even and most importantly, making brownies.

A very (t)winsome tale

Dorothy Baker, a Californian writer, wrote only a handful of novels and plays, but I happened to stumble upon her 1972 novel Cassandra at the Wedding, and it was both brilliant and highly  entertaining.  The novel follows one weekend in the lives of two sisters, twins, who are twenty four years old.  Cassandra, who lives in Berkeley and is working on her thesis, drives to the San Joaquin valley to her family's ranch to attend her sister Judith's wedding.  Familial antics ensue, and Baker infuses equal parts wit and tenderness into this very readable book.  Here is part of one of the conversations between the two sisters, that I just loved:

"Me?  You remember the place we called from when you forgot your vaccination certificate?"

"You're there?" 

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes, really.  It's all full of waltzing mosquitos and I just fell off a ladder." 

"What?" she said, quite a lot like granny.  Concerned.  I loved the sound of it.  Loved it.

"Also," I said, "one of my ears has been sluiced."

A really good book!  Add it to your summer reading list.

Spring with Steinbeck

I decided to ring in spring with Steinbeck, of course!  Interestingly, Tortilla Flat is considered by many to be the novel that put Steinbeck on the literary map, as it was his first commercial success when it was published in 1935.  Set on a hillside in Monterey, the novel centers around the lives of a group of "paisanos," men of mixed heritage, who come to live together after WWI as a result of Danny inheriting a house from his grandfather.  Danny and his friends, who are portrayed ironically as modern day knights, pursue adventure, love, lust, camaraderie, and jugs of wine.  The paisanos reject and resist social mores by living outside of mainstream society, without regular jobs or commitments.  It is an interesting book, with many themes based on King Arthur's Knights of thre Round Table, but it was not my favorite of Steinbeck's work.  That said, there are some great lines and images, such as when Danny refers to his friend as "my little dumpling" and when Steinbeck describes a new day by saying, "It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning.  When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable.  There is no time for hurry or bustle.  Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning."  And, my favorite, "It is astounding to find that the belly of every black and evil thing is as white as snow." 

In contrast, To a God Unknown, Steinbeck's second novel that was published in 1933, two years before Tortilla Flat, was one of my favorite Steinbeck novels to date, behind East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath.  This slim novel follows the life of Joseph Wayne who leaves Vermont after his father dies and establishes a farm in California.  Joseph is portrayed as a man of conviction with an almost prophetic quality.  The book explores man's love for and relationship with nature, and examines the sacred and profane.  It is written in an accessible yet lyrical manner, and I think it is the best entry point into Steinbeck if one is not ready to commit to his longer works.  My favorite quotes were "....an indescribable heat came into my heart," and "If ever there's need to lose some plaguing thing, that will be the place to go."  This book is classic Steinbeck - beautiful descriptions of the natural world, sparse but beautiful dialogue, and great storytelling.

Just can't get enough (of Steinbeck)

If you were to ask me what author to read right now, Steinbeck would be at the very top of my list.  He is simply a master of creating immensely readable and interesting stories that tackle larger subjects such as race, class, and socioeconomic status while also exploring intimate relationships among families, workers and friends.  Quite unlike the breadth of East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath (which are two of my favorite books of all time), Of Mice and Men is of much narrower focus, and is what Steinbeck himself coined as a "playable novel," that is, a novel that can also be read as a play due to its heavy emphasis on dialogue.  This short novel (you can easily read it in one sitting), tells the story of George and Lennie, two friends who stick together as they travel around California to find work as laborers.  The book explores themes of loneliness, hope, and friendship, and depicts the daily life of the laboring class during the Great Depression.  While I think it is an important piece of work and still relevant today (see the link to a recent article in the New York Times below), it is not my favorite of Steinbeck's works.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/education/studying-steinbeck-new-jersey-students-find-common-ground.html?_r=1&ref=johnsteinbeck

Re-Visiting Steinbeck: An early contender for best book read in 2011!

Whatever your weekend plans are, you might want to strongly consider canceling them and getting your hands on a copy of East of Eden.  Recently recommended to me by a colleague, I remembered reading Of Mice and Men in school (was it Mr. Schneider's class?).  I don't remember being particularly fond of that book, but East of Eden is a very early contender for one of the best books I will read in 2011 (and possibly of all time).  


My copy was exactly 600 pages, and I would have kept reading had Steinbeck kept going.  East of Eden is the epic tale of the Trask family and the Hamilton family at the turn of the 20th century in Salinas Valley, California, not so very far from where I sit here writing this post.  The characters are beautifully rendered, the dialogue smart and gritty and achingly honest at times.  The reader comes to know the characters intimately, through both their words and their silences.  This is, ultimately, the story of brothers growing up and growing differently.  There are so many memorable scenes in this novel, particularly between the Trask brothers.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes:


"Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"


"Don't you want our rabbit?"


"It is probable that Adam did not even know he did it, but the caress brought such a raging flood of emotion to the boy that he saved this special joy and used it only when he needed it.  It was a magic to be depended upon."


I will let you discover your own favorite passages.  I will be reading more Steinbeck very soon, though I may have to space it out over time so as to have his wonderful, luminous writing to look forward to for a long time to come.